AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He clears his throat and hangs his head. I know what he’s going to say and hurt is winding its way around my heart in anticipation of his next words.
“I wanted to make sure she wouldn’t tell anyone what she saw the other night.”
I know that Lance has to keep anything that happens between us a secret. Iknowthat. But that’s because The Daos and theirenemies would not accept it—he would be ripped apart. Doesn’t mean that it doesn’t ache when he is anyone but his whole self in front of those people. But when he wears shame on his sleeve in front of Elle, it’s like a knife slicing through my chest. I just stare at him, letting him know how I feel about that with my eyes.
“Well, her parents showed up and invited me out to dinner with them,” he continues, still not meeting my gaze.Great. Elle’s relationship with her parents is rocky enough as it is. I’m sure Lance’s presence was just a catalyst. “I left early, she followed me to yell at me, I yelled back and to cut a long story short...I fucked her against a wall in an alley and then she left…crying.”
I lost it then, throwing my hands up in the air and turning my back to him to take a breath before facing him once more. “You know what, Lance? You hurt her once and I held your hand when you regretted it because I know you had good intentions. But now? Now you’ve hurt her because you were thinking with your dick! And if you have fucked this up for me because of it, I honestly don’t know if I can forgive you for it.” My voice shakes from the fury that I can no longer keep packed down.
He looks up at me from his dipped head, a defensive anger sparking in his eyes. “Fucked what up for you, Hayden? After three years you’re planning on worming your way back in with her and then what? You’re going to walk away from us?”
“No!” I shout now. “You don’t get to play the fucking victim here. And might I remind you, there is nous.”
“I meant Brent and I,” he mumbles, looking back to the floor.
“Fuck you.”
I walked away from him after that, he’d come by to apologise but I was too pissed to hear him out. I know he wants everything to be okay with us. Lance has so few people in his life that he trusts or shares a closeness with that he is completely at odds when those relationships are strained. But I can’t bring myself to cave, I need my anger to dissipate.
We’re both staring at the TV as the news is on, but I’m not really watching as the mayor outlines his plans for a re-election campaign. I know Lance isn’t really concentrating either, his hand is on the seat cushion next to me. I feel his little finger gently stroke up and down on my leg, a silent plea for thisanimosity to be over. I want that too, I do, but I’m not ready to let go of my pissy mood yet so I don’t react, even when he slumps in his seat, defeated.
I’m just about to get up and go to my room before I give in when my phone rings, the Pirates of the Caribbean theme blasting from my pocket. Taking it out, I see Elle’s name on the screen. Lance notices too as he frowns down at the offending device.
“Hey, baby-cakes,” I answer. I don’t miss the way Brent’s typing pauses but Lance stares back at the television as though he’s not dying to know what she has to say.
“Eurgh, I hate that name.” Even angry, her voice is sweet to my ears. There’s traffic noise in the background and she sounds a little breathy.
“Still, I think it suits you,” I say with a smirk, happy to be on some familiar territory.
“Listen, I need you to do something for me,” she says, all business, no humour. I don’t want to rush the conversation, so I stall.
“Where are you?”
“I’m walking home.”
“You’re walking home?” I repeat, incredulous. “Alone?” That gets Brent to stop typing completely, frowning at me. “Why don’t you get a cab?”
“Ha! We can’t all afford taxis everywhere, Hayden. But good on you if you can.” There is an edge to her voice.
“I don’t like you walking home alone at night, Elle.” Fuck. Does she not watch the news? She shouldn’t be walking around on her own when all the fucking delinquents are out to play. I’ve seen the clothes she wears at work and if she walks home wearing them, some fucker with mince meat for brains will take that as an invitation.
She snorts into the phone. “Well, your opinion on the subject really doesn’t matter, does it.” She’s mad. I don’t understand; is she mad at me?”
“Elle,” I say in a warning tone. “I just want to make sure you’re safe.”
“Yeah, well I’ve been walking home alone for the last three years without having you or your buddies worrying about me, and I’m absolutely fine. So don’t pretend you care, Hayden.”
It sounds like a cliché, but it feels like I’ve been stabbed in the heart. My breath stings in my lungs and my headaches. “Elle…”
“Can you do me a favour or not, Hayden?”
“Fine,” I resign. “As long as you stay on the line with me until you get home.”
“Whatever. Can you pass a message to Lance?”
I look over to Lance sat next to me and put my phone on speaker. “Sure. But why don’t you tell him yourself, I can give you his number.”
“No, no, no…I don’t want to speak to him, okay?”
