Page 56 of Faking it with my Off Limits Neighbor

“So?” I press, the frustration rising.

“Your dad didn’t give Troy any chances to change, Charlie. He just told him to leave, or he was going to move and take you with him. Troy couldn’t bear the thought of you being torn away from your friends, so he did what he had to do.”

“Then Troy’s lying,” I counter.

Milly looks at me disbelievingly. “Oh, come on, Charlie. You know how he felt about you. Do you truly believe, if there was a chance to stay with you, he wouldn’t have taken it?”

I know the answer, but I pretend I’m thinking about it. I need a moment to get this right in my head. If Dad hadn’t given Troy a chance, then why did he tell me he did?

He’s a world-class liar, remember? Think about it. He’s played exactly the same game before. He’s scared you’ll leave him for Troy, and he has managed to split you apart—again.

“Won’t you give Troy a chance to tell his side of the story?” Milly asks gently.

“He still lied, Milly. Even if my twisted, sadistic father lied through his teeth, so did Troy.”

“He had his reasons for that.”

“Which were?”

“That’s for him to explain, Charlie.”

I heave a huge sigh. I’m so torn. I know perfectly well that if I let Troy explain his way out of this, my heart will just melt, and I’ll take him back. But is that really what I want? He lied to my face. Do I want a relationship with a person who can’t be honest with me, for any reason?

“Troy’s talking about moving out of town,” Milly says when I don’t answer.

My eyes fly wide open. “What?”

She shrugs, and I can see that the sadness she’s displaying is genuine. “He says he can’t live here and see you every day. He says it will destroy him. He’s considering giving up the restaurant and starting again somewhere else.”

Milly’s words are a hard slap in the face. And suddenly, like a startling awakening, I realize I’d be even more devastated if Troy left.

“He can’t do that,” I blurt.

“None of us can stop him,” she counters. “He won’t listen to me, or Mom, or Dad. It’s funny.” Milly smirks mirthlessly. “The two of you both look as devastated as each other. He’s over there moping in his house, and you’re here moping in yours. You’re fifty feet apart, but it’s like an unfathomable chasm between you.”

Milly is right. There is a chasm between us. A chasm I created. I’ve been so hung up on being told a lie that I’ve forgotten everything else.

Forgotten or ignored?

Yes. Maybe I’ve been a bit of an idiot. Even more so because I believed my dad’s words without even checking if they were true.

“He can’t leave,” I say again.

Milly tilts her head. “You’re the only one who can stop him, chick.”

I am, and I know it. For the first time in days, the fuzziness in my mind begins to clear, and with this new information that my rational mind knows to be true, I begin to see things clearly.

“Then I guess that’s what I’ll have to do,” I say.

24

Troy

Milly is standing in my kitchen with her arms folded, leaning against my counter, looking at me with a death glare. She arrived far too early this morning. So early, in fact, that my eyes are still half-closed as I stand and make my coffee.

“Why not?” she demands.

“Because I don’t want to,” I say listlessly, still missing the warmth of my bed.

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