He lifted his head, and when his eyes met mine, the anger was gone. In its place was something worse… shame.
“I don’t…” He stopped, swallowed hard, and tried again. “I don’t know what happened back there. I…” He pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes. “God. The things I said to her.” He dropped his hands and gripped the railing again so hard his knuckles turned white. “What the fuck is wrong with me?”
“Yeah.” I turned to face him, crossing my arms. “I’ve never heard you talk to anyone like that before.” The words came out sharp. “Ever. In all the years I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you be that… cruel.”
He flinched. “I know.”
“Do you? Because back there, you called her a…” I couldn’t even say the word. “You know that’s not okay, right?”
“I know.” A rough edge caught in his throat. “I know. I don’t… I can’t explain it. I saw them together and something inside me… snapped.”
“But why?” I stepped closer, searching his face for answers. “You told me yourself you didn’t want her. You said you knew from the beginning that you two weren’t right for each other. So why does it matter so much that she’s with Trystan now?”
Owen’s jaw tightened as he turned back to the water. “It’s not about her.”
“Then what is it about?”
The silence stretched between us for so long I thought he wasn’t going to answer me.
“Owen?”
“It’s about him,” he groaned, dropping his head. “It’s always been about him.”
I frowned. “Trystan? What do you mean?”
He let out a long breath, his shoulders dropping like he was releasing something he had been carrying for too many years.
A bitter smile twisted his split lip. “Freshman year of college, I was dating this girl. Sophie for about three months.”
He paused, and I waited, assuming there was more.
“There was this party after homecoming. Sophie and I were supposed to go together, but at the last minute, she said she wasn’t feeling good and canceled on me. I wasn’t going to go to the party. I didn’t really do football parties, but Jax texted that he was bored and was going, so I decided to go. I made it just in time to see her walking out of a back bedroom with Trystan. It was pretty obvious what happened.” He paused, shaking his head. “She walked right by me like I didn’t exist, and the worst part was that Trystan didn’t even want her. He fucked her and moved on like he always did.”
The pieces clicked into place. “Oh.”
“Yeah.” Owen laughed again, that hollow, self-deprecating sound. “Oh.”
“Owen… That was…”
“Years ago. I know. Trust me, I know how pathetic it sounds.” He looked at me, and the vulnerability in his eyes made my heart stutter. “I’ve been carrying this stupid grudge against him for years because some girl I dated for three months chose him over me.”
“Did Trystan even know?” I asked carefully. “That she was dating you?”
“I don’t know. Probably not. We didn’t exactly run in the same circles back then.” His mouth twisted. “I never told him. Never confronted her. Just… internalized it. Let it fester.”
“For years.”
He nodded. “For years.”
“That was a long time ago. It’s time to let it go.”
He opened his mouth, but I wasn’t finished.
“You dragged Cam into the middle of your unresolved drama. You treated her like a pawn in some game she didn’t even know she was playing. You started dating her not because you wanted her, but because you didn’t want him to have her. Do you understand how messed up that is?”
“I know…”
“And then, when you found them together, which, by the way, you had no right to be upset about because you cheated on her, you called her horrible names. You said those things to her. In front of everyone. You humiliated her.”
