AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He lets out a sigh, heavy with a frustration I can’t fully understand.
Rubbing his face, he says, “I wish…” the rest of his thought dies on his tongue abruptly. He shakes his head, as if to clear the words away and starts walking back toward the house.
I tug on his hand to stop him and force some honesty out of him. “What do you wish?” I feel as though I’m finally getting somewhere with him. He’s co close to opening up to me more than he ever has since I’ve met him. We’re teetering on an edge and I’m not sure if we’re about to fall or fly.
“I wish things were different,” he mumbles, staring at his shoes. His hand comes up to run through his unkempt hair again. A habit I’ve noticed that he does when he’s nervous or upset.
“They can be different.” He has no idea how I wish they were. “But you have to be willing to make a tough choice and tell your mother the truth about John.” I want to slap myself. I’m not the one who should be giving advice on honesty when I can’t even tell Matt the truth. I’m no better than John. The thought sickens me. I’m a cheater.
He laughs, but it’s devoid of any humor. “You honestly believe that? The world doesn’t operate that way. If I tell her and she kicks him out on his ass, where will that leave you?”
“I don’t know, but that’s for me to worry about.”
“You going to go live with the mother who didn’t want you?” His harsh words strike me right in the gut as he intended them to.
I wince, stung by the bitterness in his voice. “That’s not fair, Kyson.” I take a deep, shuddering breath. “We all have our burdens to bear, but we can’t let them define us. We have to want better. We have to choose to be better.”
He scoffs, a half-hearted attempt to mask the guilt creeping into his eyes. “Did you get that off of a card or some self-help website? It’s all bullshit. We’re all just products of our circumstances, aren’t we?”
“No.” I reject his cynicism immediately, stepping closer to him. “I can tell that something is tearing you apart You don’t have to suffer like this.” There’s something he’s not sharing.
“Easy for you to say,” he snaps back, crossing his arms defensively. “You’re not the one stuck in a broken home watching your mother melt away with every lie the man she loves feeds her.”
“And you’re not the one who was abandoned by her mother when you needed one,” I snap back, my words ringing out sharply in the quiet night as twilight falls upon us. My heart pounds even faster in my chest as I step back from him, creating distance between us. Why do I let him get under my skin like this?
Kyson blinks at me, taken aback by my outburst. “My mother is far from perfect. You think you know everything, don’t you? Think you can fix me? Save me from myself. It’s too late for any of that, Dahlia.”
“You know what? Forget it.” I stomp away from him, needing some space when he wrenches my arm back, yanking me into his hard body. I twist into his hold, met with the fury on his face and this blazing need in his eyes.
I lick my lips and wonder if he’s going to kiss me here on the street, where anyone might see to shut me up and keep me near.
“Where are you going?” he demands, his grip tightening on my arm. His fingers dig into my skin hard enough to leave a mark.
“I’m done with this conversation,” I retort. “Unlike you, I don’t want to wallow in self-pity and hurl insults at people who care about me.”
His eyes flicker with something akin to remorse before he promptly covers it up with another scowl. “So I’m back to being the bad guy for you too, huh?”
“You tell me, Kyson,” I challenge him, yanking my arm free from his grasp. “You’re the one pushing everyone away. You’re the one who makes it so hard for anyone to get close.”
“Like you know anything about honesty. You’re so fucking clueless. You’ve got no idea!” He lashes out, his words ringing in the chilly night air. “Poor perfect Dahlia lost her daddy,” he clips. “His death wasn’t an accident. He wanted die. They only told you that bullshit story to protect your delicate feelings. He hung himself.”
The painful sob that rips from my throat at the stinging and cold words he’d just uttered slices through air. Tears prick at my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. Not here. Not in front of him. I refuse to let him see me cry.
“You’re lying.”
“If I’m a liar, why are you still standing here?” His voice is softer now, but filled with such a palpable bitterness that it makes my heart clench. He runs a hand through his hair once again, clearly regretting his harsh words. I can see the remorse on his face, but he does what he always does and imparts more cruel words on me as he pulls me in close, his lips hovering so close and yet too far away from mine. “Ask me how I know and what we have in common, lil’ dolly. Go ahead. Ask me what really happened to your mother.”
My pulse rings in my ears and my knees threaten to buckle right here. “I don’t think I want to.”
“I know you can’t sleep at night.”
“Shut up.”
“You can’t go live with your mother because she’s dead.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Kyson.”
“You’re right. I made it up. Just go. It was a mistake to involve you in all this.” He leans in closer, so close that I’m afraid to breathe. Afraid that one wrong move will have him bleeding me dry right here.
