But the layers… the fucking layers were there to make our life harder.
And so, my truth was just like that.
My hand came up again, before I could stop myself. My fingertips skimmed over her jaw. Lila flinched but didn’t pull away. She allowed me this one touch. “I broke your trust, and I hurt you. I’m sorry for that,” I rasped gravelly.
“Aren’t you sorry for breaking your promises?” she whispered.
My heart stuttered. “I didn’t…”
She smiled without humor, she smiled with cruelty. A smile of disgust.
I shook my head. “I promised to protect you. And I thought I was doing that.”
She finally pulled away, and my hand fell to my side. Instantly, I missed the feel of her skin under my fingers. “Lila… just, listen to me. Please.”
She stepped back, her dark eyes growing darker. Furious. Pained. “Keep your sorry excuses to yourself. I don’t want to hear it. I’ve heard and seen enough.”
“No,” I growled. Fear tightened around my lungs. If I let her walk away now, I was going to lose her. Forever. “You need to hear the rest. You don’t know anything!”
I reached for her, desperate for a chance to explain. I didn’t see it coming, although I should have expected it. The moment I clasped her wrist, tugging her back to me, Lila turned around with a vengeful cry.
She slapped me, right in the face.
I stumbled back, and she twisted out of my hold. There was so much… anger… so much hate in her dark eyes. “Don’t touch me,” Lila warned, her voice cracking over the words. She leaned closer, jerking her head back, so she could stare right into my eyes.
Her next words killed me.
Killed any hope I had for us.
“When you touch me, my skin crawls,” she practically spat, with so much venom in her sweet voice. “When you touch me, my scars burn. When you touch me, I want to throw up.”
“No. Stop,” I croaked. I pleaded… begged. “Lila, no.”
Her eyes were dull again. My Lila was… gone. “Don’t you dare touch me, Maddox.”
All the air had been sucked out of my lungs, and I was… suffocated.
“Get out.” She pointed at the door. “Get. Out. You’re no longer welcome here.” My chest squeezed, like a heavy metal chain was being wrapped around my already tortured, bleeding heart.
If it hurt for me…
I wondered how much it hurt for her…
“I’m going to leave, and I’m going to wait for you. Tomorrow, you have to listen to me. Please, Lila. You have to let me explain why.”
“I don’t want to see your face,” Lila sneered. “Tonight or tomorrow.” She was never so vicious, but in this moment, her words were laced with enough acid to burn even the thickest layer. Me? I was just a mere mortal. My heart disintegrated.
“You should leave.” Riley walked up behind me. I had forgotten she was even there, listening to us. “Do as she says, Maddox,” she lamented.
Lila’s face hardened, and she stalked away, into the room that used to belong to her. Her place was with me. Not anymore…
“What’s going on?” I let my head fall back against my shoulders, staring at the ceiling as another voice joined us.
I heard his steps, as Colton approached me. “I was at the gala. I saw Lila and you leave…”
Of course, he was. We ran in the same circles. Of course, he saw. Everyone watched it unfold, but no one knew why.
“What’s going on?” he asked again, looking between Riley and I, waiting for one of us to answer.
“Ask Maddox.” Riley sighed. “Lila is hurt and angry right now. You two better leave.”
My chest hurt, and I rubbed the ache with my fist.
“Maddox?”
“I need to get out of here,” I murmured, looking at her closed door. My presence was unwelcomed. And I knew I’d cause my Lila more pain, if I stayed.
“Okay,” Colton said. “Where?”
I dragged my legs behind me and walked away. With each step that took me farther away from Lila, coldness seeped through my bones, and my body grew numb.
“The gym.” It was that or I’d drink myself into oblivion. Maybe I’d do both. Take all my fuckedupness out on a punching bag and then drink until I forgot tonight ever happened.
Colton didn’t ask any questions. He drove us to the gym, and everything was just a goddamn blurred mess to me. I couldn’t think straight, couldn’t even breathe.
The punching bag became my salvation.
The pain coursing through my body, as I pushed myself over, became my only