“All this time you were pretending...?” I ask, my voice breaking at the end. “How could I have been so stupid?”
He takes another step, but I move back. “Don’t come near me,” I cry out through sniffles and a flood of tears.
“That bet was only at the beginning...” he says in a rush of words. “Then I met you, spent time with you... and it all changed for me.” His eyes are glassy and he sounds sincere, but all I hear is more lies. Being with him was an illusion. He’s exactly the person everyone warned me about.
“I don’t believe you!” I yell at him with disgust. “I trusted you... I loved you... How could you?” My voice softens at the end, laying bare the excruciating, raw pain within me.
I turn and leave. I can’t even look at him. I run through the house, past people staring at me with open curiosity, with Axle’s heavy footsteps behind me. He grabs my arm. I yank it back. “Don’tevertouch me again.” My voice reverberates through the space, tinged with hurt but also rippling with anger.
“I’m sorry...” He tugs at his hair. “It was before I got to know you... You have to believe me.”
I pause to meet his pained gaze. “I’ve got no reason to believe anything you say anymore.” I wipe the tears from my eyes, but it’s no use. They keep falling.
He reaches for me again but stops and drops his arm to his side. “I’m sorry,” he says again. “I hate that I did this to you. You mean everything to me. You know you do.”
I thought I did. I don’t know what to believe anymore. A storm brews within me, where sorrow and rage collide. I keep walking up the stairs and still hear him behind me. “If you’ve ever had any respect for me at all...don’tfollow me,” I hiss. I need to escape this place. I’m suffocating.
He stops and I dash upstairs and to his room. I shove my clothes and books into my bag and swing it over my shoulder. Cash is outside Axle’s bedroom when I rush out.
“I’ll give you a ride home in the truck,” he says.
I realize I’m stuck here otherwise. “Thank you,” I whisper, appreciative of his kindness. I follow Cash until we meet Axle, who hasn’t moved. I refuse to look at him. How could he be so callous?
“I’ll get her home safe,” Cash says.
I follow Cash down the stairs and we dart outside, where I struggle to draw air into my lungs. My body is as cold as ice, and my heart constricts. It’s alarming how effortlessly Axle lied to me. He told me he loved me, wanted me to move in with him... Devastation and disbelief bleed out of me with every step to the truck.
Eighteen
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
Elena
Deceit.Betrayal. Pain.
I’m lying in my bed, on my stomach, holding my pillow and looking absently at the wall, when I hear a light knock on my door.
“It’s Lucy. I just wanted to check you’re okay.”
When I arrived home, Lucy, Cindy, and Jasmine were chatting in the living room. Their conversation halted as they saw me bolt upstairs, my face flushed and eyes brimming with tears.
“Of course she’s not okay,” Cindy says. “I bet Axle dumped her.”
I shut my eyes for a moment. Everyone doubted our relationship.
“Shhh! You don’t know that,” Lucy says.
“Oh, come on. You didn’t believe Axle was going to change,” Jasmine says arrogantly.
“I’m fine,” I say, though the tone of my voice says otherwise.
“Okay... well, I’m here if you need to talk,” Lucy says.
I have no desire to. Especially to Jasmine, who will give me the I-told-you-so speech. And I would rather avoid seeing the sympathy in their eyes. I’m pathetic. Someone gives me an ounce of attention and I’m hooked. I give them everything, to my detriment.
I roughly rub my tears away. I shouldn’t have gotten involved with Axle. His presence tricked me into thinking I meant more to him, but everything was fake. I was just a victim of his manipulation. He worked me like a puppet and showed no mercy. Axle said he loved me. He’s nothing but a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
My phone rings again, but I let it ring out because I know who it’ll be. Axle ripped my heart out. Now he’s got blood on his hands. I can’t bring myself to talk to him. Not now... not today, possibly never. He’s just going to say all the right things like he usually does.
