Page 51 of One Little Lie
“Okay. Get inside of the sleeping bag. You still need to warm up, and I’ll get the sandwiches and chips.”
“Salt and vinegar?” The hopefulness in her voice unlocks a little of the bitterness I carry.
“Yeah, Ver— ah, Rylan. Salt and vinegar.” I move away quickly, hoping she doesn’t call me out on the fiftieth slip of the night.
When I return, she’s slid into the sleeping bag. She also folded down the outside corner like she expected me to climb in next to her.
“Ah.” I choke on the words and have to try again. “I’ll just sleep on the floor.”
Frowning, she crosses her arms. I really wish she wouldn’t do that. It pushes her tits up and forces them out. My shirt is already transparent, but the vision she’s thrusting at me now has me thinking with the wrong head.
“You will not. Hatty, we slept in that damn ham—” She falters over her words, and I know she’s reliving the night that ruined us. I hate myself even more when I see her face fall, so I move without thinking.
“Okay, fine.” I climb in next to her and pull the sleeping bag over my lap, but I can feel her deflated presence beside me.
After unwrapping one BLT, I place half on the paper bag and set it in her lap.
“Eat, Rylan. It’ll make you feel better.”
She pulls it toward her, but I drop mine when I see her dig a fork out of the bag. Glancing over, I watch as she eats the ingredients like a salad.
“What are you doing?”
She jumps as if I startled her. “Eating,” she says without glancing up.
“Eating what?”
She huffs and gazes up at me with annoyance. “I love BLTs, Hatty, but I don’t eat bread anymore.”
“Why the fuck not?”
Rylan drops her head back and stares at the ceiling while exhaling loudly. “Because I didn’t want to be fat anymore, Halton.”
Now it’s my turn to jump. She’s called me Hatty all day. Now I’m back to Halton? Obviously, I said something wrong.
“You’ve never been fat, Rylan.” I say it softly, but my conviction is clear.
“I … whatever. I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
Unable to take the hurt in her voice, I reach over and pull her chin up to look at me. “You’ve always been perfect.” I hope she can hear the sincerity in my voice, but when her eyes well, I’m gutted.
“Ah, you know what? I’m not really all that hungry,” she says pulling her face from my grasp. “I think I just want to go to sleep.”
“Please, Rylan.”
“Please what?” she snaps. “Please eat? Please leave? Please what, Halton?” She stuffs her uneaten sandwich back into the paper bag and I take it from her.
“Please don’t call me Halton. I know I have no right to ask anything of you, but I’m doing it anyway.”
I toss our soggy sandwiches into the trash bag I hung up earlier and tie it off. The last thing we need tonight is to attract any wild animals.
When I turn, she’s staring at me expectantly. “Why do you care, Hatty? After all this time, why do you care what I call you?”
I hit the switch on the first lantern, and it catapults half the space into darkness.
“I told you, I’ve always cared, but sometimes it’s not enough. Sometimes, other people’s happiness has to come before your own.”
I quickly hit the switch on the remaining lantern, and she gasps. It’s so dark I can’t see my own hand until it smacks me in the face. Shuffling along the floor, I use my toe to feel for the raised cot with my hands outstretched in case I fall.
