Page 89 of You Started It

“No.” Axel remains still, his voice shaky. “We’re just hanging out.”

“Out of all the people you could hang out with, you choose Olivia?” I study him, trying to read his face as he rubs the back of his neck. “You did it to get me to react. Admit it.”

“I wanted to find out the truth, for you. But yeah.” He sighs, his shoulders slumped. “I guess I kept hanging out with her because I thought you were back with Ben and I wanted to…”

“Hurt me.” I finish the sentence for him. “Did you tell her the truth about us?”

“What truth?” Ben asks, stepping closer.

Axel gives me a pleading look but I ignore it. “Axel and I faked our entire relationship,” I say, a forced laugh coming out. “All of it. I needed someone to help me get you back and Axel had his own reasons for playing along. None of it was real.”

Ben shakes his head in validation. “I knew you could never go for a guy like him.”

Olivia’s mouth falls open. “Axel didn’t tell me that.”

“No.” Axel looks me square in the eye, ignoring the others. “It may have started that way, but it was real. You can’t deny that.” He swallows before taking a cautious step toward me. “Can we talk? Alone?”

“I wanted to talk to you earlier tonight, but clearly I wasn’t worth your time. You had better places to be. I feel so stupid.”

“I should get going,” Olivia says, walking back to her car. She looks at Ben once more before getting in and driving away. Ben comes up to me but I put my hand out to stop him.

“I can’t right now,” I say. “You need to go home.”

His shoulders lower in defeat and he sighs dramatically before walking past me on his way to his house.

And then there were two.

“I’m sorry, Jamie. I misread the situation. I reacted emotionally.” Axel covers his face with both hands like he’s masking a scream. He takes in a deep breath and looks at me. “You stopped talking to me. And then I thought you were with Ben. I admit that I tried to make you jealous. It was dumb. But I never said a bad word about you to Olivia. I was just hurt.”

“Hurt people hurt people,” I say quietly, almost to myself.

“You have to believe that the only reason I sent Olivia that DM was to get the truth. For you. For us.”

“There is no us.” I shut my eyes and take in a deep breath before releasing it. “It’s gotten too messy. We’ve both said and done things we regret, things we can’t take back. It’s probably best we just cut ties.” When Axel doesn’t respond, I say the first thing that comes to mind. “Do you still have the contract I gave you at Kit’s?”

“It’s in my room.”

“Could you please go and get it?” I ask, struggling to maintain eye contact. He nods and heads inside his house. I walk back to Ben’s, get in my car, and drive it to Axel’s. I park in front of his home. The exact same spot I ran over his bike on the night we met.

Axel returns with the contract in hand. I grab a pen from my glove compartment and meet Axel at the front of my car. “You received the money for Betty White?”

He nods as I check that item off the list.

“I helped you film multiple TikToks and I lived up to playing the role of supportive Arab girlfriend, even attending your cousin’s wedding.”

“You did.”

More checks.

“And I helped you get a job with Eli. The only part of this contract I didn’t completely live up to was providing you with rides to school until Christmas break, but I think you can understand the circumstances behind me being unable to fulfil that.”

Axel exhales. His lips part but I speak before he can.

“As for you,” I continue, “you have lived up to all the terms and agreements on your end of the contract…and then some.” I place the contract on the hood of my car and hand the pen to Axel, pointing to the line that has been left unsigned for nearly three months. “Please sign here.”

He takes the pen but hesitates. “What about item number four? The bucket list. We were supposed to go to those places together,” he says, with what appears to be hope in his eyes.

“I will no longer be needing your company.” I point my chin to the contract, keeping my tough exterior as Axel’s vulnerability is on full display. He nods before finally signing the contract. Once he does, I pick it up and tear it in half.

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