He exhales a sharp breath, and I feel the heat of it on my skin. “Like you would’ve told me the truth? Come on. You’ve already proved you can lie with the best of them.”
“I’m not—”
“Emma! There was no one else there. Who the fuck else could it have been?”
His harsh voice cuts me off, and I blink up at him for a few seconds. Then I shake my head, keeping my gaze locked on his.
“I don’t know. But it wasn’t me. And if you had talked to me about it, if you’d trusted me like you always said you did, maybe we could’ve found out together. But instead, you just decided you knew. And then you tried to fucking break me.”
Trent stills.
His chest stops rising and falling with the deep breaths he was dragging in, and I flick my gaze down to the pulse in his neck, convinced for a wild second that even his heart has stopped.
“I did know. I do.”
His voice sounds different somehow, and I can’t tell what’s changed. It’s not like he’s suddenly decided to believe me. He didn’t even give me a chance to defend myself in high school, and he’s held onto this mistaken belief that I betrayed him for so long, I don’t know if there’s anything I could ever say or do to convince him otherwise.
He doesn’t say anything else for a long time. He just stares at me. Stares and stares, as if the truth is written on my skin, branded on my body somewhere, and if he just looks close enough, he’ll be able to see it.
I look back at him too strung out, shocked, and emotionally wrecked to do anything else. I feel like I have whiplash, and I can’t quite get my bearings back.
Our bodies are incredibly close, and as the silence settles between us, I become intensely aware of what the proximity is doing to me. My knees feel weak, like they did the first time I saw Trent at Clearwater U.
Fuck, Emma, stop!
Why is this happening? Why am I so attracted to a man who’s been hell bent on destroying my life?
Trent’s chest begins to move again, and his nostrils flare as he draws in a breath through his nose. A look of longing on his face dissolves into hatred before shifting back to longing again.
How can this even be possible?
He presses his chest against mine and brings his mouth dangerously close. We’re breathing each other’s air, infecting each other with the disease that’s killing us both. His breath warms my lips, making a small noise rise in my throat.
“You’re a good fucking liar, Emma,” he rasps, his voice raw with pain and anger… and something else. “You make me want to believe the lie.”
His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows, and he’s looking down at my lips like they’re the most fascinating things in the world.
“Trent…”
His name is barely more than a whisper, and I have no follow-up. Nothing to say. I don’t know who the fuck I am, who he is, or what to do with the feelings taking over my body.
“Lie to me again, Ems. Tell me how much you want me.”
“Please, let me go,” I whisper, but his arms are still locking me in on either side, and he doesn’t budge.
“Your eyes, your lips, even your body—they all lie. I can feel how much you want this, but that’s just an illusion too, isn’t it? Just like everything else about you.”
Trent almost seems to be talking to himself as he brings one hand down my side and grabs onto my hip. His gaze travels down my body in much the same way he was looking at my lips.
Like he wants to devour me.
To eat me alive, bones and all.
But I’m no longer trapped. The movement has given me an opening, and since one side has been cleared of Trent’s arm, I quickly slip away and start running down the hall.
Trent doesn’t chase after me, and he doesn’t laugh like I’d expect him to. When I reach the end of the hall, out of breath, I turn and look back at him, and there’s an anguished expression on his face, as though he’s bereft or something. I turn once more and head back toward the table on legs that feel like vibrating piano wires, my heart beating out of control in my chest.
As I approach the table, I see that my dad and Claire are still sitting there, a chocolate lava cake sitting untouched in front of them. When they look up me, twin expressions of concern cross their faces.