Her gaze locked onto mine like a shot fired point-blank. “Like what?” she bit out, her voice low and sharp. “Or is that another secret you’re going to keep from me?”
I ran a hand over my face, dragging in a breath that did nothing to clear the knot in my chest. “I’m sorry for not telling you about Victoria.”
I should have stopped there. But, like an idiot, I kept talking.
“But I was afraid you’d get scared.”
Macey’s head jerked back like I’d physically pushed her.
Shit, shit, shit.
“Scared?” She said it full of spite, hardening the consonants. “Why did you think that?”
“Because change scares you. You hate confrontation. I don’tthink you would have ever confronted Victoria if she hadn’t initiated it.”
In a moment, the crackling anger fled the room, leaving behind tense silence. Macey breathed hard and sniffed once, like she’d just run up and down the unsafe apartment stairs five times.
“Maybe not,” she said, quiet and steady, “but that wasn’t your decision to make.”
“Macey—”
“We’re close enough to May 15.” Her tone was detached now. Final. “Let’s end this fake relationship now.”
No.
No, no, no.
Words clogged my throat, burning, but my mind was blank. Totally useless, giving me nothing to fix this.
Macey opened the door, pausing just long enough to throw me one last look. “I’ll let you have the honor of publicly announcing our breakup.”
24
MACEY/NOAH
Macey
The Burrow Bitches
Britney: Macey what’s wrong babe, you haven’t responded to any of the tiktoks i sent you
Ariadne: Did something happen with Noah?
Britney: do we need to beat him up?
Kira: I’ll go knock on her door
Kira: …Macey where are you?
Nothing seemed bad when you were burrowed under the covers. The darkness brought a sense of safety over me—here, I didn’t have to deal with my problems.
It reminded me of when I was a kid, playing house with my parents in our one-bedroom apartment. We had lived there until I was ten, when Dad got a big promotion at work, and we upgraded to a two-bedroom. When we played,we’d use a blanket as the pseudo roof of the house, and somehow, all three of us crammed onto the floor, staring up at the blanket above. It was dark and quiet, two words that normally meant scary, but with my parents, it was calming.
Nothing existed under the covers now, so I couldn’t feel the effects of everything I’d lost in the last twenty-four hours.
My job.
Noah.
