Page 113 of Bitter Lies

“No! It’s over, just…just let it be!”

Searching my expression, he frowns before his mouth curves in his signature smirk, but it’s filled with bitter rage and my stomach drops. “Why? Because you lied? Or you still have feelings for him?”

Sighing into the universe, I rub my aching forehead. “This is all so fucked up.”

“Tell me about it,” he says.

“Griffin—”

“Just tell me.”

“Tell you what?” I say, fighting back angry tears. “The truth is, Griffin, I made a huge fucking mistake. Because I cared for someone who doesn’t give a shit about me, and I walked into a situation that I can never take back. And frankly, it’s none of your business.”

“How do you figure? How does this not involve me when you basically said it in your damn diary?” He’s gazing at me so intently, I have to drop my eyes because even in this, I can’t bear to see his darkness.

“Because,” I whisper. “You made it perfectly clear…you don’t care who I fuck, as long as it’s not you…well, there you go.”

“So, you did fuck him…them?” He laughs, but it’s coated in a bitter veneer that beats at my heart.

Glancing at my fingers once more, I nod as a stray tear drips down my cheek. When I pull my head around, he asks, quietly, “Why the tears?”

“Because I will never regret anything more.”

His eyes drop to painful pools of confusion before he nods. “Me too.”

Griffin drives me to his house without another word spoken, and when I go to protest, he mutters, “Are the dorms even open?”

Oh. Sitting back, I mentally sigh because it didn’t occur to me, they wouldn’t be, but now that he’s said it, I realize they don’t open back up until Sunday.

I’m stuck with Griffin through the end of the week—fuck me. Unless he leaves me here and goes back, but he doesn’t seem inclined to when he lets me inside and carries a bag down the hall to his room.

My space is the same as I left it, with the clothes I packed in a hurry and left on the bed still lying there. The wall I painted greets me as I enter, and sitting on the bed, I stare at it blankly, going over our conversation.

So, Griffin lied about the bet. Although, I’m relieved that my earliest memories with him weren’t lies, I’m also devastated because of how much has happened over a fantastical story that broke apart a friendship.

I lost my best friend and the boy I was coming to love, and for what? Who told him the lie? Was it Max?

Did my own damn brother betray me? And Griff?

In the end, it doesn’t matter because there’s too much cruelty between us, not to mention the secrets and lies piling up around me.

Besides, Griffin’s confessions don’t mean he’s been harboring an undying love for me, so we’re still where we started at the beginning of the year.

With a sigh, I dig around in my pocket for my phone and pull out the necklace instead. Shit. Glancing around wildly, I rush to my closet and hide it in with my paints, before easing onto my knees with a sigh.

Fuck. Now what? I’m glad the fucker didn’t take it when I offered it to him, in the wake of Griffin’s words, but this doesn’t solve the bigger issue—what to do about Patch and Max.

“I’m going out,” Griffin says gruffly, to which I jump and spin around.

His eyes narrow for a moment before he nods and heads out, leaving me with my thoughts and a serious dose of heartache.

Chapter Thirty-Three

What goes around comes around.

“Wake up,” Griffin murmurs, brushing my hair back from my face.

“Hm.” With a yawn, I open my eyes to see him looming over me.

---