Oh my God, please strike me with lightning.
My mouth drops open, and I gesture my hand out to my mom. “I swear I didn’t know. I came out of the shower, and he was in here, being a dick.”
Her face is stone-cold, eyes burning with fury. I’ve never seen Mom this mad before. “I’ll talk to you about this later.” She gestures between us. After looking at an awkward Wyatt behind her, she glances at me. “Go talk to Wyatt. He actually came through the door to see you.” Then, she looks at Leo. “You, out right now. Don’t sneak through my daughter’s window again.”
Scoffing, he rolls his eyes and sneaks a peek at me one last time with an unreadable expression.
Mom butts in curtly when he makes his way to the window, “Out through the door.”
Dragging his feet on his way, he smirks at my mom and salutes her. “Yes, ma’am. See you later, Trin.”
Wyatt, Mom, and I all wait until we hear the front door slam behind him.
Letting out a relieved sigh, I look at Wyatt and give him my best smile. “Hi.”
He nods. “Hey.”
Mom shuffles backward toward the door. “I’ll leave you two alone to talk.” She turns and walks down the stairs.
I turn away from my ex, my fingers running through my long locks. I’m dead. My mom just walked in on me and Leo. Not to mention, my ex witnessed the same thing. I’m mortified. Embarrassment fills every single bone in my body.
“Who was that?” Wyatt asks from the door, breaking the tense silence.
“My neighbor,” I say, still not facing him.
He chuckles lowly and shakes his head when I turn to face him. “The boy next door. How cliché.”
My gaze narrows as he leans his body against the doorframe of my bedroom. I know what he’s getting at, and frankly, he has no place in being smart with me. Jealousy is out of the question. We broke up years ago. He was over it, and now, he’s not?
I cross my arms against my chest. “Why do you care who I see? We haven’t been together for ages.”
He shrugs and avoids my gaze. “I don’t care who you see. Trinity, even though we broke up, that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. But that guy …” He stops mid-sentence. “He just seems weird. He gives me a strange vibe. Yet I think I know him from somewhere.”
“You think everyone is weird,” I point out, knowing Wyatt’s the strange one here.
When we were together, he always saw the negative in everyone. Positivity isn’t something in his mind.
“Lies. I’m always right. Don’t come crying to me when he kidnaps you,” he jokes but stops when he sees my unamused face. “Trin, what happened? Did you lose the humor I’m used to? I’m just playing around.”
Did you lose your people skills?I long to bark back at him. I keep my mouth shut, wanting to avoid an unnecessary argument.
Instead, I tease him. “When I escape the dingy, dark basement he locked me in for ten years, I won’t be coming to you. You know why?” I wait a beat for him to guess, but I continue when he keeps his mouth shut, “Because we aren’t together anymore.” Clapping my hands, I let out a low laugh. “What are you doing here after all this time?” Sitting down cross-legged on my bed, I stare up at him.
“You haven’t been answering my calls.”
“I haven’t been answering anyone’s calls.”
He walks farther into my room. “What if you were dead? I would’ve never known!”
I scrunch my nose in distaste. “I’m sure you would have gotten an invitation to my funeral.”
I know I should act serious, but sitting here and watching him get fired up is pissing me off. You can’t walk into my life after so long and act like you have a say in who I talk to. We haven’t spoken in months. Why does he care so much about me now? Nothing makes sense.
Wyatt’s jaw clenches. “You’re the same yet so different. The old Trinity would’ve never talked to me this way.”
Here we go—the same pep talk, the same shaming I’m used to from everyone. Tragically losing a parent by murder will do something to you. Why does everyone expect I’d be the same after that? I make sure everything he says goes in one ear and out the other.
“You take nothing seriously. Act like an adult for once, Trinity.”
