Page 14 of Should've Been Us
Pity. Again. And fromConnor.
She bit her lip to stifle the rush of sadness that was overtaking her pleasurable buzz. Why was she talking to Connor anyway? He wasn’t her friend. He was just the asshole that liked to remind her that Derek would never love her the way she loved him. He was the last person she should be hoping would reassureher.
“Forget it. Just go away.” She muttered into herpillow.
“Lu…” He said again in that soft tone of voice, as if she might shatter if he spoke too loudly, and honestly she wasn’t sure if he stayed a moment longer that she wouldn’t so she hissed at himinstead.
“I said, go. Get out. Now. I appreciate you making sure I got back but I don’t want you here. Get out of my room. I’m being drunk and stupid, just like you said. I just want to go to sleep and forget all ofthis.”
Since she refused to look at him, she held her breath and waited. There was no other sound in the room. Nothing. Not even the sound of his breathing. A long moment passed and then another and she was just working up the courage to roll back over and yell at him when she heard him sigh and then the rustle of his clothes as hemoved.
“Fine. I’m going.” His voice was hard, rough, and he cleared his throat, “I’ll put a bottle of water from the mini-fridge on the nightstand. You should drink it before you pass out. It’ll help with thehangover.”
Her bottom lip trembled and she bit into it harder. The tears were coming and she wanted to curse at him. She wanted to fight with him some more. She’d rather fight with him than deal with him like this. She couldn’t fucking stand it when he was nice to her. She didn’t want hispity.
She listened with her eyes squeezed shut as the fridge clicked open and then shut. She heard him move back towards the bed and put the bottle beside her. But she still jumped a little when she felt his fingers stroke softly over her hair, briefly, so briefly she thought maybe she’d made it up in her drunk mind, because a second later his voice came from thedoorway.
“GoodnightLu.”
The door clicked shut behind him before she could respond, though she had no idea what she would have said.Thank you. Goodnight. Go the hell away. Please don’t leave me alone. It didn’t matter. He was gone and she was all aloneagain.
She was drunk and emotional. Connor had done a nice thing for her by getting her to bed. But that didn’t make them friends and she needed to rememberthat.
