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Dante pokes at his chest. “I guess I shouldn’t expect you to understand. You, who stayed in this crappy town working on Dad’s dream instead of finding one of your own.”
If I was a braver person, I’d tell him to stuff it. But I’m not. By this time Dante isn’t even looking at me. His back is fully turned toward me, his shoulders poker-stiff. Judging by the look on Knox’s face, he’s probably glaring just as hard as Knox is.
He’s doing what he always did when he was a kid—picking fights until someone walks away.
Why is this smug bastard determined to shove everyone away?
I take a deep breath, planning out my words.It’s okay to care. It’s okay to want better for other people, not just yourself.
“It’s—” is all I can manage before I lose my voice.
He doesn’t even look at me. It’s like I’m so unimportant to him that he can’t be bothered to turn around.
There’s so much I want to say to him. I want to yell at him until he sees reason and realizes that his brother and father love him. That all of his problems could be resolved if he bothered to shut his damn mouth and listen for once in his life.
But he’s standing there with his thousand-dollar haircut and million-dollar suit and that sneer he gave me is burned into my mind, even if I can’t see it now.
I can’t get any further words out.
Especially as I become more aware of what I look like. I’m wearing old overalls Knox leant me and now they’re covered in splashes of paint. My hair elastic broke so now it’s come all unbraided—as usual—and had captured plenty of paint as well.
Shaking my head, I try to calm my racing heart. “Knox, when you’re done with him… come find me.”
I’m not a confident person, and maybe standing up for myself to Dante is an impossible task for me, but speaking to Knox isn’t. If Dante wants to act like a complete asshole to me, then so be it.
However, before Knox can address my comment, Dante breaks out into laughter, shaking his head. “So you’re going to run away from the conversation. I don’t see why you bothered to come down.”
“What…” I stammer. My heart breaks at his words as I stare at him in disbelief. I never thought that Dante could act as cruel as he is right now, but once again I have been proved wrong.
Anger courses through me as I try to find the courage to tell him off.
“You know what? You’re… you're—” I freeze as I realize the hand I just jolted out to point at him still holds my yellow paintbrush. Which then proceeds to splatter paint all over his suit and face.
Oh my god…
Mortification fills me as I watch his eyes shift down to the speckles of paint on his jacket. His jaw set firm as he clenches it before looking back up at me from beneath narrowed brows, paint dripping down his cheek.
“I’m sorry,” I gasp, my hand flying to my mouth as I turn on my heel and leave. My breath comes in shallow pants as I try to control myself. I meant to try and be assertive, and that failed epically as it always does. Instead, I just ruined his probably very expensive suit and made myself look like a complete idiot.
It’s not just Dante anymore. It’s the whole conflict with him trying to sell this place, and everything else. I’m not a confrontational person. I’ve never been able to deal with fights; my nature is to run away.
To think I actually just ruined his suit out of anger.
God! What is he doing to me?! He’s such an asshole!
My hands shake as I set the paintbrush down and run my hands through my tangled hair, trying to calm my breathing. It’s clear Dante is pissed about what I did. The sound of his and Knox’s arguing is only getting louder by the second.
“You can’t treat people like that,” Knox says. “You have no right to talk to Kylie like that.”
“I’m only being honest. Look what she did to my jacket!”
I grab my headphones, turning my music up as loud as I can stand, only briefly worrying about damaging my hearing. All I want to do is focus on my painting but I keep making mistakes because my hands won’t stop trembling.
The thing is, I’m not even angry at Dante anymore. I’m too upset with myself. I’ve been so blind! I can’t believe I wasted so much of my life having a crush on that asshole. Okay, it’s not like I’ve refused all other men in favor of pining over him, but come on! I shouldn’t even think about him at all, except for being angry at him for hurting Knox.
I’m humiliated when I think of all the times that, as a kid, I’d find excuses to go to Knox’s house. Not just because Knox was my best friend, but because I wanted to be closer to Dante. I wanted to see him, wanted to try to make him smile and laugh.
Knox was and still is my best friend. He’s more of a brother to me. We’ve always had a great time together, laughing, joking, sharing silly little inside jokes.
