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“Don’t,” she snaps, not even glancing at me for a split second.
“Athelia, I—”
“No! You’re being reckless. I don’t like it, Cal—and I especially don’t like that you won’t tell me why.”
I think she’s hoping that’ll get me to open up, but I can’t go there. Not right before I’m about to meet her parents.
“It’s… really hard for me to talk about.”
“Can you at least try?”
I grit my teeth.Why does she have to be so goddamn stubborn?
“I’ll even take the bare bones,” she says. “Just give me something.”
“The holidays are a rough time of year for me. I just need a distraction. That’s all you’re getting, okay? I don’t want to fucking talk about it.”
Just like that, her expression softens. “Oh.”
Oh.Like it’s simple. Like I can shove my feelings and past into a box and never have to think about it.
“I’m sorry,” she says quietly.
“Don’t apologize,” I grumble. “You didn’t know.”
“Yeah, but I shouldn’t have pressured you. I just… didn’t think, I guess.”
With a sigh, I take one of her hands and wrap it up in mine. “It’s okay, Thelia.”
Really, she deserves space to get mad at us. After all we’ve put her through, we can’t expect her to take our word for things. I’m grateful it seems like she’s actually given us a chance, but it’s all been really fast.
We’ve done our best to make up for the years we spent tormenting her, but that same phrase keeps popping into my mind.
Not enough, not enough, not enough.
It doesn’t matter how hard we try to show her we’ll never go back to how we were. We can’t erase the past.
Chapter Forty-Five
Kellan
By the time we make it to Athelia’s parents’ house, I’m starving. We left late morning the day before Thanksgiving. Since we all wanted to get the drive over with, we didn’t really stop anywhere for lunch.
As we pull into the driveway right behind Athelia and Cal, I take in the mansion in front of us. “Jesus,” I mutter. “I think their house might be bigger than my parents’ is.”
Wes doesn’t make any comment, which has me suspicious.
“You’ve been here before, haven’t you?”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because I fucking know you. What did you do, sneak in or something?”
He grins. “Summer before sophomore year. Watched her sleep for a while. Thought about coming all over her bare pussy, but I didn’t want to leave any evidence behind.”
“You’re a fucking creep, man.”
Rolling his eyes, Wes throws open his door. “You’d have done it if you’d thought of it.”
