“You think I’d put up with this shit if it wasn’t?”
“I mean, I saw you beating Tek—”My boyfriend“—into the wall, so I’m not sure what you were putting up with.”
“I don’t have to answer to you.”
That might be true right now, but trust me, big brother, we’re gonna have this out.
I point outside with my thumb. “I don’t have to take him home.”
“He was out of line.”
“And to him,you’reout of line.” I point my index finger at Eden. “So maybe just consider it from his side.”Because the next time I see you, I’m gonna let you know exactly what the fuck I’ve been getting up to while you’ve been playing house with a runaway.“Do you have an ETA on when you’ll be home?”
Eden tugs Jintae closer to him, and as they look at each other with so much love in their eyes, I’m flooded with the most disgusting feelings of jealousy.
Fists and hurtful words might have just been flying around, but now they’re freely standing together. Able to show themselves to me while I’m forced to keep the exact same secret they just let go of.
“March first,” Eden says, and my stomach churns.
Why do they get to keep living their fairytale after lying to us all for months? All I did was fall in love. I never lied. I never hurt anybody, but I have to stifle my own joy because of the selfishness of others.
Unable to look at them any longer, I turn back around and unlock the door.
“I’ll sort Tek out,” I say softly.
“And you expect him to listen?”
I zip my head around to Eden.You might have been his best friend for twenty years, but two months ago, I became his number one priority.“Yeah. I do.”
As soon as the door is closed behind me, my eyes home in with laser focus on Tek in the truck’s driver seat. Head down, back hunched, like the gravity of what he just did has finally sunken in.
With each of my daily fucks having already been allocated, I crunch through the half melted snow and tear open the driver’s side door so hard it creeks when it bounces on its hinges.
Tek’s eyes snap up to meet mine, and they look pitiful. But drying blood and a swollen cheek bone will garner no sympathy from me.
“Get out,” I spit, my anger seeming to cloud my breath more than normal in the cold air.
He doesn’t move.
“I said get the fuck out, Tek.”
“Carey, I’m—”
I don’t let him finish. I reach inside the cab and grab onto his shirt like I did just minutes ago. For a second he resists, then his body tumbles out. “What the hell?”
“What the hell?” I mimic, dragging him around to the opposite side of the truck. “You’re askingme,what the hell, after what you just did in there?”
“He was hiding him.”
“And I’ve been hiding too!”
Tek’s mouth opens, but it just flaps in the wind.
I open the passenger's door and shove Tek inside.
Once I’m buckled in I throw the truck in reverse. The wheels spin on the snow covered earth before catching, lurching us backward. Then I spin the wheel hard and speed down the narrow track away from the cabin, letting my frustration weigh heavy on the accelerator.
“They’re insisting on staying out here till the first of next month, so you’ve got till then to sort this shit out,” I rouse at Tekas we jerk over the uneven ground. And he just sits beside me, rigid, staring straight ahead through the windshield.
