Page 64 of Pinky Promises

Chapter 26

Callum

“Brynn,”IshoutasI chase after her out the front door of my father's house.

I can’t believe this is happening right now. I don’t know which is worse—the fact that my father chosenowto make this absurd false announcement or that I actually believed him. I fucking fell for his lies. All he ever does is fucking think of himself, not his actions and how they might affect others. I hadn’t even had a chance to explain things to Brynn before the world as we knew it shook.

By the time I had finally caught on that something was happening, it was too late. I found Brynn in the crowd and tried to warn her with my gaze, but it should have been my words warning. The first tear fell as I felt Blair’s lips on my cheek. Brynn spun around and bolted from the room as I pushed Blair off and chased after her.

“Damnit, Brynn, just stop.”

She finally stops but doesn’t turn around. Her shoulders rise and fall rapidly, matching her heavy breathing. I can hear the harsh exhale from where I stand. There may not be a large amount of space between us, but it feels like she is lifetimes away.

“Why? So you can spit more of your lies? How long?” She chokes out the words.

“How long, what?” I don’t understand her question.

“How long have you known of this arrangement? Is that why your father came to see you?”

A painful tightness in my throat keeps words from slipping free, so I just nod.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Brynn presses her hand against her breastbone as her chin trembles. “Why did you wait for me to find out like this?”

“You don’t understand. I told him no, and tonight, I believed him when he said he would find another way.”

“For once, you can not place all of the blame on your father. For once, you need to…” She trails off. “You know what—save it. I don’t want you to lie to me again. You said we wouldn’t change, but the Callum that I know wouldn’t have lied.”

I open my mouth to counter that I didn’t lie. When Brynn asked, I was okay at that exact moment because I was with her. Brynn has always grounded me.

She holds her hand up to keep me from talking. “Lying by omission is still lying.” This girl can read me like a book. “This is what I was afraid of, why I didn’t want to cross the line with you. You’ve brought every fear I had when it comes to us a reality. You pinky promised that things wouldn’t change between us. But the old you would have come home and told me. I’m not mad at you because of the arrangement. I’m mad at you because you kept this from me.”

Why didn’t I tell her? All of this could have been avoided if I had just told her from the start and she knew that I had turned him down. If I had come clean from the beginning, it wouldn’t have mattered that my father manipulated me tonight to believe him because she would’ve known about it all along.

This is my fault.

I ignore the footsteps behind us that I assume belong to Asher, Hadley, Ben, and Lexi. At least the rest of the guests have remained inside. No one realizes the damage my father has just caused.

The more steps I take toward her, the more she backs up away from me. I can’t let her slip through my fingers.

“Brynn, I lo—”

She cuts me off by quickly closing the distance and poking me hard in the chest.

“Don’t you dare fucking say it.” She grips a fistful of my dress shirt as she verbalizes her betrayal in a strangled tone. “Don’t say those words.”

We’ve said those three words to each other almost every day for years. I do love her—she’s my best friend and my other half. But at some point, in all this craziness, my love for her transitioned from friendship to more. She went from being my other half to my better half. She might not let me express those words, but I could never take them back. She is ingrained in my DNA, forever a part of me, and my love for her will stand true till the day I die.

She releases my shirt and begins to back away. “Just leave me alone, Cal. Don’t bother coming home.” As much as witnessing the tears flowing from her eyes and knowing that I was the reason for that, it’s the bitterness in her tone as she calls me Cal that genuinely breaks my heart. She rarely calls me Cal and never in that way. It feels like a slap right to the face.

I freeze as I watch her walk away without a second glance. The constricting vise wrapped around my heart threatens to take me six feet under. And I might just welcome that because a day without Brynn Macallister by my side is a day not worth living.

“Brynn, wait up. We’re coming with you.” The girls are first to catch up with her and wrap her coat around her shoulders.

I run my hand through my hair, unsure what to do next, and spin to find Ben and Asher standing there, faces void of emotion, uncertain about what to say. Fuck, I don’t know what to say either.

“Ben,” Lexi shouts from where the cars are.

He shrugs an apology before heading in that same direction.

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