and the truth and dare party. He had tried to split us up in a really underhanded way, causing so much anguish, hurt and pain. Everything was different for me now. I did not see Samuel the same way anymore.
“I wish I could say the same Samuel, but I can’t.” I stayed where I was, keeping my distance from him. I wasn’t completely unaffected by his looks, but I knew where my head and my heart now was, and it was not here.
Samuel, seeing my distaste towards him, walked right up to me, closing the distance he didn’t want between us any more. He gripped my shoulders. “Why? Why would you say that? Is it about the gifts? Were they too much? Oh Len, they were just to show you how much I still love...”
I punched him hard in the gut, sending him wheezing to the ground. I couldn’t help it. It was a reflex to him just brushing aside the ghastly things he had done. How he could push them aside like that just made my head snap and my hand react. The nerve of him to think it was just about the gifts.
“Are you fucking serious Samuel? You think this is about the gifts? What the hell is wrong with you? I should hit you again for what you did.” I thought about it again, my hand twitching to connect with his face this time, but I held it with my other hand, restraining my anger from getting out of control.
Samuel was on all fours on the ground, trying to catch his breath. He looked up at me from the floor, his face strained and eyes glazed. “I take it, you didn’t like the gifts.” He looked genuinely confused by my attack. His eyes became doe-eyed as they stared up at me in pure bewilderment, and for a second, I doubted what I knew. Could I be wrong right now? As he continued to stare at me, my anger softened.
Damn my beating heart!
I helped him up from off the ground. “Get the fuck up Samuel!”
Samuel coughed some more as he got to his feet, still holding his stomach like it hurt. “What the hell Len? You beat me up because of some diamonds and my car. Oh come on. Fine. I’ll keep the car. I just thought you’d love Cherry, I...”
I pushed his chest, hard, sending him flying backwards on his feet. What the hell was going on? Why wasn’t Samuel acknowledging the other terrible things he did? Was he hoping I would just look past them, forget about them, turn a blind eye? Was this guy crazy?
Samuel regained his footing, now standing up straight, a different look on his face. He knew I wasn’t fooling around. I was dead serious.
“Are you really trying to push aside what you did? I can’t believe you would do that. Do you have any idea how much pain it caused me? How can you even look at me right now?” I was throwing my pain and confusion at him. I needed to get my head around his dismissal of everything else. Why would he do this? How could he act this way?
Samuel’s face looked like he was thinking deeply, trying to process my words and reaction, but not coming up with any kind of reasonable explanation. “Len, you are going to have to tell me why you are so angry, because I don’t understand what is going on.”
I wanted to push him again, but instead I just wound my fists up into balls as I tried to keep myself from going on a full-blown violent rampage. “Fine Samuel. I will give you the list of reasons I am acting like this right now. How about the fact you put a contract on Clint first, starting this whole fucked-up situation? Why would you do that? Did you do it on purpose so Clint would do the same back and hope I didn’t find out about it? I swear you two are as thick as each other. Both fucking insane!”
Samuel’s nostrils flared and his face crinkled, changing to one of pure anger. “Wait just a God damn minute Len. Did Weston tell you that? I never put a cont…”
I cut him off. “And then you play these games. Sending me gifts to get under Clint’s skin, turning up at the Gala like that, and then my birthday. Sending me that truth card with the contract that Clint signed against you. ON MY BIRTHDAY!