Page 111 of Still Love You

"I was the one Silas talked to after you broke off the engagement. And I talked to him after he left. I actually answered his calls the past two years, unlike you." He glares at me and that dull ache in my chest becomes a sharp pain.

"Yeah, I should've talked to him. I told him I was sorry for that."

"Sorry's not good enough. You owed him an explanation, telling him why you wouldn't even give your relationship a chance. Why you were in love with him one day and hated him the next."

"I didn't hate him. Stop making assumptions. You don't know what went on."

"Silas told me everything, so actually I do know. He said he went over there that day to take you to dinner. You were going to plan your backpacking trip. He had maps of Europe and the two of you were going to plot it out that night. It was his dream to backpack through Europe with you and it was finally happening."

I swallow past the lump in my throat.

"He was so freaking excited," Trent says. "I even made fun of him for it. But he didn't care. At that point he was so damn happy that you agreed to marry him that nothing could bring him off that high. At least I didn't think anything could. Until you did. When you told him it was over and gave him the ring back, he hit rock bottom. I'd never seen him that bad. We went out to a park and he burned the maps and almost tossed out the ring. I took it from him and told him I'd give it back when he calmed down. I knew he'd want it later. I mean, shit, he spent months making the damn thing."

Tears are now spilling down my cheeks and I don't wipe them away because I don't want Trent to notice. But he's looking right at me so I know he sees them.

"Why are you telling me this?" I ask. "I don't need to hear this. It's the past."

"And the past has a way of repeating itself."

"It won't. I promise."

He rolls his eyes. "Your promises are worthless. You promised Silas you'd marry him, then a week later, you broke up with him."

"I wasn't ready. I was only 17."

"Then you shouldn't have said yes. You shouldn't have got his hopes up."

"You're right. I shouldn't have agreed to marry him, but I can't go back and change it."

"But you CAN change what's going on now. You need to end this before you destroy him again."

"I'm not going to hurt him."

"That's bullshit and you're lying to yourself if you can't admit that."

"It's different this time. We're older and we've had two years to think about this."

"You spent the last two years contemplating a future with Silas?" He lets out a harsh laugh. "Yeah, right. Were you thinking about him when you were fucking half the football team?"

"What?" I jump up from the couch. "I never did that!"

"That's not what I heard."

"From who? Is Brian going around telling people that?"

"Brian said you slept with him then moved on to some other guys on the team."

"I was with Brian. That's it. No one else on the team. And I was only with Brian one time."

"You were with other guys at our high school."

"Yeah, and you were with just about every girl, but it's different for me? Because I'm a girl? And what about Silas? Do you really think he wasn't with anyone else the past two years?"

Trent doesn't answer.

"So you know he was with other girls and yet I'm the villain here? Do I need to remind you that I wasn't dating Silas during that time? He was halfway around the world. I didn't think I'd ever see him again!"

"Exactly. So for you to say you've been thinking about this for two years is a lie. That's all you do, Willow, is lie. You lie to Silas, you lie to me, you lie to yourself."

---