Page 82 of Surviving Lies

Not just any knock – a hard, let-me-in kind of pounding on the door.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Gage growled as he pulled his mouth away from me. First, he looked up at me, then toward the door.

“Are you expecting anyone?” I asked, though not entirely upset by the interruption. My mind wasn’t allowing me to connect with him the way I wanted to.

“No!”he yelled, obviously frustrated. “Stay here and don’t move.” His heavy steps as he stormed to the entry way made me shudder, afraid for whomever was on the other side of the door.

I heard him throw the door open and yell, “What?”

I heard the response to Gage’s question.

And I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

He wouldn’t have.

Chapter 23

Ty

“Hey, Gage. Sorry to bother you. I was wondering if Becca’s here? I see her car here, and I’m really worried about her and can’t find her anywhere. We, uh, she ...” I didn’t really know what else to say to the guy I knew was fucking the girl I loved. But as he stood there, shirtless in his entryway, his hand turning white where it held the door, rage poured from him. “She was really upset when she left my house and drove off. I just want to find her and make sure she’s safe, that’s all.”

Gage’s demeanor calmed a fraction once I finished. His hand slid from the door and he flexed it repeatedly, as if to release the tension in his muscles.

“Ty,” he said, firmly but calmly, “I don’t really think it’s a good idea that you’re here right now.”

As soon as he finished saying that, a sound caught his attention behind him. He turned to look down his hall, and I caught sight of something that will forever haunt me.

My words caught in my throat. I could no longer speak. But that was not Becca’s problem at all. As she stood there, obviously mostly naked under a blanket she had wrapped around herself, her words came flying out of her mouth.

“Ty! What the fuck are you doing here? You have some fucking nerve coming here looking for me. Jesus Christ! What the fuck? After what I saw yesterday? You’re coming looking for me? Who the fuck do you think you are?”

She started storming toward me, out the door. Gage grabbed a hold of her by the waist, pulling her back into his apartment.

“Bec, I only wanted to know you were safe. That’s ...” I tried to get some type of explanation out, but she cut me off.

“I don’t give a flying fuck what you want. You have no right to know anything about me anymore. We are over. Do you hear me? O-V-E-R! Over! There is no coming back from this, Ty. Ever!” She started for the door again. “I want to go home. I can’t do this anymore. I’m done with this shit!”

“Becca,” Gage said as he pulled her back inside once again. “You can’t go out like this; plus, you’ve been drinking. You can’t drive.” Gage gave me a pleading look at that point. However, if I stepped in, I would only make things worse. “Come on – let’s get you dressed and I’ll drive you home, if that’s what you want.”

At that, the two of them went back inside, and Gage closed the door.

The thought of him in there, with her, without her clothes on, nauseated me. I wanted to break the door down and drag her out of there. I didn’t want him seeing her, touching her, doing any of those things with me right on the other side of the wall.

It destroyed me, being a spectator to a scene ruining my life.

But I took care of ruining my own life long before Gage came into the picture.

I decided to sit on the stoop and wait until I knew she was safely in his car and on her way home. I’d spent the past twenty-four hours looking for her, I wasn’t going to let her out of my sight now. Though I knew a big part of it was that I wanted to make sure she actually was getting dressed and leaving his apartment.

“What the fuck are you still doing here?” she yelled as she threw the door open. I didn’t have time to get off the step before she came stumbling out. My hands instinctively went to help steady her. “Get your hands off of me,” she seethed.

Gage came out right behind her.

“Why the hell did you let her get so drunk?” I asked.

His head snapped in my direction at my words. “Ty, I think the better question is, what did you do that made her want to get so drunk?”

“That drunk girl you’re referring to,” Becca said as she pointed at the both of us, “is right fucking here. And I’m not that bad.” She stumbled again as she attempted to descend the two steps to the parking lot. Gage got a hold of her and placed her in his car. Neither of them said another word to me as they drove off.

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