Page 80 of You Started It

“Olivia rolls her eyes. A lot. Especially when she’s trying to hide something.” Ben shifts closer to me, his left arm leaning on the center console. “I think Olivia and Axel are messing around behind our backs. In fact, I accused her of it.”

“No.” I shake my head. “Definitely not.”

“Why else would she erase the messages?”

“Lots of reasons. It actually would have been weirder for her to keep them,” I say. “There’s no way Axel and Olivia were hooking up. All his free time was spent with me.”

“Then why aren’t you two together anymore?” Ben asks, a sharp edge to his voice. He hates being told he’s wrong. He hatesbeingwrong.

“It’s complicated. But it has nothing to do with Olivia.” Both our phones ding and we immediately pick them up. “New message from the social committee,” I say.

Ben nods and opens the message. I freeze, completely confused at how I ended up here. With Ben. In my car. On his driveway.

“They’ve announced the location for the winter formal,” he says. “The CN Tower. December 19.”

“Well, that just solidifies the fact that I will not be going to the formal,” I say, facing forward.

“Why not?” Ben asks. “I mean, we’re both single now.” He traces a finger along the top of my hand. “It’s not too late to meet the goal we’d set. We can go together, make an appearance, and then…disappear. Like we’d planned all along.”

Ben’s touch is a sharp pang to my skin. He wants to forget everything we’ve been through. Pretend the last two months (and then some) haven’t happened. He wants to be my date to the winter formal. He wants to…He couldn’t possibly be that dense.

He continues to drag his finger along my skin while I sit still. Processing.

I have Ben where I want him. My father is just a phone call away. Axel is out of my life.

All things I wanted.

Some of them were goals I had been working toward.

And none of it feels right.

It’s all hollow. Fancy packaging but nothing on the inside.

“I know you’re afraid, Jamie, but I’ll be there. I’ll hold your hand on the ride up.”

“Sorry?” I ask, turning to face him again.

“Your claustrophobia,” he says. “The elevator. It won’t be so bad if I’m there with you. I promise.” His eyes are kind. His grip on my hand firm but caring.

He actually remembered.

“Sure,” I say, nodding along. “We can go together.” The words slip out of my mouth before I can stop them.

“And then we’ll come back here?” he says, leaning in slightly.

I pull away, not ready to feel his lips on mine again. “Just because I agreed to go as your date to the formal doesn’t mean we’re back together. And it doesn’t…well it definitely doesn’t mean the other thing.”

“I get it. You need time.”

I need peace.

Maybe in seven weeks, I will have come around to the idea of me and Ben again. After all, he was my endgame. Or was supposed to be. I just need to get Axel out of my system first. It shouldn’t take too long. Studies say it takes about half the time you were with a person to get over them, which means a month from now I’ll likely have forgotten all about Axel Dahini.

His existence will be nothing more than a glitch in the timeline of my life when I look back ten years from now.

He’ll just be some boy I used to know.

CHAPTER TWENTY

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