Page 69 of For Three Seconds

“Where were you?” I asked again, this time trying to sound stronger than I felt.

He opened his mouth but closed it again.

“Don’t lie to me,” I pleaded, my voice breaking because I could see it in his stormy eyes—the guilt. I raised my phone, and his eyes widened at the picture.

“I swear to God, Scar, I wasn’t doing anything to hurt you,” he said hoarsely, looking at me pleadingly.

“Yeah? Because you lying to me and going with Gigi hurt me.” I let out a tortured laugh. “I guess I had that coming, right? Payback for what I did to her.”

“God, no,” Gav said, taking a step toward me.

“Don’t. Touch. Me.” I seethed.

“Baby, it’s not like that.”

I ignored him and went to his drawer and grabbed my underwear. Before I could put them on, Gavin took them from me and hugged me to his body.

“You don’t get to run away from me. Not anymore. I’m not letting you,” he whispered.

Funny how a place that used to offer comfort could quickly cause you pain.

I pushed him away, and all the rage I had inside of me exploded. Him. Us. Gigi. My parents. Every missed opportunity, everything that had landed me here, making a fool of myself.

“I trusted you!” I screamed at him.

His gray eyes looked like the sky before it stormed, full of anguish, pain, and rage.

“I trusted you!” I yelled a little more, broken this time, as I hit his chest. “I trusted you!”

I hit his chest over and over again, taking out all my frustration on him—making him hurt like I was hurting. And he just let me.

“You were my safe place,” I whispered, before I sank to the floor crying.

Gavin came down with me. “I swear, nothing happened, Scar.”

I cried, tried to get myself together, but I just felt so overwhelmed and done with it all.

Twenty-Four

Things don’t fall apartwhen life is perfect or even good. Things fall apart when people lie to you, when the answers aren’t the ones you seek, when tragedy sinks its way to your core and won’t let go.

Life falls apart when you least expect it—when the hope you have flees.

Life falls apart when the thought of rising again seems too heavy and your every thought is a burden.

Things fall apart when you give up.

Twenty-Five

Life was like fucking Jenga:one wrong move, and everything came crashing down. My blood froze the moment Scarlett stopped crying. I watched her wipe her tears and look at me, and fuck me, I couldn’t see the emotion in her eyes. These past few weeks, they’d lit up when I was near.

“Let me explain. Just let me explain, and after that, if you want to walk away, you can,” I said hoarsely.

She looked at me for a brief second and gave me a small nod.

“I broke up with Gigi a week before prom because I couldn’t pretend anymore. Not when it got to the point that you two weren’t friends anymore. We were all coming to college together, and I was thinking of giving you the summer…” I stopped because that had never worked out how I had planned.

She laughed without humor, holding on to her head. I couldn’t bring myself to say the next part because it was going to kill her, and that was going to kill me.

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