Love Me Back

Ch. 13

Ch. 13 // Dacre's POV

I finally find Deja sitting in front of the bonfire with a Coke in hand, looking terribly bored. After the weird shit that went on with Nia, I'm so relieved to see Deja.

"Deja," I sing her name as I pull up a chair and sit beside her. She looks up at me and immediately her lips curl into a smile.

"Hey Dacre," she greets me. Her voice is like calming music to my ears.

"I need to hide," I say in a joking tone, "no offense, but your cousin is fucking weird and creeping the shit out of me."

Her smile quickly turns into a frown, "fuck, I am so sorry. What did she do?"

"She was coming on to me hard. I don't want to fuck you, how else do I make it clear?" The words fall out my mouth before I remember that I'm talking to Deja and not Jay, "Sorry for saying that."

"I really should beat her ass," she doubles down as she stands and continues to look around.

"Deja," I say her name light-heartedly, "It's fine, really."

"No, it's not. Imagine if you were me and I told you that your cousin, or any guy, was harassing me. What would you do?"

Beat his ass, a voice says in my head

"I-"

" And don't lie," she firmly says, looking straight into my eyes.

"Ok, but Deja," I grab her hand but she wriggles out and she starts walking away. I call her name a couple of times but she ignores me and keeps walking. Damn, I've never seen her this anger. I've actually never seen her angry at all.

"Deja, look at me," I place a hand on her shoulder and she finally stops and turns around. My heart breaks when I see the pools of tears in her eyes. "Deja don't waste your time and energy on her. She's not worth it."

"You can't understand," the tears in her eyes start streaming down her face. So I wipe away her tears and pull her into a hug.

"She's such a bitch" I hear her whisper into my chest.

"Deja, what's going on?" Kiara asks from beside us, startling the both of us.

"Nia needs her ass whooped," Deja says as she pulls away from me.

"Dacre?" Kiara turns towards me for an explanation.

"Nia was coming on to me hard the whole night. I told her to leave me alone. I swear, I don't want anything to do with her."

Kiara closes her eyes for a couple of seconds and pinches the bridge of her nose, "I'm going to find Jay because Lord knows I'm beating her ass with you. I'd gladly drag the bitch again."

~

Nobody fought anyone even though Kiara went looking for Nia before looking for Jay. Apparently, Nia left shortly after she saw me talking to Deja. Even though Nia left, Deja still wanted to leave the party so I left with her. Kiara also left with us, but she went home.

"Thanks for being so kind to me," Deja says. Since she didn't want to go home, we were sitting on a bench at a different park, wrapped under a blanket we took from the kickback. Her head on my shoulder and my arm holding her tight. "From calming me down to leaving with me. Literally, everything you did tonight, thank you."

"It's no problem at all and if you want to ever talk about anything, I'm here for you," I say, pulling her in closer. Saying Deja smells good would be an understatement. She always smells scrumptious. Like cocoa butter and vanilla. Sweet like a damn cookie. And I can't lie, it turns me on.

"Thank you," she says in a soft tone, blissfully unaware of how she makes me feel.

We sit in calm silence, just looking at the pond in front of us.

"Nia and I are basically half-sisters because our moms are identical twins," Deja starts off, breaking the silence between us. "My biggest secret is that I hate her as much as I love her. And it pisses me off because we grew up as sisters. We were inseparable but now... And it's because she just— It's like she gets off on breaking relationships.

Ever since 7th grade, she always found a way to get the guys I liked. But I never did anything because I didn't think much of it. I guess it's because I had really low self-esteem and that thought no guy could ever like me. I felt like Nia was the prettier and better version of me, so I guess it made sense to me that she'd get the guys I liked. Also, I just thought we had the same type.

I met Kiara in 8th grade. I thought the 3 of us could be friends, but Kiara and Nia never really meshed, so that failed. It wasn't until Kiara told me how weird Nia's behavior was in 10th grade. So I stopped telling Nia about the guys I liked.

In 11th grade, there was finally a guy who liked me and I liked him. I'd known him since middle school, but we became friends the summer before 11th grade as we worked at the day camp at our community center. I really liked him and I really wanted him. So I made sure Nia knew nothing about him. Plus, a blonde white guy, I knew he wasn't her type. Of course, Kiara knew about him and was hyping me up.

I figured out he was planning on asking me to homecoming and I was so fucking excited. Then Nia found out about him just because he asked her something about me. Something that he'd use for the homecoming proposal. She was mad that I didn't tell him, but I didn't give a fuck. I thought everything would be good, and she had someone plus he wasn't even her type. Long story short, they slept together before he could even ask me to the dance.

So that one really hurt and I didn't talk to her for almost a year. It didn't help that later in the year, she started dating Kiara's ex-boyfriend, Victor. Victor and Kiara were dating for around 6 months and I'm pretty sure, he cheated on Kiara with Nia, but she never confirmed it. Now they have a baby girl. That year, our moms were the ones who tried to repair our relationship, but I didn't talk to her until she told me she was 4 months pregnant and wasn't going to school in the fall. I feel like Victor is part of her karma, they are both shitty people and I only feel bad for the child they have together. Kiara dodged a bullet and I know she knows that, but she's still hurt by what Nia did and so am I. 

So that's my story about Nia. I hate her for what she's done, but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't still love her. It's weird but she was my sister... my twin. It's hard to let go of that bond we share."

I let go of the breathe I didn't know o was holding after she finished her story.

"Wow Deja, thank you for sharing this with me," I thank her. She's still looking down at her hand, when I see drops of tears hit her hands. "would you like a hug?"

She nods and slips her arms around me as I do the same.

"Thanks for listening," she says against my chest, "I'm sorry for dumping all of that on you. I didn't realize I needed to get that off my chest."

"Any time, we all need someone that will listen to our pain. And I'm really sorry for what Nia has done to you."

"Thank you, Dacre," she says, pulling me tighter.