Something flickered across his face, relief, maybe, or satisfaction, before he started walking toward me.
“Thanks for that.” I slid off my stool, throwing a five-dollar bill on the table for my Coke.
His brow furrowed. “Thanks for what?”
“For isolating me even more.” I brushed past him, my shoulder clipping him hard enough to make a point, before I pushed through the door into the parking lot.
The night air hit my face, and I sucked in a breath, trying to keep the stupid tears from falling because I refused to cry over this. Over him.
The door banged open behind me.
“Harlow.” Owen’s footsteps crunched on the gravel. “Hey. Stop.”
I kept walking toward my car, fishing my keys out of my pocket. I wanted to get in my car and drive away before the tears broke free. This was all too much.
“Harlow.” His hand closed around my elbow, spinning me to face him. “What the hell are you talking about?” His brows raised. “Isolating you?”
I yanked my arm free, and he released me. “Don’t play dumb. This is what you wanted, right?”
“I’m not playing anything.” Frustration bled from every word. “I have no idea what you’re…”
Anger radiated off me. “Your teammates,” I shouted, anger radiating off me as I gestured at the bar behind us. “The ones you threatened so they barely looked at me when I walked in. The ones who made me feel like I had the plague because God forbid anyone talk to Harlow Cruz without your written permission.”
His jaw tightened. “I was trying to protect you.”
“From what?” I laughed, but it came out bitter. “From having friends? From having a conversation?”
“From guys who would use you and throw you away.”
I huffed out a humorless laugh. Says the man who slept with me one night and the next day instantly regretted it, but I didn’t say that. “That’s not your call to make.”
A car drove by on the main road, headlights sweeping over us before disappearing into the dark.
“You don’t get it,” Owen said, running his fingers through his hair. “Those guys…”
“Are the only people on campus who still talk to me.” The words ripped out of me before I could stop them. “I thought this year would be different since Jax was gone.”
He flinched.
“Everyone left.” Something splintered in my tone, and I hated how weak I sounded, but it was as if everything had finally come to a head, and I couldn’t stop it from exploding now. “Do you get that? Everyone. Jax and Kaia moved. Syn went with them. Trystan and Cam are on tour, gone for months, and I’m stuck here taking economics and anatomy classes that I don’t even care about.”
The words kept coming, the dam finally breaking as a hot tear streamed down my cheek.
“My dad is traveling with Liz, and I’m happy for them, I am, but…” I wiped away a tear with the back of my hand. “I’m alone in that house. That huge, empty house with all those bedrooms and no one in them. I eat dinner by myself. I watch TV by myself. I fall asleep to the sound of nothing because there’s no one there.”
The parking lot was quiet except for my heavy breathing and the thump of bass from inside the bar.
“Everyone left me.” I dropped my hands, forcing myself to meet his eyes. “And now you’re making sure no one new can get close. So thanks. Really.”
Owen stood frozen, his expression shifting through something I couldn’t read. His cocky arrogance had disappeared.
“They left me, too.”
Standing there, I stared at him, something inside me twisted painfully. We were just two people who were left behind, standing in a dive bar parking lot, finally seeing each other clearly.
“I really am sorry.” Owen stepped into my space, and I didn’t move away. “For the wedding. For the bar. For being such a colossal asshole about everything.”
“Owen…”
