Page 47 of Never Forever

“You know what I really think? I think you’re a coward,” I said to him, walking to the bench where my suitcases sat in the shadows.

He said nothing, but he didn’t leave.

“My mother was right about you” I said, walking around him. My rolling suitcases rattling over the stones.

“Oh yeah, what was she right about?”

“That you were never going to leave this town.”

“She’s never wrong, is she?” he said, quietly. “Let me take you to the train station.”

“Fuck you,” I snapped.

“Yeah well, fuck you and your mom,” he snapped right back.

Oh wow. Wow. He opened his mouth like he was going to take it back, but in the end he kept his mouth shut.

“You’re going to regret this,” I turned around and told him. “I’m going to conquer the God damned world. I’m going to make something of myself, and you, Matt Sullivan, can choke on it.”

“What are you doing?” he asked, catching up to me.

“Walking into town. I’ll get Lola to take me to the train station.”

“Here, at least take the ticket.”

I stopped walking and looked down at the envelope in his hand.

“You bought me a ticket but couldn’t break up with me until the last fucking minute?”

He licked his lips. “It’s first class. With a connection in Portland to New York City.”

Oh. The tears came back, but my pride wasn’t about to let him see how much he was killing me.

“You’re a bastard.”

He nodded.

I took the envelope. “Fine. Now go away.”

“I can drive-”

“Go the fuck away.”

He was silent, staring at me. The rage bubbled up inside of me so fast, so powerfully, the lid came right off the pot and I smacked him across the face.

The adrenaline and pain felt so good, I did it again.

The sound of my hand against his face was like a crack of lightning.

Both his cheeks were hot and pink and his head was tilted away from me and he didn’t turn. He just kept his face averted.

“This was a mistake,” he said. “We were a mistake. We never should have happened. I’m just making it right.”

“Someday,” I whispered, my mouth full of salt and pain, “I’ll come back to this town and make you eat those words. Goodbye Matthew Sullivan.”

I walked away, my suitcases rolling over stones, my pride keeping me upright.

And that asshole got in his truck and followed me the whole way. Like he was protecting me from danger.