Page 70 of The Catalyst

“I can handle this. Your comments aren’t necessary.” I turn back to Judy as Ollie sits back down in a chair. “Just calm down. There’s no need to get all worked up.”

“Worked up?!” she explodes, her eyes wide with horror. “You’re cheating on Nigel withhim! How could you do this? You and Nigel were good. Why would you screw it up? I don’t fucking get it!”

“Nigel and I haveneverbeen good–”

“Bullshit! You guys were happy before he–”

I can’t take it anymore. “He’s fucking screwing around on me, okay!” The words come out louder than I intended, but the message is clear, practically written across her face.

“He…what?”

“Everyone fucking knows it. Ro knows it. Charlie knows it. Hell, even Oisin does. There’s no friend out of town he’s helping out. Nigel doesn’t have any fucking friends outside of Grove Hill. He’s off fucking someone else and thinks if he says he’s helping out a friend, that will keep suspicion off of him, but that’s the truth. He screwed around on me before Ollie and I started hooking up, but that’s not even the worst thing he has done to me. Nigel is an absolute prick and I’m only with him because he won’t fucking let me go. You think we’re happy because I pretend everything is okay when it’s far from it. It’s fucked up and toxic and I don’t want to be with him…I never really did. He’s obsessed with me, not the other way around.”

Judy’s expression shifts throughout my entire tangent, taking in everything I said, until she looks like she might cry.

Okay, so maybe it all wasn’t completely true. Nigel hasn’t been a prick since the night he hurt me, but I have the voice in the back of my head just waiting for him to do it again. I told him I wouldn’t say anything as long as he behaved and he has. Until he decided to run off to screw other women.

I don’t care that he’s cheating because I have Ollie.

“I’m sorry,” Judy mutters. “I didn’t know.” She wraps her arms around me, sadness permeating her aura like poison.

“You’re fine. Just…go explore the carnival, okay?” I may have come here with Shanti and Judy, but I’d rather do whatever Ollie has planned. I don’t know what it is, but I bet it will be magnificent. Plus, I think Judy needs time to collect herself.

Something about the information I just dumped on her has her emotionally raw. I don’t know why and I doubt she’ll ever tell me.

* * *

Ollie pullsme behind him as we leave the tent together. My fingers squeeze his own, hoping I don’t lose him with how fast he is moving. Maybe he’s not moving fast and it’s just that my legs are way shorter than his. I’m not short, but he is a freaking beast.

He pulls me around a few attractions and I start to wonder. “Where are we going?” I ask, but he doesn’t give me an answer.

Rude.

We move around another structure until I see the ferris wheel. First, the house of mirrors, then the magic show tent, and now the ferris wheel. What else could he have on his list of things to do before the cops come to break this up?

We walk over and Shanti steps out of the shadows. Oh, just great. Am I going to have to go through another fit with her about Ollie and like I did with Judy?

“Evening, Oliver,” she mutters before flashing him a grin.

My gaze jumps between Shanti and Ollie and I have to wonder if they were in cahoots. Did Ollie set this entire trip up? If he did, he should’ve excluded Judy completely. We could’ve avoided the stress of her freak out.

She lifts up the controller for the ferris wheel and clicks a button. Then, the gate to the ferris wheel opens and Ollie leads me in before he fist bumps Shanti.

Definitely in cahoots.

“Let me know when you want to come back down.” Shanti does a little finger wave before she closes the door.

The bench is open with only a bar separating us from falling to our deaths.

Would this be the right time to mention that I’m scared of heights?

The bench moves slowly until we’re up in the air and I am clutching the seat below me. Yup, this was a bad idea.

Out of nowhere, Ollie unlatches the fucking bar and pushes it over our heads before the psycho grabs me, dragging me over his lap to straddle him.

Sure, the seat tilts back from our combined weight, but this is crazy dangerous.

In fear, I cling to him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “I swear, if I fall to my death, I will come back as a ghost and make your life a living hell.”

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