Page 37 of One Lovely Lie

But I find none. All I find is Avery and Sebastian who agree to take the train with me back to Armory Prep. Away from the rave. Away from the noise. Away from the pain.

Away from Magnus.

Chapter 11

Magnus

It’s been a whole week since Daniel and I had our fight. A whole week of not speaking to each other. A whole week of avoiding each other. He won’t even fucking look at me. I really didn’t think some harmless flirting would cause all of this. All the guy at the rave wanted to do was buy my water, but I should’ve just said no. If I had known it would end up like this, I would have.

This hurts worse than I thought it would. I knew our time together would come to an end eventually, but I never thought it would sting like this, and it’s not even the sex. I can live without touching him, but I don’t think I can live like this without him.

I look up from my textbook and barely pay attention to my professor who’s up at the board trying to teach us about infinitives. Why the fuck should I care about math when Daniel hates me?

My eyes wander over to the windows that line the hallway of the math corridor. I almost turn back to my textbook for some more self-pitying, but my heart stops when I see him.

Daniel.

He’s just minding his own business, probably going to the bathroom, but he’s there. It’s the first I’ve seen of him in days and my stomach fills itself with these irritating fucking butterflies.

I take my eyes off him and look back down at my textbook.

Fuck it.

“Mr. Black—”

But I’m already out the door, ignoring my professor, and marching after Daniel. I see him enter the bathroom ahead of me and I don’t even hesitate. When I push through the door, he’s taking a leak, but I have no sense of boundaries right now.

“Okay, enough of this,” I snap. “We need to talk.”

Daniel jumps a bit, cursing when his stream misses the urinal. He grits his teeth, not looking at me and continuing his business. “We have nothing to talk about.”

I run my hands through my hair and grip my roots painfully. “Look, I can’t go on like this. I can’t stand the thought of you being mad at me. I miss you, baby.”

“You don’t need to call me baby anymore,” he snorts coldly, finishing and zipping up his pants. “We’re not having sex anymore, remember?”

“I know. It just…” It slipped out. It felt right. It shows how much I need you. “What can I do to make this okay?”

He shakes his head and goes to wash his hands, angrily scrubbing at his skin and under his nails. “I don’t want to keep messing around. I can’t handle it.”

“So you said,” I press, inching closer to him. “Can you tell me why?”

“It’ll ruin everything.”

“It already feels like everything is ruined. How much worse can it be?”

Not worse than this. Nothing can be worse than feeling this way without him. I can handle anything that Daniel throws at me. If he suddenly killed someone tomorrow, I’d bring out the shovel and ask him where to dig. If he jumped off a cliff and asked me to come with him, I’d spring off the damn thing without a second thought.

He braces both hands on the sink and sighs heavily. His shoulders are high and tight and his body is trembling slightly. “Mag. If…if I tell you this and you react badly…there’s no coming back for us.”

“You can tell me anything,” I whisper and I give in and come up behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist. I breathe him in because fuck, I missed this. “I promise you nothing would keep me from you.”

He grabs on to my wrist and his voice is choked as he speaks. “You can’t say stuff like that.”

“Why not?” I argue. “It’s true.”

“Stop it.”

“I’d do anything for you, Daniel. Just tell me what you need and I’ll do it.”

---