Page 14 of Her Defiant Heart (Damaged Hearts 1)

She belongs to me. She’s my mother.

“I’ll probably always be a risk to you,” I tell him, using my knife and fork to cut into my waffles. Anger surges inside of me, reminding me that I’m pretty freaking hungry after all, and I’ve barely touched my plate. I happily shovel a forkful of waffles into my mouth, nearly moaning with pleasure at the taste.

“You’re saying that we’ll never get close.” His voice is flat. Did I upset him? I suddenly don’t care if I did.

I shrug. “Take it as you will.”

“I’m taking what you said as a challenge.” I lift my head up, my guilty gaze meeting his. “And I love a challenge. You’ll find this out about me, I promise.”

Great, he’s determined. I shouldn’t be surprised. This is exactly what I wanted. For Rhett to chase after me.

“I need more bacon,” I tell him, shoving some in my mouth while he laughs at me.

That’s okay. He can think I’m joking.

After all, I’ll get the last laugh.

I’m one of those weird millennials who doesn’t like social media much, except when using it for stalking purposes. And fine, on occasion, I like Instagram. But I mean, let’s be real—pretty much everyone in my age group is addicted to social media. The reason? They

don’t know how to live their life without it. Think about it. If someone took the Internet away, or their phones away, and threw them in a dumpster fire, or if the President of the United States banned all social media for life, I’m sure a ton of people in their early to late twenties would up and die. Just flat out not exist any longer.

I’m sure there would be a ton of people of all ages who would freak out and rather die than live without social media and/or their phones. That’s how dependent our society has become.

I was raised differently. I know, I know I sound like that typical girl who’s all, “But I’m soooo different. Not like other people at all. I’m special.” Like I just mentally accused Rhett of acting on our brunch date.

But when you grow up broke, when you don’t have much food to eat in the fridge, cell phones and the Internet are a total luxury, one I never had until I was sixteen, the summer before my junior year. That’s when I got my first crappy little phone with its crappy little plan, and I was so damn happy I thought I would burst. I believed my new phone would become my new best friend. The connection to a whole other world I was always seeking, yet somehow never realized it until now.

Then I discovered what a time suck my phone became and that it’s really hard to function on social media when you’re not very social.

As in, I didn’t have a lot of friends. I still don’t. Friends are hard to come by. I have one I can count on, but I don’t talk to her that much. I’m too busy planning my revenge. She’s busy living her actual life. We have different priorities right now.

Ha ha, I’m so funny, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, I have all the accounts I should. Facebook (never use it). Twitter (don’t understand it, don’t want to understand it), Instagram (my favorite), Tumblr (used to be my favorite, now I don’t know what to do with it), Pinterest (biggest time suck in all the land) and Snapchat (half the time I don’t know what I’m doing).

But you see, I don’t want to share my life with anyone else, especially virtual strangers. No one cares that much about my pitiful life, am I right?

I was shocked to see Rhett followed me on Instagram the afternoon of our brunch date, and that he added me on Snapchat that night. I followed him back on IG, scrolling through his feed and immediately getting bored.

I’ve already scrolled through his feed before. Countless times. He has a public profile, which made it easier for me to stalk him. He shows off on IG, how great his life is, where he travels, all his friends, all the girls. We get it, your life is perfection.

I couldn’t add him on Snapchat before we started talking, though, since it tells you every person who adds you and I couldn’t risk it. I didn’t want him to think I was some stalker set out to get his fine ass, like every other girl on campus who lusts after him.

But when he added me a couple of days ago, I went ahead and added him right back. Not that I could see much. Snapchat allows you to post on your story, and some people do it excessively, but not Rhett. There were no stories from him to look at, and he hadn’t even snapped me back after I added him, for whatever reason, I don’t know.

I’m not the kind to make the first approach, but in this moment, I decided to hell with it, and I sent him a snap. A selfie of me, making a face, my tongue sticking out. Below my face, I typed, what are you up to? and then sent it.

Rhett immediately snaps me back, a selfie of him and the words. Not much. How bout u?

I decide to tell him the truth, something I’m not used to.

Bored.

He takes the conversation to chat. Same. Though I should be doing homework.

I should be too. One thing I shouldn’t be doing is talking with him. Or…

Maybe I should. I keep automatically throwing up these walls, mentally listing all the reasons why I shouldn’t talk to him or see him or spend time with him. When that’s exactly what I should be doing—spending time with him. How else am I going to get closer to Rhett?

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