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“What are you doing?” I scowl.
She shrugs. “I think I’ll stay.”
Sloane plops down onto the ledge a few feet away from me and I eye her menacingly, clenching my jaw tight. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
She snaps her head in my direction, defiance blazing in her eyes. “Why, what are you gonna do, Madd? Say more hateful shit to try to push me away?”
She heaves a sigh, turning sideways and pulling her feet up onto the ledge, tucking her knees into her chest and looping her arms around them. It makes her look even smaller than she already is; delicate and unassuming.
Looks can be deceiving.
That’s how she got away with so much shit when we were kids- everyone thought I was the troublemaker, but she was the Bonnie to my Clyde that nobody suspected. And I was so damn enamored with her that I always gladly took the blame.
“You don’t own everything around here,” she mumbles. “This place was mine once, too.” Resting her chin atop her knees, she snorts a laugh. “Hell, since it was, I’m surprised you still come up here.”
“If I stayed away from everywhere that reminded me of you, I’d have nowhere to go,” I mutter, thinking out loud and wincing as I immediately regret admitting that to her.
A hot prickle of anger unfurls in my chest and I push up to stand. “If you won’t go, then I will,” I growl, reaching up to secure my backwards hat tighter to my head.
“Whatever,” she scoffs, rolling her eyes. “Go ahead and stomp away again, as if that’ll solve anything.”
“There’s nothing to solve,” I snarl. “I stay out of your way, you stay out of mine. It’s that simple.”
“So we can’t even have a conversation?”
“What would be the point?”
She throws up her hands. “I don’t know, to clear the air, to try to move forward? In case you haven’t noticed, it hasn’t exactly been easy for me to be back here, either. You’re not the only one struggling to adjust.”
“And who’s fault is that, Sloane?” I demand, narrowing my eyes on her and taking a threatening step in her direction.
She swings her legs off the ledge, the toes of her sneakers meeting the rooftop. “Blame me for leaving, blame me for coming back. What the hell do you want from me, Madd?”
“Nothing.”
“You sure about that?” she clucks, arching her brow in challenge, all fucking sass.
“The fuck is that supposed to mean?” I growl.
She rolls her eyes again and I ball my fists at my sides, resisting the urge to punch something.
Sloane waves a hand flippantly. “You’ve obviously got an ax to grind since you’ve been treating me like crap since I came back here.”
“How’d you expect me to act?” I scoff wryly. “Did you think I’d fall to my knees, beg you for another chance?”
She pushes to her feet, brow furrowed and lips twisted in a scowl. “Well no, but I didn’t expect you to hold an eight year grudge for some shit that wasn’t even my fault.”
A chill washes over me, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. “Oh, I know it was my fault,trust me. Everyone blamed me for what happened that day.”
What I don’t say is how much I blamed myself. How I went from being a respected future Alpha to the guy who almost killed Sloane; the one who got her sent away. How I didn’t even flinch at the looks of disdain aimed my way in the wake of her injury, knowing I deserved every single one of them.
She shakes her head, dark curls bouncing and a tinge of sadness flickering in her mossy green irises. “I wasn’t talking about the accident. I meantafter.”
“I’m not doing this again,” I mutter, turning around and stalking away. Because I can’t stand to see that look in her eyes, and I won’t let her see it reflected back at her in my own.
“Stop walking away, stop acting like you don’t care!” Sloane yells after me.
“I don’t!” I call back, refusing to turn around.
