Page 64 of Finding Fate

“No. No, you will not.”

“Why not? He’s a piece of scum! I can’t let him get away with doing that to you!”

“Oh, yes, you can. I didn’t care that you fought him the last time because he actually hurt me. Today he was just being an ass. I don’t want you to fight if it isn’t necessary.”

“It is necessary,” he growled under his breath, but unfortunately, she’d still heard him.

“Tucker, if you even so much as try to even talk to Wesley tonight, I will be so beyond angry with you. Not from the hormones either. I will be angry of my own accord, and you will not want to deal with me.”

“Why is this such a big deal to her? I’m just trying to defend her. Wesley deserves a piece of my mind…and fist,”he thought as he worked to calm his anger. Yelling about his frustrations over Wesley was not going to help him plead his case. “Izzy…” he started.

“And stop calling me Izzy! My name is Isabel!” she fumed, nostrils flaring as she glared.

“And this isn’t from the hormones?” he muttered beneath his breath.

It was out of his mouth before he even really thought it, but he knew the second it happened that he had made a huge mistake.

“This is not about hormones, you jerk! This is about everyone calling me Izzy, and I hate it! Annie came up with the stupid nicknames. Just because she doesn’t like her name doesn’t mean I hate mine!”

He stared at her mixture of flush, glare, and tears in utter astonishment. She was all over the place, and he didn’t know which emotion to address first. Unnerved, he couldn’t help thinking, “Is this what I’m going to be dealing with the next few months?”

“Okay…” he treaded carefully, trying to figure out what he could say to calm her as he pulled into the wrap-around driveway at his house.

“I’m just going to go home,” Izzy said coldly, cutting him off.

“Izz-abel,” he caught himself just in time. “We’re supposed to be going to your next doctor’s appointment today.”

“Correction. I am going. You aren’t going anywhere with me until I know you won’t overreact when I tell you about something.”

“Izz,” he stopped and sighed. “Isabel, I don’t think I’m,”

“Don’t argue,” she snapped, slamming her door as she got out.

He still walked her home, the mood covered in icy silence. Tucker thought he could try to salvage things one more time before she went in, but she didn’t even pause, slamming the door in his face.

“Fuck…”he thought, as he stood dejected on her front porch, kicking himself again for making things worse.

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