“Addie?” Her voice cracks and the tears are already in her eyes before she even gets to the bottom step. “Oh my god.”
Her gaze lands on my face and the breath hitches in her throat. I know the exact second she notices the scarring—what’s left of the swelling. Her eyes widen, hands hovering like she wants to reach for me, but she hesitates and pulls back at the last second.
“I’m sorry, I—” Her voice breaks as the tears spill over. “Did I do that?”
She’s crying now, and it makes me wonder if I should feel something. But I don’t feel bad for her. I don’t feel sorry. I feelangry.
She shouldn’t be the one crying. She shouldn’t be falling apart in front of me likeshe’sthe one who got hurt.
For the first time, I don’t see Naomi as the fragile one. I don’t see her as someone I need to protect.
I just see her for what she is.
Someone who crossed a line and wants me to forget it ever happened. In fact, she has probably crossed it multiple times over the past few years, and I have been too blind to see it.
Or maybe I just chose not to.
“I really need to go get my stuff,” I say, turning toward the stairs without giving her an answer.
But her voice chases after me before I can reach the first step.
“What—you’re leaving again?” Naomi’s voice trembles in disbelief. “You just came back!”
I stop.
My hand rests on the banister. I don’t look at her for a few seconds. Just breathe through the ache building in my chest before glancing back over my shoulder.
“I came to get my stuff,” I say. “I didn’t come to stay.”
Naomi looks stunned, and I can’t help but notice the look of betrayal on her pretty face. “What?” she breathes out. “No, you can’t—you can’t justleave!” She steps forward, voice climbing in pitch, in panic.
“Naomi, stop it.” Sam reaches out to grab her arm, trying to pull her back.
But Naomi jerks away, frantic now. “Why won’t you just stay? Please, Addie—please—don’t leave again!”
And I freeze there. On the stairs. One foot higher than the other. Naomi’s voice bouncing around the walls behind me.
She’s begging. Crying. But all I hear is the sound of every time I cried, and no one listened. Every time I begged and it didn’t matter.
It’s not that I don’t care.
It’s just that I’m finally done pretending I owe them anything.
“Look,” Naomi blurts, voice trembling but too loud in the silence, “I apologize for the intruder situation. I apologize for letting you handle it alone. I apologize for getting mad. I know you sent Kai and Will to make us apologize, but you didn’t have to, and you should know I would’ve—”
“What?”
She winces, presses her lips together like she’s trying not to gag on her own guilt. “I’m sorry for pushing you. I’m sorry foreverything.”
I stare at her.
And I want to say something. I really do. But I can’t find the right words. Or any words, really.
So, I don’t say anything.
Her face crumples because clearly, she doesn’t know what to do with my silence, and her hands twitch at her sides. “Why aren’t you saying anything?” she demands. “I said I’m sorry!”
Fair to say, Naomi is in complete and utter shock at my inaction. Genuinely stunned that sorry wasn’t enough.
