“Fuck you.”
“Fuckyou! What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Me?Me?One minute you’re kissing me like we’re the last two people on earth, and the next you’re cold as ice. Ever since you moved in, you’ve been acting weird.”
“We’re fucking roommates, Paige.”
“Stop saying that!”
“Why? It’s what you wanted. You made these rules, not me. And I could say the same thing about you, by the way. You’ve been acting weird ever since Lulu caught us in the hammock, like being caught with me is the worst thing that could happen to your reputation.”
“That’s absolutely not true.”
“You move around me in the cottage like I’ve got a disease!”
“What am I supposed to do? Every time I look at you, you look away!”
“Oh,excuse mefor trying to be a gentleman and not ogle my childhood friend.”
Maybe I wanted to be ogled... ?But the way he said this, it made me feel like I was the bad person. Like I was depraved, and he was virtuous.
“Is this all just a big game to you? Lead me on with all the flirting and kissing, then sit back and watch me squirm when you pretend it didn’t happen? Is that what gets you off?”
“Oh, you’vereallylost it, now, Malone!”
“Fuck you!”
“Fuckyou!”
If I could’ve been granted one wish in that moment, it would’ve been to push him away and head back to the camp. But I just couldn’t reel in my emotions. Like a fish that had bitten a hook, they went wild, floundering and flapping around to get free. My control slipped, and the worst possible thing happened.
I began crying.
All the fight left Seb at once. His eyes went wide, and inside them flickered a mix of concern andoh no a girl is cryinguncomfortable.
His reaction sobered me up pretty fast. Feeling like a trapped rabbit, I desperately wanted to bolt away. Put some space between us. Recover my lost dignity.
“Paige,” he said in a different voice, one that seemed to be struggling to stay in control as he tentatively reached out a hand to me.
I swatted it away and backed up. “Nothing’s changed. I’ve been such a fool to hope there was something real between us . . .”
“Wait!”
“Leave me alone!”
Wild emotion contorted Seb’s face. “For fuck’s sake, Paige! I’m in love with you.”
Chapter 23
I froze. Stopped breathing. Insects chirped in the trees, and noise from a television trickled from somewhere among the nearby RV spots.
Seb’s expression was raw and defenseless. He looked a little shocked, like he couldn’t believe those words just came out of his own mouth. And I knew right there, in that moment, that he’d meant it.
His gaze fell to the ground, and his shoulders dropped. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard and explained, “Think I have been for years. Before Paul and I started hanging out. I left the Wags because I was trying to juggle all these feelings about you that you clearly didn’t share. I was miserable being so close to you—it was agony.”
“That was... we were just kids.”
“Felt real enough. Still does.”
