Page 6 of Lost Love

No, this wasn’t happening. This wasn’t fucking happening in my fucked-up existence.

“You fuckingasshole!”I leaned over Lourde, grabbing Barrett by the shirt.

Pushing past Lourde, I shoved him against the wall, but he didn’t fight me back.

“Stop, please, Connor,” Lourde pleaded.

“You can fucking hit me, but you won’t stop me from seeing her,” he said calm as fuck, and it only pissed me off more.

My hand smashed into the wall next to his head, but again, he didn’t flinch.

“You can smash my face up, but she means everything to me, Connor.”

Unblinking, he stared back at me. My chest rose and fell sharply as my arm swooped back, ready to strike. Lourde pleaded and said something I couldn’t comprehend with the amount of rage building inside of me.

“Fuck you!” I slammed my fist into the wall, this time breaking through the drywall.

“Do it. I’m a piece of shit anyway. I don’t deserve your sister.”

The way he looked at her made me think twice. Did he actually have feelings for her?

I gripped my hand with the other, the pain radiating up my forearm with blood trailing from a cut. Unfortunately, it did nothing to deter the betrayal I felt.

The door swung open. Ari and Magnus looked from him to me, then at the hole in the wall next to Barrett’s head.

“Are you all right, Connor?” Ari asked.

“So you all knew too?” I asked, taking the cloth that Lourde passed me to quell the blood dripping from the cuts on my hand.

“I didn’t know for sure until I saw them tonight,” Magnus said.

“I knew, man, but it wasn’t up to me to tell you,” Ari admitted, stepping between Barrett and me.

“Is everything all right in here?” Grace asked, taking in the hole in the wall and a shivering Lourde.Shit, what have I done to my sister?

Barrett must have noticed her shivering, too, because the next thing I knew, he had moved behind her, wrapping his arms around her.

My jaw ticked with fury, but I remained still. “I’m fucking livid,” I said, exasperated. My body vibrated with unreleased tension, and I couldn’t stop myself. “No, you know what? I’m fucking furious. How dare you?”

“I’m sorry, Connor. We were going to tell you tomorrow,” Lourde said in an anxiety-laden voice.

“He’s no good for you, Lourde,” I spat out, and Barrett gripped her tighter in response.

“Fuck this,” I said. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing and seeing. You’re eight years younger than him, Lourde.”

“I think we all should just go home, regroup with level heads, and talk about it when we have all calmed down,” Magnus said, and maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea because I didn’t trust myself not to throw a punch at my so-called best friend and follow it with another.

“First the shitstorm with work, and now this? Lourde, seriously…”

“I told you, I’m sorry,” Lourde said, stepping out of Barrett’s firm grip and toward me.

I saw the pain in her eyes, but it was too much to take. I was fucking angry, and there wasn’t a damn thing anyone could do to fix this.

I threw my hands up. “I’m out… and you, Barrett…” I shook my head, my jaw set, glaring at them one last time before turning on my heel toward the door.

“Lourde just happened, Connor,” Barrett confessed.

I craned my neck, throwing him a piercing I-don’t-give-a-fuck stare, then walked out.

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