Page 88 of Reconciling With the Rival

“Yeah, it is.” But I’m not sure how much I hate her anymore. The lines between us have become…blurred. Messy. Uneven. I don't even fucking know. All I know is that Ella Williams has fucked me up in more ways than one these past few months.

What started out as us two hating one another for years has quickly morphed into something else, something I can’t wrap my mind around.

“That’s funny,” my sister says. “She’s said similar things about you.”

“Has she?”

“Yes, actually. She’s told me a lot about you, and none of it matches what I know about you.”

“I always knew you guys talked, but I never assumed any of it was about me.”

She rolls her eyes at me. “Oh, please. When you two were at your internship, it’s all I heard about.”

“Really?”

“Yup. You two assholes clash heads so muchbecauseof how similar you are, and I know me saying that won’t magically fix anything, but try to view her from a different perspective, Leo. I think it’ll do wonders for you two and your relationship.”

Our what? There’s no fucking way she knows about Ella and my—

“If I can even call what you two have as such. Don’t throw up on the couch imagining you and Ella that way.”

“Trust me, Ella and I will never be anything but coworkers after I move out.”

Fuck. This is the perfect time to mention the pact. I’ve never lied to my sister before—except about Ella. The only things I’ve kept from her involve her best friend and how I’ve fucked her a few times. I hate lying to Alissa about it, but I don’t know how she would react. I doubt she’d care too much, but Ella is still her best friend.

It doesn't even matter, really. Ella and I will never talk about any of this again after I move out. It’ll be like nothing ever happened.

So why does that piss you off so much?

It’s just lust. That’s all it’ll ever be, since neither of us does feelings in situations like this. Ella doesn't see me as anything more than a guy she hates, nothing more than a fuck for her.

But why do I feel something more than anger and hatred when I look at her now? Is it just the aura of our sex that has that effect on me, or is it something else?

No. It’s nothing else.

No matter how much I think about her across the hall from me at night. No matter how much I like pissing her off just to get her to talk to me.

No matter how much my heart flips when she rolls her eyes at me, when she opens her door in the mornings and her hair is all over the place and she looks more beautiful than I’ve ever seen her…

Woah. Where the hell did that come from? And how do I get rid of it?

“You two will be more than coworkers, that’s one thing I know for sure,” my sister says, a cheeky look on her face.

“What does that mean?”

“Something out there clearly wants your paths to cross. First, you two get an internship together, and years later, you work together. Something bigger than both of you is at play.” Alissa pats my shoulder as she gets up. “If your egos weren't so big, I could see you both being good friends.”

Friends?Yeah right.

Ella Williams is anything but my friend. As far as I know, she’s another girl who got wrapped up in me, and by the end of all this, she’ll wish she never did.

I’ll just be another few nights for her, and she’ll go back to hating me, because it’s what we do.

“I’ll make lunch for us, okay?”

“Sounds good.”

And as I turn the film back on, I try and fail to banish all my thoughts about the girl across the hall.

---