Page 64 of Reckless With You

My eyebrows went up on my forehead, and I glared. “Excuse me? No. That’s not how it happened.”

“He told me exactly how it happened. Now you’re going to call him a liar? Just because you aren’t good enough for him, doesn’t mean you can come around and try to ruin our relationship. I love him, and he loves me. And you’re always in the way. Just leave him alone.”

“What the fuck?” I whispered to myself, and she just narrowed her eyes at me. “Leave us alone.”

“You need to leave,” I said, my voice far calmer than I felt. This woman, this Beth, was so emotional. She had to be scared of losing whatever she had with Tobey to the point that she was lashing out. Because I would like to think that Tobey wouldn’t fall in love with someone who could say these things.

But maybe he had told her a different story. Or perhaps what I did had been far worse than I thought.

“Stay away from him.”

“No problem. You don’t have to worry about that.”

Because I didn’t think I’d talk with Tobey again. At least not in person for a long while. Everything was out of control, and I didn’t know why things hurt so badly.

She stomped away and got into her sedan before peeling out of my driveway and driving off.

I shook in my doorway for a bit and then closed the door before I let all the heat out.

I slowly made my way to my phone, my hands shaking.

Me:Stay away, Tobey. Please. Beth was here. I don’t know what you said to her. But you just need to stay away.

I sank down to the floor, my hands shaking as I looked at my phone and watched those three little dots pop up as Tobey responded.

Tobey:I’m sorry that she came there. I didn’t think she would. But you need to stay away from Beth too. That would be best for all of us.

He wantedmeto stay away. And all I’d done was tell him that I loved him. Now, everything had changed. Who was this person? This wasn’t the guy I had fallen for.

Maybe I hadn’t really loved him at all if this was how things turned out. Maybe I just thought I had. Because this wasn’t even the same person who had been my best friend for as long as I could remember.

The Tobey I knew would never treat me like this.

Maybe he’d always been this way, and I just hadn’t seen it, or maybe Beth had done this to him. Regardless, I would never blame someone else’s choices on another. If he was acting like this, then that was on him. Nobody was forcing him to be this way.

I didn’t even know Beth.

Apparently, I didn’t know Tobey either.

I put my phone into the drawer next to me and slowly stood up, my knees shaking.

I was trying to figure out exactly who I was without him in my life, and now it seemed it wouldn’t just be temporary. I would never be able to call him again to see how he was doing. To see if he wanted to watch a movie or check out the latestStar Trekconvention down the road. We would never be able to hit up 16th Street Mall and get coffee or see who was playing at the local bar.

We would never play video games and try to see who could hit each other the most with shells as we playedMario Kartlike we were kids.

Though I didn’t think I’d ever want to do any of that again anyway.

Even though I had told him that I loved him, I hadn’t crossed the line into menace. I hadn’t been cruel about it.

And now Tobey made me feel like I was nothing. And every time I had contact with him again, it got worse.

He made me feel like I was worthless. That I shouldn’t be with him.

And now there was Beth.

I’d never wanted to be the other woman, and she clearly wasn’t the other woman in this scenario.

But now I had lost my best friend, and that hurt even more than the thought of losing the idea of the love of my life.