Page 137 of Bitter Rival

His mouth slants over mine, our lips mere inches apart and it takes me a few seconds to realize that he’s going to kiss me. I rear back just as his lips touch mine and I pull away.

“What are you doing?” I take a step back. “We’re not together.”

“Yeah, I know.” He runs his hand through his hair and gives me a lopsided grin. “Sorry.” But he doesn’t sound sorry at all.

I used to think Finn was the hottest boy I’d ever laid eyes on. I loved his face and his lean build. His tattoos, his devil-may-care smile and his fuck-the-world attitude.

I thought we were two of a kind. Outcasts. Artists. Free spirits.

I thought we’d always have each other’s back.

But he’s failed me too many times, and now I can finally see him for what he is.

A rebel without a cause. A careless boy. A drug addict. A cheater who will try to charm his way back into my pants and my life by promising the world and delivering absolutely fucking nothing.

I can’t allow that to happen. Not again. I can’t be that girl anymore. The one who bandaged his bruises. The one who was always there to catch him when he fell. The girl he ran to whenever his life went to shit.

I don’t want to have this conversation tonight. I’m weary from traveling. Still shaken up after seeing my mother again. Heartsick over having to walk away from Beckett.

I feel betrayed and hurt. My heart has been battered and bruised. And like the flames flickering in the candelabras, I’m one breath away from dying out.

But I know that this can’t wait. I need to do it tonight.

So I flick on the lights, signaling that this won’t be a romantic evening or a reconciliation.

He frowns, barely hiding his annoyance. “What are you doing?”

“We need to talk.”

He laughs. “You need the lights on to talk?”

“For this conversation, yes. We need the lights on.”

He leans against the wall and crosses his arms over his chest like he’s sensed that he needs to be on the defensive. “What’s going on?”

No point in getting comfortable so I stay right where I am, standing across from him. I rehearsed this so many times on the flight home, but it’s a lot easier to have this conversation in your head than it is in person.

Time to rip off the Band-Aid. I take a deep breath and let it out. “We need to go our separate ways,” I say firmly.

“Go our separate ways,” he repeats. “And what exactly does that mean?”

“It means that we’re never getting back together, and I think that it would be better if we make a clean break.”

“You want a clean break, huh?” He gives me that surly look that’s always gotten him into trouble with authority figures. “Hate to break it to you, but it doesn’t work that way. I’m your family, Dais. I’m the only one who has ever been there for you. And what? You just wanna shit all over twelve years of friendship? Twelve years of love?” He juts his chin at me. “You don’t need me anymore so you’re just gonna kick me to the curb. Is that it?”

Only this morning, I said something similar to Beckett, but I can’t think about him right now, so I focus on Finn.

I have to hold strong. Otherwise, he’ll see my weakness and use it against me, so I forge on.

“We’re not good for each other anymore. We haven’t been good in a very long time. I’m tired of being treated like shit and taken advantage of?—”

“When have I ever taken advantage of you?” he demands.

God. He really has no idea, does he? “You’ve been living in my apartment rent-free for months?—”

“If this is about money, I told you I’d pay you back.”

“This isn’t about money. It’s about us. We keep falling into the same old patterns over and over. I can’t keep enabling you, Finn. If you were having problems with Asher, you should have stayed out in LA and fixed them. That’s where you should be right now. You can’t keep showing up in my life and promising me that everything will be different when we both know it won’t. We’ve been down this road too many times but I’m done?—”

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