The Bad Boy (Black Mountain)

The vibrating in her bag drew her out of her thoughts and she reached for her phone. The number that flashed across the screen had her brows furrowing and her lips thinning.

“Hello?” She gathered up her bag, logged off the computer, and made her way out of the library. Studying wasn’t going to happen today, that was for sure.

“Hey.” Lance, her ex-boyfriend, spoke in his usual calm and unhurried voice.

When she didn’t respond he cleared his throat and started talking again. “I know, you’re probably wondering why I’m calling you.”

Yeah, she was.

“I was just seeing how you were doing. It’s been a long time since we talked.”

Mary exhaled. “That’s because we aren’t together anymore, Lance.” And thank God for that.

“Don’t be like that. You know I said I still wanted to be friends after you broke things off.”

She shook her head in disbelief as she took a seat on a bench and stared ahead. “Yeah, that’s not really something I wanted, Lance. Not then or now. No offense,” she tacked on to soften the blow, not that she should care.

Two summers ago played through her mind and she felt anger and hurt mix together. Those two unwelcome emotions had been buried deep inside of her, and she thought she’d moved passed all that, but hearing his voice had brought up the memory of how he’d pressured her into having sex, then berated, insulted and gaslighted her when she had told him she wasn’t ready.

Then there had been the other betrayal. The cheating that probably should have hurt her even more, but at that point it had been the last nail in the coffin of her not giving a fuck and closing that chapter in her life.

Two years had passed, yet here she was, letting him conjure up annoyance once again. She should hang up, yeah, she should, yet she didn’t. Curiosity was stronger than being smart.

“I did call to see how you are doing,” he finally said. “You know I care about you, still ask your mother and Margo how things are going with you.”

“And I’m sure they are very forthcoming with any and all information you want,” she said dryly.

“We’re adults, Mary, and we’ll see each other at Margo’s wedding, so I wanted to see how you are.” Dead air descended. “I don’t want things to be awkward when that time comes.”

She might have been a pushover back then, let others walk all over her…. Let them pressure her to do things she didn’t want to, but over the last two years she had grown. She stood on her own two feet even more now.

She felt stronger.

“Mary?”

“Yeah, I’m here.” She didn’t bother hiding the iciness in her voice. “To be honest, Lance, I don’t have much to say to you. I think the last chapter in our story ended back then.” She ran a hand over her thigh and hated how nervous she was, and it wasn’t even the good kind of nervous she felt with Alex. “I can be polite at Margo’s wedding, but other than that, I have nothing left to say to you.”

“I’m not asking for anything more than you’re willing to give. I just want to be your friend again, like we were before everything happened.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose and exhaled. It wasn’t just about the pressuring her to have sex. It wasn’t the looking down his nose at her when she said she wanted to wait. It wasn’t even about her finally having that one and only sexual encounter with him and he’d acted like it had meant nothing to him. No, it wasn’t any of that.

What pissed her off the most was the fact that after all of that, Lance had never once told her he made a mistake. He’d never apologized for cheating on her, never showed any remorse for fucking one of her friends. He was a narcissistic prick and toxic to the core. She’d gotten out just in time.

Fuck him and fuck Brittany.

“Lance, I really do have to go. I’d say it was nice talking to you, but I’d be lying.” He was in the middle of saying something when she hung up and tossed her phone back in her bag. Then she just sat there for a few moments, watching as people walked by, listening to the base of music from a passing car, hearing a group of girls giggle in the distance.

Mary wasn’t much of a drinker, but she could really use one right now, a nice stiff shot that could numb her anger. Booze sounded good, but not smart. So she headed to her house, grabbed a change of workout clothes, and was about to head to the gym when she passed the kitchen and saw Darcy sitting at the table looking pretty rough.

“Hey.” She stepped into the kitchen just as Darcy glanced up, her mascara creating dark rings around her eyes. It was late in the afternoon and she knew her roommate should have been in class. “What’s up? Are you okay?”