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“My father died,” I snap. “He was all I had left. He’s gone, Elliot, and now I’m alone. Is that what you want to hear? That I’m barely hanging on?” My fingers twist into the bedsheets as I inhale a shuddering breath. “He’s gone, so forgive me for trying to come to terms with my new reality.”
“You’re wrong.”
“What?” I ask incredulously because how dare he.
How bloody dare he?
“You said you’re alone. You’re not.”
“Semantics.” I shrug, the burst of fight I felt mere seconds ago already seeping from my body, leaving me exhausted.
“You have people, Re— Abi. You just need to open your eyes and see that.”
“Because everyone loves having me around so much?” I cut him with a scathing look. “Let’s face it, I’m only in your inner circle because the girls took pity on me.”
“That’s not?—”
“I think we both know it is. And it’s fine. I know my place in the social hierarchy, Elliot. And it’s not with the Heirs and their girlfriends.”
He studies me for a second, rubbing a hand over his chiselled jaw. “How is it you can fight me on this, but you don’t even have enough self-preservation to eat?”
Snatching another biscuit from the packet, I hiss, “I’m eating, aren’t I?”
Anger consumes me as I bite into it, barely tasting the slight hint of ginger. But I know it’s not only directed at Elliot and his insistence on barging my life. I’m angry at myself. For letting my guard down and allowing myself to believe that maybe I could walk in their world.
I have money, sure. I have more money than I know what to do with. My life is privileged and even if I never figure out what I want to do post-college, I’ll never want for anything. But I’ve never truly lived in that world.
Theirworld.
The parties and charity events and country club lunches.
I’ve been too focused on looking after my father, on hiding myself away from the world, to be interested in all that.
“You’ve got it all wrong,” he says quietly and my gaze cuts to his.
I don’t want to do this.
I don’t want to listen to him try and placate me.
I’m not one of them. I’m not?—
“If we didn’t want you around, you wouldn’t be.”
A small unconvinced huff leaves me. Maybe I’m not being fair to them. Maybe my own pain and suffering is clouding my judgement on everything. But I’ve spent years—years—alone. With no friends. With nobody in my corner. Suddenly having them all, only to lose them again soon feels too much to bear.
It’s better this way.
Better if I sequester myself away and deal with this on my own.
“I don’t need you, Elliot. I don’t need anyone.”
The lie hurts, makes my heart recoil, but I have to be strong.
I have to keep him at arm’s length. He made it perfectly clear where he stands on there ever being an us.
You shouldn’t have done that.The words he said to me that night echo through my mind.
“I’m not going to just leave you here to rot.” Frustration coats his voice.
