The Guy on the Right (The Underdogs 1)

“What? What could I possibly be ruining? You looked at my fucking roommate like you wanted him.”

“A split second of recognition and that’s what’s breaking us up?”

“Were we ever really together?”

Hot tears burn, as the rest of me stings. “How could you ask that?”

“Am I allowed to now?”

“Allowed to ask? You never had to! I just spent the last four months wrapped around you. Wake up! This is all for nothing. Fine, he’s good looking, it was a second, maybe less. He took me by surprise. I admit it probably looked bad—”

“It was that second that made me no longer trust you.”

The statement damns us, and I can practically hear the re-click of the worn-out armor he’s just resurrected back around his heart.

“This is really how you feel?”

He shakes his head as if I’m ridiculous. “We were never going to work.”

“Says you!”

“I should be able to tell the woman I’m with how I feel when I feel it, without fearing she’ll run for the goddamn hills! Or worry that she feels she has to reciprocate those feelings out of obligation!”

“I never asked you to hold back!”

He snorts. “You’re ridiculous if you think I did. Not with you. Not at all. The words were there even if I had to swallow them every day,” his voice cracks. “Every single time I look at you. And look where it got me.”

I step forward.

He steps back.

“This is in your head.”

“No, it’s fucked up my heart!” He pounds a fist to his chest. “How can I trust you now?”

“You would have to trust me in the first place,” I say, my heart charring to ash. I choke on that revelation as he glances at the ground between us. “Oh my God, you never did trust me, did you?” I shake my head, unable to believe the truth of it. “You were expecting me to screw this up. The whole time. Weren’t you?”

His silence singes me to the point I can no longer take an easy breath.

“You were waiting for me to ruin it.”

“Congratulations,” he says bitterly, “you succeeded.”

“You don’t mean any of this.”

“Maybe I do. You said so yourself the night we met. Lie to me, Laney. Tell me you love me too. Isn’t it my turn?”

“You’re going to feel like such an idiot when you figure out how ridiculous you’re acting.”

“Or maybe I just saved myself a whole hell of a lot of fucking headaches.”

“You’re a bastard.”

“Fine, I’m the bad guy, are we done here?”

“Oh yeah,” my voice cracks. “we’re done.”

“Good, because I wouldn’t want to hold you back.”