Landon’s voice echoes over in my head.
We’ll always be talking, Violet. That’s the problem.
My stomach lurches as I realize he was telling the truth, and the room starts to spin. If I’m being honest, my heart was barely hanging in there, holding out for some kind of explanation, but now it’s split wide open.
“What are you doing here, Violet?” she asks steadily.
I could ask you the same question,is what I want to say, but I’ve forgotten how to speak. Sticking up to Mel is big league, and I’m not ready for it yet. I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready. Not when she’s looking at me like a traitor. Not when I am one.
“Well?” she snaps, losing patience.
“I…I’m living here.”
“You’relivinghere,” she repeats, eyes narrowing.
I nod, swallowing. “I’ve been living here since you moved out.”
My words sink in, and her face twists. “What the fuck,Violet?”
“I should have told you,” I begin, trying to keep my voice from wobbling, “but the apartment I was supposed to rent fell through, so Landon said I could stay here a bit longer.”
“A bit longer?” she repeats. “It’s been months.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, because apparently, I can’t stand up for myself the way Landon thought I could. Apparently, apologies are all I’m good for. “I should have told you, but you weren’t responding to any of my messages and-”
“You’re damn right you should have told me,” she says, but her voice is eerily quiet. Seething. I can see all that bottled rage bubbling beneath the surface, and I think something mean and petty and cruel.
How can Landon like her more than me?
“You haven’t been responding to my messages,” I say, working hard to keep my voice level. “I thought you wanted nothing to do with me.”
“I’ve beenbusy!I don’t have time to respond to every single message.”
“You didn’t respond to any of them, though,” I point out, hating how small I sound.
“So, you decided to just shack up with Landon to get back at me?” she snaps. “Is that how it is?”
“It’s just a temporary place to stay,” I lie.
“Out of all the temporary places to stay, you had to pick this one?”
“I didn’t pick—it wasn’t planned—I didn’t think—” I stumble over my words, trying and failing to find the right ones to explain that I didn’tplanthis. I didn’tplanto stay with her ex-boyfriend. I didn’tplanto like him, or kiss him, or fall for him. I never meant for this to happen. It justhappened.“I…I’m sorry, Mel.”
She gets this look in her eye, then. A look that cuts me through the heart. “You always have to stick your nose where you’re not wanted, don’t you? It’s like you can’t help it.”
“Mel, I’m sorry,” I say, all the while trying to think of a time I intruded in her life before. I always did everything Mel asked of me. I didmorethan she asked for. I tried my best to be perfect for her.
“Did you fuck him?”
My eyes go wide. My heart slams into my chest. I’m sure my face has gone white as a sheet. “No, Mel. Of course not.”
It’s not a lie, but it’s not the truth, and guilt churns my stomach.
Her eyes scan over me, searching for holes, lies, weaknesses. “But you like him, though,” she says after a while. “Don’t you?”
My throat feels thick, and my eyes burn. I swallow back tears. “I’m sorry,” I say, unable to help the way my voice cracks. It might as well be an admission, and Mel’s eyes narrow.
“You’resorry?” she asks quietly. “I will never forgive you. You lied to me, you manipulated me, and you’ve been living with my husband behind my back. We’redone.”
