Chapter 15: Why She Left
1328 Words
Roxanne's POV
"Hold on."
I stopped, bent down, unstrapped both heels, and stood back up with them dangling from one hand.
Tyson looked at my bare feet, then at my face. Then opened his mouth.
"Say something and I'll leave them on and make you carry me," I said.
He closed his mouth.
We left before the party hit its peak, his call as usual, and it was good. Staying too long and it starts looking like you have nowhere else to be. Leave while things are still moving and it reads like you had something better to do, which was a brand of arrogance only people like Tyson pulled off naturally.
I was walking barefoot on cold concrete and had a blister on my left heel.
The party noise faded behind us as we turned toward the residential block, and the night air was quiet enough that our footsteps were the loudest thing.
"Skylar was jealous," he said.
"I noticed." I said flatly.
"The way you grabbed my arm." He glanced at me sideways. Something in his tone that made me want to look at him fully and also not. "We really looked like a couple."
I kept my eyes forward. "It seemed like the right move."
"It was a sharp move." He paused. "Unplanned though."
"I said it seemed right in the moment..."
"The way you pressed against me." He said. "The way you looked up at me." A beat. "That wasn't performance energy. That was something else."
"It was performance energy..."
"Roxanne." I could hear the smirk without looking at him. "You saw Skylar looking and something in you went, she needs to feel this. So you made her feel it."
"You're reading too much into it," I said. "I thought it would work and it did. That's the whole thing."
"Your ears are red again." He said.
"Tyson." I gave him a look. "Just move on."
I could feel the smug satisfaction was sitting right there on his face and I let it go because engaging with it further would be worse.
"We left at the right time," he said, shifting gears. "Another thirty minutes and it tips into try-hard."
"I noticed you made the call without asking me." I said flatly.
"Would you have wanted to stay?" He asked.
"No." My voice was sharp. "But you still could've asked."
"I'll ask next time." He said.
"Will you?" I raised an eyebrow.
He thought about it. "Probably not."
"At least you're honest about it." I almost laughed.
"I'm always honest." He said.
"You're honest when it's convenient for you." I corrected.
He looked at me for a second. "That's fair."
I blinked. He'd agreed with me, just like that, clean and easy, no defensiveness. I didn't know what to do with that so I kept walking.
My wolf had been quiet since we left, not gone, just settled, like she'd used up her energy for the night and was resting.
We walked for a bit in quiet, which was not a thing that usually happened between us. Every interaction we'd had before tonight had something sharpened in it, a point, a defence, a performance. This was different. The party was behind us and there was no one watching and neither of us had the energy to maintain anything that wasn't just, real.
"Can I ask you something?" I broke the silence.
"Go ahead." He said.
"What do you actually see in Skylar?" I asked before I could stop myself.
He glanced at me sideways. "Why you asking?"
"Because you built this whole insane plan around getting her back." I shifted the heels to my other hand. "And I had to wear these..." I held them up briefly "...for three weeks and kiss you in public and stand there while she said things to me at the food table. So I think I've earned the right to understand why you are doing this to get her back."
He was quiet for a few seconds.
"She's beautiful," he said finally.
"Obviously." My voice was flat.
"She's sharp. She knows exactly what a room needs and she gives it to them." He paused. "She makes everything look easy."
"She's popular," I said.
"She's..." He stopped.
"She's beautiful, sharp and popular and makes everything look easy," I said. "That's what you just said. That's the whole list."
He looked at me. "What's wrong with that list?"
"Nothing." I stepped around a crack in the pavement. "It's exactly what I expected. You two are well-matched."
"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked.
"It means you're both very good at being in a room." I kept my voice flat and even. "You both know exactly what everyone around you needs and you use it. You both lead with the image first and everything else is secondary." I glanced at him briefly. "If you two ever ran a pack, you'd be the cruelest couple in the whole kingdom. Everyone would bow down you and nobody would be able to breath easily."
He didn't say anything immediately.
"That's the meanest thing you've said to me," he said finally.
"You've said meaner to me before breakfast." I said.
"True." He was quiet again. "You think she's cruel?"
"I think she's exactly who you want her to be." I looked at him.
He was quiet.
"Is that why she left?" I asked.
I felt the temperature between us shifted, immediately.
I saw the warmth of the last ten minutes folding back behind something harder, like a door closing.
"You don't need to know that," he said.
I've had your hand on my waist for four hours and kissed you in front of the whole school." I said. "I think I've earned the answer."
"It doesn't matter." His voice was sharp.
"It clearly matters..."
"Wren." His voice hardened slightly. "Drop it."
"I'm just asking..."
"I said drop it." He stopped walking.
I stopped too, looked at him.
"Stay on the plan," he said, and his voice had the edge back in it. "You're not my girlfriend. You're not even my friend. You're someone I made a deal with because I needed a body to stand next to me at public events and you happened to be available and desperate enough that you didn't have another option."
The words landed exactly the way he probably didn't mean them to.
I stood there on the cold concrete with my bare feet and my heels dangling from one hand and I looked at him and I felt it go through me.
"You're right," I said flatly. "I'm just a fat Omega outsider with no pack standing and no connections and no one who would believe her over you if this ever came out."
"Roxanne I..."
"I forgot for a second," My voice was so controlled it didn't even sound like mine. "Tonight, walking, actually talking to you, I forgot what this was. I forgot what you think of me."
"Roxanne, that's not..."
"I thought we were building something." I started walking again, past him, toward the building. "I thought maybe twelve years of being your punching bag was turning into something that at least resembled basic human decency." I pushed through the door and he followed. "I was wrong. That's fine. I'll remember next time."
"Listen to me..."
"Goodnight, Tyson." I was at my door, key in hand.
"If you need anything." I turned around one last time and looked at him standing in my corridor looking at me. "a body to stand next to you, someone available, someone desperate, you know where I am." I pushed my door open. "You have your Omega at your disposal."
The door shut hard between us.
I stood on the other side with my back against the wood and the heels still in my hand and the cold from the concrete still on my feet.
My wolf was silent.
For the first time all night, she had absolutely nothing to say.
- Writer
