Page 130 of Between the Blue
“Why are you trying so hard to push me away?”
“I’m doing the opposite of that, Cherry.” He stands up, walking past me to grab his water bottle from the floor now. “I’m never allowing you to get close to begin with.”
A humorless laugh bursts out of me. “I’m sorry,” I say, pointing a finger at the bed behind me, “what the hell is your definition of close if it’s not how we were last night?”
Ben shakes his head. “That was…”
“If you say ‘a mistake’, I’m going to lose it.”
He meets my eyes, blowing a breath out of his nose. “Different.”
“Different,” I repeat.
He nods.
“Different how?” I demand.
Ben’s throat bobs and he lets his gaze fall to the floor. “Cherry, it was just se–”
I storm forward, grabbing his chin and forcing it upwards. “No,” I cut him off. “Because if you’re about to blatantly lie and tell me that was just sex, you’re gonna look me in the eye when you do it.”
A muscle in Ben’s jaw flexes, and he pulls his face out of my grasp. He tries to turn away, hiding his wince, but I still catch it. “I told you anything that happens between us can’t mean anything.”
“Yeah, well, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t.”
Ben’s lips press into a firm line. I take a step closer to him, and even though his body remains stoic, his eyes betray him, and I know he’s holding something back from me.
“What was your nightmare about, Ben?”
He shakes his head, slowly, and then more forcefully.
“Please, just talk to me.” I reach out for him. “Let me in.”
The moment my skin comes into contact with his, he jerks back from me.
He walks backwards, opening the door behind him. “I have to go,” he mutters, giving me one last look that I can’t decipher before slipping out the door and closing it behind him.
I run both of my hands through my hair, spinning around and blowing out a heavy, exasperated breath, letting my eyes fall shut.
When I open them again, I notice two things.
The first rays of sun trying to push through the window curtains and the clock on the bedside table reading 5:46 a.m.
It seems our internal clocks knew perfectly when to wake Ben and me up. And when to remind us that we aren’t meant to be like this.
I guess the sun really does always have to rise.
The game that afternoon was terrible.
Specifically, Ben was terrible.
He was so completely off his game that even I could tell.
The same thing happened at the team’s next game the following Tuesday.
And once again at this home game tonight.
Over the course of the Storm’s last three games, four separate fights and nearly a half hour’s worth of penalty minutes are all Ben has contributed.
