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It takes me all of zero point two seconds to remember who the hell I am and march my happy ass back up his sidewalk.
I never got the chance to smack that lipstick off, but jabbing my finger on his doorbell until it bruises gives me almost the same satisfaction.
Good luck going back to sleep after this, asshole.
eleven
Finn
Ican’tbelieveher.I mean, I do—because this is exactly something her stubborn ass would do—but I don’t. Does that make sense? Does any of this?
Hailey came tomyhouse and accusedmeof being the one who needed to try? To put in the effort.
The irony. Thegall.
We have a kid—one I had zero preparation in readying myself for. I mean, she, at a minimum, had a nine-month span to grasp this. I got a migraine and an ultimatum.
Her little doorbell stunt helped assist with the first. And people say I’m the one who should grow up? Real mature.
God, the woman wants to make me pull out my hair just so that I can shove it down her throat. She hasn’t come back, but I feel her everywhere, like an itch I can never scratch.
The sun isn’t on my side either. You might as well have given Hailey wings and called her an angel with how the sun shined like a halo around her head. She stood there with too much confidence, facing opposite me in the doorway.
For fuck’s sake, she was even dressed in white!
It’s crazy how many times I pathetically lingered and hoped something exactly like this would happen during those first few months of college. Like an idiot, I waited because I thought she cared enough to come back.
She did, only time ran out.
That thing inside flickers again, but this time there’s also an added pinch in the tightness of my chest.
They say when it rains, it storms, but in Hailey and my case, we’re lightning wrapped in a tornado while stuck in a hurricane. Rare, but not impossible.
“I thought I might find you here.”
I sigh, hitting pause on the remote. I’d know the sound of my father’s voice anywhere. “What do you want, Dad?”
He doesn’t come beside me but rather takes a diagonal spot in the row of plush chairs behind me.
I keep my one elbow locked to the armrest. The other I use to rub at the vein protruding from my forehead. I do my best to appear invested in the highlight reel on the screen up front. At the very least, I want to seem bored.
They’re old, the videos. Ones I haven’t watched in years, nostalgia smothering me like a fitted sheet to a mattress recently.
“Never thought I’d drive up here and find you watching your old high school footage.”
He sounds almost bemused and because I’m bitter, his somewhat perky tone disgusts me.Now you show up to my games.The dig sits, ready to be fired, waiting on my tongue. I bite down, tasting blood instead.
Abram may not have been involved in much of my basketball career back then, but toward the end, things changed. His interest shifted after he realized how important this was to me.
He hasn’t missed a home game since, and the away ones? He live streams them from his home office or at Hardin.
I came down to the fully renovated theater in the basement of our shared house to be alone. Eli came back up yesterday after spending a few days visiting his family. He’s kept his distance, which would be awesome if that were enough.
“It’s been a week, Finn.”
My eyes widen and slowly shut. I know how long it’s been.
The summer only started and so far, it’s been like blow dart after blow dart straight to my organs.
