He rolls his eyes at my lack of response. “You’re going to give me a heart attack doing this.”
“No barbie Shelby tonight?” I offer.
He swallows hard, a muscle flexing in his jaw. He doesn’t look at me, he just keeps his gaze straight ahead of us as we walk.
“No.” Is all he manages to get out.
I purse my lips followed by a shrug. “Okay.”
He stops, grabbing my arm and pulling me back. “Why does it bother you?”
The already gray sky grows deeper as night takes over, illuminating the streetlights in the parking lot. The darkness clings to him. It hovers around him and shadows his face, darkening the emeralds that sometimes seem too bright.
His hand doesn’t leave my bicep. I contemplate my words, trying to figure out how I’ll angle this. I stare at him, searching his face.
“Answer me,” he urges, pulling me closer to him. His body heat stretches out in a cry for my own.
“You know why,” I manage to get out. “You deserve someone who makes you happy. And that is not her.”
“You bring me happiness, Sunny.You do.” His grip tightens.
I want to look everywhere, except for his eyes, because Iknow my own will give away everything I’m feeling right now. I’m tired of keeping the fortress up.
I bite my quivering lip, hopeful he will excuse it for the cold and not my emotions. Once I finally meet his gaze, a brokenness that I know doesn’t belong to me reflects back.
That isn’tfromme.
“You slept with her,” I whisper.
He swallows hard and breaks our gaze, indicating a yes to my revelation as he releases my arm and sets me free. I stumble back, as if his words physically hit me.
“Oh my god,” I croak. “Oh my god, Tyler. How could you?”
I don’t give him time to respond. Instead, I’m turning on my heel and trying to run away, like I always do. His large hand wraps around my bicep, pulling me back into him again.
With ragged breaths, he looks down at me. Over the sound of my own frantic heart, I can hear his, too. And I’m almost certain I hear it so clearly with each thump.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
But yeah, that’s what Ryan used to say too.
TYLER
It’s an admission I won’t speak, but one that I won’t refuse either.
She fights my hold on her, trying to get out of my grasp but I keep her close, unwilling to let her go again.
She will never understand. I cannot stop loving her any more than I can stop breathing. And even then, when my last breath goes, my love for her will still remain.
It doesn’t matter, nothing after her matters.
I curse the man before me who destroyed her so harshly that her only means to protect herself is to run.
I spin her around, grabbing her biceps to make her look at me. “You think you can come into my life and do all these things with me just to up and leave? I was doingfinebefore you, Sunny. But then you came, and I realized I wasn’t. You gave me light when I was content in living in the darkness.”
“You were supposed to find a way out!” She cries, crumpling under my grasp, making my heart ache, pummeling into my chest.
“How do you expect me to find my way out when my light is no longer in my life?” I counter, my voice as weak as I feel.
