Page 71 of Light My Fire Three Times
He doesn’t back down. “You think you’re better than me? You think you’re the guy who gets to fix her, Karl? Newsflash, you’re not. You’re not her knight in shining armor. You’re just… convenient.”
The words hit hard, but I don’t show it. Can’t. “Convenient? Is that what you call what you did? Crawling into her bed when she’s broken?”
His face darkens. “Don’t you dare make this about that. You don’t know what she wanted. You weren’t there.”
I lunge before I can stop myself. My fist bunches in the front of his jacket, slamming him against the wall so hard the coffee cups rattle on the counter. His breath whooshes out, but I don’t care. All I see is red.
“She’s not a game, Leo. Not a notch on your belt. You don’t get to screw with her life because you’re bored.”
He glares at me, eyes burning, and then he does the one thing that makes me lose it completely. “You didn’t want her. I do.”
I don’t even think. My fist connects with his jaw so hard it echoes in the damn room. He stumbles, grabs the edge of the counter to keep from falling, blood already slicking his lip.
“Jeez, Karl….” He spits red onto the floor and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “You really want to do this? Over her?”
“Over her?” I’m shaking, hands curling into fists again. “Don’t you ever say it like that. Not about Olivia.”
There’s a slight sound behind us. Soft. Barely there. But it freezes me in place.
I turn.
Olivia’s awake.
She’s sitting up on the couch, blanket sliding off her shoulders, eyes wide and glassy. She looks between us, at me, at Leo, and the confusion on her face is a knife to the gut.
“What… what’s going on?”
Her voice slices through me, quiet but loaded, and suddenly I wish I’d kept my damn mouth shut ten minutes ago. Leo straightens, wiping the blood from his lip, but I see the flicker of something in his eyes. Guilt. Or maybe pride. I can’t tell, and it makes me want to hit him again.
“Liv,” I start, moving toward her, but she flinches back as if I’ve just grown fangs. That hurts worse than the punch I just threw.
“You…” Her gaze ricochets between us, trying to piece it together. The bruised jaw. The look on my face. “You were fighting. Because of me?”
Neither of us answers. That’s an answer enough.
Her face crumples.
“Oh damn, my life here is chaos,” she whispers.
Then she’s up, blanket hitting the floor in a heap, her socked feet silent on the hardwood as she storms down the hall.
“Olivia…”
I take a step, but the slam of her bedroom door cuts me off so hard it’s a gunshot.
The silence after is deafening. Just the fire popping, the clock ticking, and my heart pounding loud as a war drum in my chest.
I turn back to Leo, every muscle in my body screaming for round two, but he’s already grabbing his jacket, his movements clipped and jerky.
“You should thank me,” he mutters, dripping with something I can’t even name. “At least now you know what you are to her.”
My jaw locks so tight it’s a miracle my teeth don’t crack. “Fuck off, Leo.”
He hesitates, but then he just shakes his head, scoffs under his breath, and heads for the door.
The lock clicks behind him, and I’m left standing in a living room that suddenly feels too small, too quiet, too full of everything I don’t want to admit.
I drag a hand over my face and sink on the couch where she sat minutes ago, the blanket still warm from her. I stare at the hallway as if, if I do it long enough, she’ll come back out.
