“You’re overthinking it.”
“Overthinking it?” She stares at me like I just slapped her.
I need her to leave before I say something I can’t take back, so I stand and turn away from her. But it’s a big fucking mistake. She grabs my arm and pulls me back around, her eyes blazing.
She doesn’t back down even though I am towering over her now, unlike most people who would step back when I crowd into their space like this. But not Bells. She never backs down or allows me to intimidate her.
It is one of the things I—
No. I can’t think like that.
I’m close enough now to smell her shampoo, the vanilla scent that has been driving me crazy for weeks. The same scent I smelled on my pillow at her house.
“Don’t you dare shrug at me, Jace Cooper. I am not one of your little groupies who will just accept whatever scraps you throw at them. You owe me an explanation.”
“I don’t owe you shit.”
“The hell you don’t!” She shoves my chest hard. “You made me promise that nothing would change between us and I kept that promise. So tell me why you are treating me like I did something wrong.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Then what the fuck is your problem?”
I stare at her for a long moment, my jaw clenched so tight my teeth grind. My hands curl into fists at my sides because if I don’t, I might reach for her.
“My problem is that this was a mistake.”
“A mistake.” She repeats it flatly, her eyes narrowing. “That’s what you are going with?”
“Yeah.”
She laughs, but there is no humor behind it. “You’re such a liar.”
“Leave, Bells.”
I turn away from her because if I look at her face anymore I’ll see the hurt that I put there.
“No.” She shoves me again, harder this time, and I stumble forward a step. “You do not get to dismiss me. You do not get to call me a mistake and expect me to just leave.”
“I am not doing this with you.”
“Yes, you are!” Her voice rises, cracking with emotion. “Because I am not leaving until you tell me the truth. Until you stop being a fucking coward and actually—”
“A coward?” I spin back around, and suddenly I am right in her space. Close enough that her breath is on my face. “You think I am a coward?”
She doesn’t back down. She lifts her chin and faces my glare head-on.
“Yes! You are running away because you actually feel something and it scares the shit out of you.”
“You don’t know what you are talking about.”
“I know exactly what I’m talking about!” Her hands fist in my shirt, yanking me closer. “You lost your mind when Marcus talked to me. If we can no longer be friends, then what am I to you now, Jace? Some girl on a list you want nothing to do with?”
The words hit me like a punch to the gut because that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do—trying to push her away, to make her just another girl so it wouldn’t hurt so damn much.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Why? Because you might actually have to be honest for once? Because you might have to admit you truly feel something?”
