“The hell it isn’t!” His dad shouts now, not even trying to be quiet.
“It isn’t and you know it! Don’t pretend you don’t know how I feel about her! How I’ve always felt about her!” Reed shouts back.
His dad lets out a humourless laugh. “How you feel? Yes, of course I know. That’s not how Wren feels though. Did you really think that she cared about you? That she loved you? Don’t be ridiculous, Reed. She’s grieving. You thought you could just prey on her while she’s sad and lonely?”
“You don’t know anything about this!” Reed yells back.
His dad’s voice has no sympathy. “You continue this and you will no longer be a part of this family! You will not bring this scandal to our family’s name!”
“Fuck you! And fuck this family!” he shouts back. “But don’t you for a second think you are going to hurt Wren! That girl has been put through enough fucking pain at the hand of this family!” His voice gets even angrier. “I promised I would take care of her, and I’m not going to break that promise.”
The door whips open and Reed storms out right past me. “Reed!” I call out to him.
“I need a minute!” he calls out without turning back, and he walks right outside.
“Fuck that!” I call out to him as I run after him into the trees. “Reed!” I shout when he continues to walk forward without turning back. “Reed, wait!”
He finally whips back around, and I see how angry his eyes are. “No, Wren! He’s fucking right! This was a mistake!”
I stop in my tracks as it feels like a hole was shot right through my chest. “A mistake?” I ask like maybe he didn’t really just say that. “A fucking mistake?” I ask even angier. “You know what, Reed? Fucking forget that promise you made to Jake. I don’t need you or anyone else to take care of me. I can fucking take care of myself. Not to mention I doubt he thought your method of taking care of me would be to fuck me.”
“He didn’t!” Reed shouts back, his face red with anger.
“He didn’t what?” I ask.
“He didn’t ask,” he says with a harsh breath.
“What?” I ask even though I heard him.
“He didn’t fucking ask me to take care of you,” he says harshly.
I still can’t seem to understand. “But you said-”
“I didn’t come because he asked me to!” he shouts. “I came because I was fucking in love with you! I’ve always been in love with you!” He turns and swings at the air. “Shit! Fuck!” he screams.
“Reed,” I whisper because I can’t seem to form any other words right now.
He whips back toward me, looking furious with himself. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Did you mean it?” I ask.
“It doesn’t matter, Wren! It’s not fair to you,” he says.
I cross my arms over my chest. “What’s not fair?”
“This!” he shouts as he motions his hand in between us and around. “All of this! He’s right! You were vulnerable, and I took advantage of it! I took advantage of you!”
I look at him disgusted. “I’m a fucking adult, Reed! I can make my own decisions!”
He clenches his jaw and balls his hands into fists. “You aren’t thinking straight! You’re grieving! You aren’t thinking about the consequences of this! How people will view it! You only think you want this right now! You don’t. You’re just sad. I knew that and I did it anyway. Fuck!”
He turns around and starts walking away again, but I don’t let him. “I’m not sad!”
He stops in his tracks but doesn’t look at me, so I continue. “I’m not sad! I’m bitter!”
“What?” he asks as he turns around.
“I’m bitter,” I repeat.
“And?” he asks.
“I’m bitter, and I don’t give a fuck about what anyone else thinks about it or how I behave because of it. I’m bitter. Because I fucking hate Katie and every single fucking girl that you’ve ever looked at because I want it to be me. I’m bitter because I had to waste all this fucking time with the wrong brother when the right one was standing right in front of me, and I’m bitter because instead of listening when I’m trying to tell you that I love you too, you’re fucking running away. You’re fucking hiding! You made me promise to never hide from you, Reed! So here the fuck I am out in the open letting you know that I don’t fucking care about anything because none of it matters without you!” I let out a harsh breath
“Wren…” he sighs.