Page 91 of Storm Bound
“Benji, my darling, I love you, but you need to stay out of this,” she said.
Then she pushed me into the room and closed the doors behind her.
I was confused and a little bit shocked. Yaya was never aggressive like that. What had gotten into her? Was the pain so bad that she’d turned nasty?
“Right, you two bubbleheads need to talk. And no one’s going anywhere until you do!” she said.
“But Yaya, your heart—” I started.
Yaya raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips.
“I see you took after your father’s brains. Or lack thereof. Which is why I needed to interfere yet again. My heart’s fine. Yours on the other hand…” she looked from me to Adam, then back to me. “Talk. Now.”
I should have been surprised. I should have been shocked. Hurt. Or downright angry. But I was just frozen.
All this to get me in the same room with Adam? I didn’t want to be in the same room with him ever again. What was there left to say, anyway? Nothing. He’d lied. That was it. The end.
“Do I have to do the talking for you, too? Help an old helpless woman out,” she sighed.
“Yaya, you’re anything but helpless, and we all know that,” I said.
She shook her head and turned to Adam.
“You! Explain yourself. Is Justin your boyfriend or not?” she said.
“Of course he is. He admitted it,” I said.
“Shhhh!” Yaya raised a hand in the air and took hold of my lips, sealing them shut. “Talk,” she aimed at Adam.
Adam flinched, and his eyes tightened. But a click of the fingers from Yaya and he jumped to action.
“It-it’s complicated,” he said.
I huffed. Of course he would say that. It was always complicated with people like him, wasn’t it?
“So why don’t youuncomplicate it?” Yaya suggested.
I wanted to tell her not to bother. To drop it. But my lips were still sealed shut.
“Justin… he was… I don’t know… I met him five years ago. And I fell in love with him. But he was always… gone. He’d turn up a day, gone the next, no messages, no calls. Sometimes he’d be gone days at a time. Weeks. Months. But I was in love with him, so I thought that was what I had to put up to be with him. I thought it was his way of testing me.”
Agh! I really didn’t need to know how he fell in love with another guy. I didn’t need my heart in any more pieces than it already was. Why was Yaya forcing me to hear this?
“And then he moved in with me. He didn’t really ask. He just showed up one day with his suitcases and told me he was ready to take our relationship to the next level.”
This guy sounded like the biggest dick bag in the whole wide world. What on earth did Adam see in him? I mean, I knew he liked being submissive, but this guy sounded like a disrespectful a-hole.
“I was happy at the time. I thought finally I passed his test. It was only after he moved in that I realized what a manipulative piece of shit he was. Things didn’t change. It just meant more shit happened in my house. He’d leave for days at a time, bring a party home late at night…” He looked at Yaya and hesitated for a moment. “Sleep with other guys on my couch. It was just non-stop. And I didn’t even know how to stop it. Every time I tried, he’d either pretend he didn’t listen, change the subject, or turn on me, taking advantage of my… you know,” he said pointedly, raising his eyebrows.
Taking advantage of his submissive nature. What a cunt! How could anyone be like that?
“I tried changing the locks, but he had them changed back. Heck, my mom even called his mom to put him in his place, but honestly, he just won’t stay out of my life. I realize how pathetic I sound…”
“You don’t sound pathetic,” I said before I knew what I was doing.
Was I really going to defend him now? Was I going to believe him? It seemed as if my heart had already decided without consulting my mind. I was so annoyed with myself for even feeling sorry for him.
But what he was describing sounded just as terrible as I felt. It wasn’t his fault. He wasn’t the pathetic one. It was Justin. People like that knew how to manipulate, to take advantage, to twist everything to their benefit.
