Page 98 of Damn Roommate

Scarlett

“Scar, wait!”

I turn to Leo, his hand clinging to my barely closed backpack. Tears welling up in my eyes, I watch him jog toward me without saying a word.

“Don’t go, your brother doesn’t mean what he says.”

At this point, it’s not really Edgar’s reaction that makes me run away. Troubles with him, I had tons of them. No, it’s Nolan. His rejection. His denial. His silence. I want to get away from him right now, because I don’t want him to see how much he hurt me.

“I can’t stay,” I say, eyeing the front door Leo slammed behind him. “You saw what happened.”

I can still see the look of Nolan who tried to make me stay, it was cowardly of him. Refute everything in front of my brother and believe that he can keep me here by begging me? After what he said? I sigh and head for the nearest stairs.

“Scar, don’t do this. It’s going to be dark, where are you going? Come back up, the guys will calm down, I promise.”

I arrive in the hall, not turning for a single second towards Leo whom I hear following me.

“I’m not going home, Leo.”

He sighs, runs a hand through his blond hair, then looks around him.

“Do you want me to drop you off somewhere, then?”

I shrug my shoulders. I haven’t even thought of a place to go. To the girls’, but that might be the first place my brother would look for me. To my parents’? It’s only about 30 minutes outside of Boston, it’s doable for classes, but they’re going to ask me tons of questions…

“I don’t know where to go,” I say sincerely. “I don’t even knowwhat to do anymore.”

“Come here.”

He pulls the sweatshirt I’ve hurriedly put on earlier and presses me against him. The familiar, comforting scent of his skin makes me close my eyes. I take a long breath, tears rolling down my cheeks and wetting his sweater. I sniffle, shift, and wipe away the traces of my tears with the back of my hand.

“I’ll take you back to your parents.”

He invites me to follow him, and we head to the parking lot where he leaves his old pickup truck parked all week. He usually only uses my brother’s Jeep or Nolan’s SUV. It saves him from being dependent on an old pile of junk that threatens to give up every day. I get in on the passenger side and exhale sharply. Another sob threatens to escape my throat and I swallow with difficulty.

“So, can you tell me what happened?” he asks.

“You heard him, nothing happened.”

He sneers and clicks his tongue against his palate.

“I don’t know what he’s playing and why he said all that, but his look when you left…”

He’s studying me.

“It’s not the look of the guy who mistakenly kissed his best friend’s sister. No, that’s the look of the guy who just lost someone he cares about. So, I ask you again. What happened?”

I let my head fall against the cold window of his car and close my eyes for a second, trying to calm the pounding in my chest. He leaves Boston and enters the road that leads to our parents’ neighborhood on the outskirts of the city.

“Were you two dating?”

“Yes.”

“Fuck! How long have you been dating?”

I shrug my shoulders, disillusioned. Thinking about it again causes a hole in my chest and the pain radiates throughoutmy body. Is that what you feel when you have a heartbreak? I thought I knew, after watching Nolan ignore me all these years, but I was wrong. Tasting him only to have him taken away from me is worse.

A thousand times worse.

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