AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Stop,” I roared, becoming livid with her rant.
“Stop what? The truth? Dylan, this was goodbye, nothing more. I’m leaving for California! I’m not going with you! We have no future. So, get that through your goddamn head.”
“Bree,” I forewarned. “You don’t need to do this. I know, darlin’, it’s okay. Let me be here for you. I’m not going anywhere,” I pleaded with her.
“I’m sick of your shit! This is your fucking fault! You let me go by myself! You let me get raped! You let me fucking die that day!”
She turned away from me and headed for the door. I was over to her in one stride, grabbing her shoulder to turn her to face me, pulling the hair away from her face to look deep into her eyes.
I spoke with conviction, “Please, don’t do this! Please, don’t fucking do this,” I urged, hanging on by a thread. “You don’t have to do this, please!”
“Let go of me! Do you hear me?”
I did and she immediately started to walk around the room. When I heard the rattle of her keys I didn’t think twice about it, I just acted. She was about to take my whole life with her.
I threw myself on my knees in front of her and wrapped my arms tightly around her waist, holding her as close as possible. The side of my face lying against her stomach.
“Please, don’t do this. I am fucking begging you on my knees, please!”
I could sense her resolve breaking, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I bawled. I sobbed for the first time since I found her broken body on the trail.
“My hands are tied, Aubrey. Isn’t that what you wanted? Me on my knees. Me on my goddamn knees, waiting for you! Well here I am, pleading with you not to do this,” I cried like a newborn baby. “I’m so fucking sorry, darlin’! I didn’t save you then, but please let me do it now.”
She didn’t waver. “I don’t love you anymore. I can’t love you after what happened, it’s too hard. I just can’t. My love for you died the day that I did. Love isn’t supposed to hurt this much.”
I shook my head. "No one said that love was easy."
She didn't falter. "Yeah… But no one said it was going to be this hard either."
I hesitated for a few seconds, silently praying that she wouldn’t reply with what I thought.
“Promise?” I asked the one word that would take all of her away from me.
“Always,” she simply stated as if it meant nothing when it meant everything.
It was then I finally understood.
She tried to fuck me out of her heart.
And I would spend the rest of my life…
Trying to fuck her out of mine.
AUBREY
My heart was breaking, lying on the floor next to his.
This was the only way he would ever leave me alone. The only way he would ever let me go. I knew if I made him believe that we still had a chance, if I allowed him to have hope, allowed him to touch me, allowed him to make love to me, feel my heart, and reach my soul… then he would never forgive me for breaking him right after.
Except I didn’t pretend.
I made love to him, too.
Everything he was saying was true, every last word. I almost couldn’t go through with it, apologizing profusely and crumbling on his chest like it would suddenly excuse what I was about to do to him. Like it would suddenly make it all go away and all that would be left was our love.
The one that I wanted back so badly, so profusely, so intently. But when I felt his strong arms come around me, and the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach creeping back in from his scent, I realized it didn’t matter anymore, nothing ever would. I wasn’t that girl anymore. The one he fell in love with. She was gone. She died the day he found me broken in that godforsaken forest.
I needed to set him free.
