Page 17 of Bitter Lies

“Hey, Halsey, how was your weekend?” he asks, with a friendly smile.

“It was good. How about you?”

“Great! Hit a couple of parties, you know.”

“Yeah,” I breathe, twirling a lock of hair around my face.

Truthfully, the pretense makes my skin crawl, but the air around Griffin is cold, and I smile triumphantly until he leans into me and whispers, his lips so close to my ear, I shiver at his breath caressing my face, “Your bitch is showing. Remember the last time you tried to make me jealous?”

Unfortunately, I fucking do, and it’s like ice down my spine. Fuck. Rigid, I turn back to the front and stare blindly at the board.

I don’t care who you fuck, as long as it’s not me.

Dr. Marks begins his lesson, and I listen with a single-minded intensity, fighting off the memories that threaten to pull me under because this is my penance for being stupid and foolish.

Griffin’s silky words are a reminder, and I’ve continued to ignore the writing on the wall, clinging to something just out of my reach because there’s no redemption here, not for any of us. Griffin is cold and closed off. Max is angry and drowning. And I’m…broken.

We’re not who we were, and the cord that held us together has been severed. So why do I continue to cling to the rope?

“For your term project, you’ll need to choose a partner. Choose wisely. I want one paper each, a case study of your partner. Use the information you learn from the textbook and tell me a story of the person you interview.”

We wrap up, thankfully, because I’m too disturbed by the notion of sharing my secrets with anyone to take notes. The crazy rolling around in this head could fill twenty term papers, which would just be the start.

“Do you want to be—” Hogan says, but Griffin butts in, “She’s my partner.”

I’m pretty sure the bimbo next to him sighs in disappointment, but I pay her no mind as I stare at Griff incredulously.

He gives me a glacial stare when I don’t respond, beyond proper speech, and when he tilts his head toward the door, I follow aloofly. He must be out of his mind. He can’t even look at me without scowling, and he wants to be my partner? More likely torture the shit out of me.

When we reach the steps outside, I start in already with a head of steam. “We are not going to be partners.”

“Yes, we are.” He doesn’t even bother to look at me after his statement, his shoulders tight with tension as he walks before me.

“No! Griffin, why do you even want to be?” I mutter, trying to keep up with his long strides.

“I don’t.” His hand slashes in the air before he drops it to his side, now clenched in a fist.

“Then, what—” I sputter.

Swinging around so abruptly, I step back with a gasp, he leans into my face and says, “You’re a thorn in my fucking side, sweetheart. Never forget it, but we’re stuck with each other, so suck it the fuck up!”

Bewildered, I watch him walk away, torn between psychoanalyzing his endearment and his insistence we’re stuck together. What does that even mean?

∞∞∞

The following morning, I head to class grimly, thankful both of the guys are already gone when I emerge because I’m still brooding over Griffin’s insistence on being my partner but also majorly confused.

He’s actively avoided me for years and now wants to cozy up and share secrets?

It doesn’t make sense, which means I’m missing something, probably to do with watching over me as the crazy bitch on the edge of ending it at any given moment.

I can just see my mom pulling him aside and begging him to take care of me or some shit, although I think his efforts would have a more significant impact if he’d stop fucking anything with tits and ass, but whatever.

I’m halfway to my class when I spot Dr. Marks coming up beside me, to which I smile uncomfortably. I know he’s my professor, and this is probably normal, but he’s the dude who knows my dirtiest secrets, which means I can’t ever have a regular relationship with him. It’s bad enough spilling what’s inside me across a desk. Try acting normal when it’s in full view of the world.

“Hey, Halsey, how are you?” he asks with a friendly smile.

“Oh, um, fine,” I mumble, ignoring the heat singeing my cheeks.

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