Page 93 of The Vengeance You Crave
He rolls his eyes at me and I step around him.
"What the hell are you guys doing here?" Letty snaps the second I'm in front of her.
Lifting my hand, I push my hair back before wrapping it around the nape of my neck.
"It's Colt's birthday. This place is his favorite. I had no fucking clue you'd be here with her."
"She's got a name," Letty hisses.
"Fucking hell." I glance up at the ceiling, hoping I can find some strength.
"Firstly, you need to stay the hell away from her." I wipe any kind of expression off my face as I stare at her.
"I'm not a fucking moron, Letty." Her brow lifts in question. "You have no idea what went down between us. But it's nice to see you're already choosing sides."
"I'm not choosing anything, Luc. And that's rich seeing as you were the one who turned your back on me not so long ago. I have every right to be pissed at you for that alone without even mentioning what you've done to her."
"She's got a name," I quip, earning me a growl. "What was the second thing?" I ask, remembering she made her first point.
"Does Kane know you're all on a team night out without him?"
I shrug. "I don't want to be here. You think I was party to the fucking guest list?"
"Whatever. You hurt her again, and I'm coming for you."
I can't help but laugh at her serious face.
"Luca, this isn't funny. What you're doing right now isn't all that different from how Kane's treated me in the past, and you remember how you reacted to that? Well, you hurting her does the same to me. Prove to me that she's done something wrong. Prove to me that I shouldn't believe she's anything but innocent in whatever this thing is between the two of you and I'll walk away. But until you can do that, me, Ella, hell anyone who wants to be, are going to be her friend and support her. You might think you've got it hard right now, try being in her fucking shoes."
Her lips part like she wants to add to her ass ripping but she changes her mind, instead just shakes her head once before walking away from me and returning to her seat.
Whatever she says to Peyton causes a reaction because she looks up directly at me. My entire body jolts at the sadness in her eyes as if I've just taken a fucking bullet.
After long, agonizing seconds, she drops her gaze once more and continues poking around at the food on her plate with her fork.
Not wanting to cause drama by walking out, I return to my seat.
Until I've made a solid decision about my future, I need the guys to think everything is relatively okay.
"All good?"
"Letty's on team Peyton," I whisper to Leon.
"Fucking hell, bro. There are no teams here. We're all here for both of you and just want you to sort this shit out."
I nod at him, not believing a word of it.
I know how they really feel, I can see it in their eyes. Despite not knowing anything about what happened, they all believe her. They just think I'm an asshole with a grudge that I can't get past.
Maybe I have. I don't fucking know anything right now. Maybe I have been wrong all this time and the vengeance I've so desperately craved for five years was built on nothing but my own distrust and misplaced loyalty.
"Fuck," I bark, turning all eyes on me.
Not wanting to go into it, I grab a menu and stare down at it, although all the words swirl around the page in front of me.
Sitting with her in my eye line is torture.
Half of me wants to go over and try to talk to her, but the other half still wants to hurt her for all the pain she caused me, although I can't deny that that side isn't shrinking faster than I can cope with as I watch all the people I care about quickly becoming her friend.
