Page 47 of A Vicious Rumor

I sighed. "I've just got a lot on my plate right now, Lily," I said. "I don't know. I feel bad, but maybe this entire thing is a mistake."

She looked up from her feet and her blue eyes bore right into me. "It can't currently be a mistake. It's already happened, Tyson. You can't take it away from either of us."

I winced. "I know. I guess what I'm saying then, is that it was a mistake."

"No," she said, tugging off my tee shirt and pulling on her own clothes. "What you're saying is that I was a mistake."

I squeezed my eyes shut to stop myself from crying. The truth of the matter was that the only thing that I actually thought went right in my life was reconnecting with Lily this summer. She didn't know why I'd looked for her. She didn't know what her bead had meant to me for all those years. She was more than right. She was my everything.

But, it's also why I knew I had to let her go. It wasn't fair to drag her into my drama. My father was a wreck, our family business was failing, and I was currently a drug mule. Seriously, the worst thing that could ever happen to her was to fall in love with a guy like me. She deserved so much better.

"Yeah," I forced myself to say. "I guess I am saying that."

"You're a real jerk, Tyson Stone," she said, walking past me and flinging my door open.

I shrugged. "Let me at least give you a ride home," I said.

She didn't respond. She just walked through the house and out the front door. It was impossible that my father didn't hear what was going on, but I just think he was past caring.

"Come on, Lily," I said. "I want to know you get home safe," I called after her, following her outside.

"Please don't act like you care, Tyson," she said. "It just makes it harder." She walked down the driveway and sat on the curb. I watched her put her phone to her ear, wipe her face with the backside of her hand, and then stuff her phone back into her purse.

I sat down on the steps leading up to the house and just waited there. It was an odd and opposite recreation of the way we'd met this summer. That time, she'd been facing me. This time, she was facing away from me.

Within twenty minutes, a rather run down looking Chrysler Town Car showed up. It was obviously her mother. I could see the woman glaring at me as she waited for Lily to get into the car. She was right to be upset. On the surface, what I was doing to her daughter was horrible. She didn't understand that I was doing it because of how much I cared for her, and she probably never would.

I was okay with that.

I was okay with being hated.

I was okay with being the enemy.

I was used to it by now, anyway.

The pair drove off, and I made my way back into the house. My father came out of his office just as I was about to head back up to my room. I was able to get a good look at him now, and I could see that his pupils were dilated. He was more than just tired. He was high.

"What the fuck, man?" I spat at him. "Grandpa's business is failing and you come back from your business trip high off your ass?"

My father put his finger up and shook it pathetically. "Don't lecture me. I'm your father."

"You're a loser," I said as I continued to make my way up the stairs.

"Get the hell out of the house," he said. "Go back to your mother's."

"I'm not going back there," I said.

"You're not allowed back here until the start of the school year."

I gave him an irritated look. "That's next week, old man."

"Then one more week at your mothers."

I rolled my eyes. "Fuck you. You can't tell me what to do. You can't even take care of yourself."

"You'll do what I say!" he screamed at me.

I turned to face him, puffing up my chest. "Oh, yeah? Or what? What are you going to do to me?"

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