“My feelings toward you haven’t changed, there’s too much history with us, and there’s nothing we can do about it. But we can fuck it out of our systems. We have so much fucking chemistry we can burn a building down when we are together.” He adjusts his dick inside of his pants again. The little dude is clearly as confused as I am.
“What the hell?” I feel my brows furrow on their own accord.
“Yeah, a lot of chemistry.” He nods like I’m an idiot.
“That’s not what I meant, asshole!” I yell at him. “Do you think you’re the one who’s been wronged? Fuck you, Justin! You and your brother treated me like shit for years! I’ve been bullied by half the town for the majority of my life just because I was born poor, and here you are, coming back from jail and adding to my misery. Do you think I don’t have enough to deal with already? Newsflash: I do.” I walk to the sink just so I can wash my hands. They suddenly feel dirty.
“Kayla, that’s… this situation between us can’t be happening like that. We’re going to be around Alex and Freya, and we need to keep our cool.” His breathing slowly changes to normal while mine’s picking up speed.
“Oh, you think?” I turn to look at him while scrubbing my hands raw.
“Yeah,” He doesn’t get my sarcasm, and if he does, he doesn’t let on. “This tension needs to go. We just need to fuck it out.”
“The only thing you will be fucking out is my foot from your ass if you don’t disappear right now.” I hiss, adjusting my clothes.
“Kayla, be reasonable.” He tries to calm me down. The audacity!
“Reasonable?Reasonable!?” My voice booms through the empty space. “Do you think I price myself so low that after all these years of abuse you put me through, I’d just forget and spread my legs for you?”
“Hmm, you just did.” He looks at the table.
“Fuck you!” I throw a towel at him, wishing I had wet it so the impact would be harder. “I hate you. I truly hate you, Justin. You know the truth now, and suddenly I’m not a bad guy anymore, but that doesn't mean I can just erase everything you and your brother ever did to me. Do you think so low of me? That you’d have no problem swooping in and getting me to jump your bones? That I wouldn’t be able to resist you? Newsflash: I can. Because I have some fucking dignity!” I all but screeched. I couldn’t control myself anymore. What a pathetic jerk!
“Kayla, listen—” He throws his hands in front of him in a calming manner. It does nothing but aggravate me even more.
“Nope, I’m done listening.” I throw my arms out. “Get out.” I point to the door.
“Kayla.” He says in that voice ofreason.
"No, Justin. Honest to God, I'm done with you. To tell you the truth, for a second there, I thought this might mean something.” As soon as I say it, I regret it.
“What might be something? Me licking you to an orgasm?Thatmight mean something?” He laughs. “Yeah, it’s a normal thing between two consenting adults. You don't have to be in a relationship to do it. You of all people should know that.” He rolls his eyes like it’s the funniest and the most obvious thing in the world.
He did not just say that. He did not…
But he did. And it hurts like hell. He, like everybody else in this town, thinks of me as a whore just because my mother was, and now I’m guilty by association. She was a shitty parent, but she did what she had to do to put food on the table for her two kids. And she wasn’t a prostitute per se; she just had a few regular boyfriends (I cringe thinking about it) who helped her out with money. She had my sister when she was sixteen and me at nineteen. There wasn’t much she could do for work around here, seeing that local folks don’t take to the people from the trailer side kindly. As for leaving this town, well, I understand more than many how things get complicated.
I turn to face him, making sure to meet his gaze. “Get out, Justin, and never come back. The feeling is mutual—I hate you too.” I feel the muscles all over my body tightening from anger pressing on my nerves.
In two long strides, he is next to me. He bends his head to my ear, his breath tickling my skin. In a whisper, he says: “You’ll come to me, we both know that. I know how you’ve felt about me all these years.” He grazes the shell of my ear with his lips. “It’ll force you to come to me eventually. You just had a taste. You’ll be craving it. Trying to see what we’ve been building up to for so long. You won’t be able to get me out of your head without a good, angry fuck to erase all the memories, good and bad. To wipe the sheet clean. I’ll wait, but not for long.”
With that, he walks away, smacking the door into the wall on the way out. The wall shakes, and the huge picture of Little Hope I bought from a local artist last week falls down, clamoring onto the cute accent table Marina brought from her home, knocking the lamp onto the floor. A new, stylish rustic lamp that Freya brought for us from their house. She wanted to save it from Alex's wrath (that man has a weird relationship with lamps). I watch in slow motion as it shatters as it reaches the floor. So much for saving the beauty.
I take a deep breath and call out to the sky to give me patience.
ChapterTwenty-One
KAYLA
The following morning starts super early. I walk into the diner, greeted by Marina’s loud yell.
“What the fuck happened here?”
Yeah, I didn’t clean everything yesterday—besides the table with bleach, of course. I wouldn’t be able to eat there, seeing as every time I glance in that direction, I picture what had happened yesterday on that exact surface. Yesterday, I ran home like a coward, hoping I could come in early enough to clean the mess from the lamp. Oops.
“Well,” I pop up from under the counter where I was just fishing for the broom. “The picture fell. Oops.” I smile sheepishly, and Marina narrows her eyes at me.
“Just like that? Fell on the floor?”
