But then I noticed how he avoided me. How he would cross to the other side of a room when I entered. How he would cut conversations short if I approached. At first, I was confused, then hurt. Slowly, the awful truth began to dawn on me.
He wasn’t happy with our bond.
I kept waiting for him to reject me properly, to make it official so I could try to move on. But he never did. He just ignored me. Like I was a problem he hoped would disappear if he pretended it didn’t exist.
Maybe that’s why I finally snapped tonight. Why I threw his reputation back in his face, called him a man w***e. I wanted to hurt him the way he was hurting me. I wanted him to feel even a fraction of the pain I’ve been carrying for months.
“I don’t want you, Seth.”
The lie had felt foreign on my tongue, but I said
