Page 67 of It Should Have Been Me

She doesn’t say it back. Instead, she lets out a deflated sigh. “It was four and a half years,” she whispers before she wraps her arms around my neck to give me a tight hug. “I wish things had turned out differently for us, Scott. I hate what I did to you...tous. I was selfish and?”

She’s on the verge of tears, and I put a stop to it right then and there. “Cat, don’t do that to yourself. You weren’t selfish. You’re feeling guilty about what happened between us, but you shouldn’t feel guilty about pursuing what you love. You’re not selfish for following your dreams with relentless passion. Couples either grow together or they grow apart, but they have to give each other room to grow. That’s all that happened. When we were together, we were amazing, and when we burned, we burned bright...but then we burned out. There’s nothing to feel guilty about.”

Even though she’s not fully convinced, she gives a small nod. “I think?” She’s silenced by the sound of a buzzer. “What was that?”

“It’s sort of like a doorbell. It means someone’s in the elevator.” My eyebrows crease because I’m not expecting anyone. I walk to the elevator and press the button on the intercom. “Who is it?”

“It’s Dylan.”

“Shit!” I whisper. My eyes widen and I look over at Cat. “You need to hide.”

“Why? We can just say...we went for a run. That is what happened.”

“Cat, trust me, if Dylan sees you here, he’s gonna piece everything together, and then he’s gonna tell Isabella?”

That jolts her into motion, and she hops off the counter. “What should I do?”

“Just go down the hall and hide in the bathroom. I’ll try to get rid of him.”

I wait for her to disappear before letting Dylan in.

“Hey, Scott.”

“What’s up, Dyl?”

“Are you ready to go?”

My eyebrows crease in confusion. “Go where?”

“We’re gonna practice today.”

I groan inwardly, regretting for the hundredth time that I agreed to do this. “Sorry, Dyl. I totally forgot.”

“No worries. I figured you would. That’s why I got here early. Why don’t you have a shower, and we can go?”

“Uh...nah, I’m good.”

“You sure?” He’s picking up on the weird vibe because he raises skeptical eyebrows at me. “You look like you need a shower.”

“We’re gonna get sweaty again anyway, right? I’ll shower when I get back.”

The way he narrows his eyes at me lets me know that he knows something’s up. “Everything okay?”

“Couldn’t be better, Dyl. Listen, I’m just gonna take a leak and then we’ll go, alright?” I hurry down the corridor to the bathroom. “Cat,” I whisper, quietly shutting the door. “Listen, I gotta go do a thing with Dylan. It totally slipped my mind, but I can’t back out. You’ll be able to see his car from my bedroom window. Just wait for us to leave and then you can slip out.”

Her quiet giggle tells me she’s equally petrified and amused. “Feels like the good old days when you used to hide me from your friends.”

“Low blow,” I whisper, then just sort of linger there awkwardly. I don’t really want to leave because I don’t know when I’ll see her again. “I’ll see you...around.” Now it’s even more awkward because my natural instinct is to kiss her goodbye, and I can’t do that, so I settle on a weird pat on the shoulder. “Bye.”

“Bye.”

I slip out and head back to the kitchen area only to find Dylan holding up Cat’s sneakers and he has that usual shit-eating grin on his face. “Have your feet...shrunk, Scott?”

Fuck! He knows. He stares me down, challenging me with his eyes.

“I told you I was messing around with some cosplay.”

He smirks, but it’s not his usual playful smirk. Dylan only smirks like that when he’s trying to hide the anger rising within him. “I strongly advise you to stop messing around because if your‘cosplay’ends up ruining my wedding or hurting Bella, it’s gonna be me and you, Scott.”

---