Page 60 of Moonflower
“What? I’m coming with you.”
“No,” Wilder says, “you’re not.”
“Yes I am!” I march past him, heading for the door, but he grabs my arm and yanks me back.
“Don’t even think about it.”
I give Ezra a pleading glance, but his lips are pressed into a thin line. Shit. I was hoping he’d take my side on this. Fine, then. I’ll just have to convince them both.
“You want Matt to leave me alone, right?”
“Obviously,” Wilder grits out.
“Then he needs to understand I’m on board with this. If he doesn’t get that I want him out of my life, he won’t respect it.”
“We weren’t planning on giving him much of a choice,” Ezra says.
“Well, I’m coming anyway.”
Thankfully, they don’t try to stop me. It’s not like they’d let Matt hurt me. And now that it doesn’t matter if he calls me nitpicky again, I have a few things I’d like to say to Matt.
It only takes a couple minutes to get to the park. It rained last night, so everything is wet and cold, which leaves the place empty.
I convince Wilder and Ezra to hide behind some trees before Matt gets here. If I can smooth things over with him myself, I’d prefer to take that route.
When he shows up, he spots me the second he gets out of his car. With an angry look, he stalks across the wet grass until he’s a few feet in front of me. “What the hell, Cora? What’s gotten into you?”
I smirk. “A couple things.”
Matt ignores me. “Do you know what they did? They broke in, and then they pushed me to the ground, and then they made me clean the bathroom. It was weird. And fucking humiliating.”
Shit, I already forgot about that. I don’t bother hiding my smile as I say, “Yeah, apparently you do know how to clean. That is weird.”
His nostrils flare. “It was a shitty thing of you to do. We could’ve talked it out. Broken up civilly. But this was downright unfair.”
With a sigh, I say, “None of it should’ve gone down like this, I agree. They shouldn’t’ve kicked you out without warning, and I’m sorry for that. And, let’s be honest, you and I should’ve broken up months ago.” I reach into my pocket, pulling out a wad of cash. “Here.”
“What the hell is this?”
“You already gave me your rent money for November. I’m not gonna keep it from you.”
He snatches it from me. “Perfect. I’ll give it to Jack. I’m rooming with him for the rest of the year. But seriously, Cora. You’re really choosing those violent assholes over me?”
“Don’t pretend you care. The only thing they were doing was looking out for me, and that’s more than you've ever done.”
Fury fills his features, and he starts moving forward, but then he stops abruptly.
“Don’t take another step toward her.”
In an instant, I feel a hand on my arm. Wilder steps in between me and Matt as Ezra pulls me back and into his chest.
“You lied!” Matt exclaims.
“You really think I’d meet you here alone?”
“Fuck you,” he snaps. “You lying b-”
Wilder punches him before he can get anything else out. Stumbling back, Matt cradles his face. Before he can swing back, Wilder kicks him in the stomach, toppling him.