Twisted Turnaround

Chapter 12

ANDREA

Things have been weird between us. Or maybe I just don't know what to do at this point. After Miles sat me down and explained to me in detail what had happened the first night between us, I've been hesitant to go near him. I didn't know what to do. I don't know now if I should forgive him. The truth is, everything that happened before still happened. He did sleep with me and then ghost me, but I also knew that he didn't mean for it to happen that way. But still, it doesn't erase the fact that he had pulled a douchey move. And the paper! He had asked for me to write about him as soon as we slept together, so that wasn't something I could overlook.

I just didn't know what to really do about it.

So, I've been going about my day and keeping a distance between us. Technically, we weren't even that close, but I didn't find myself heading over to annoy him or listen to him annoy me. I was just stepping back and letting this whole thing play out.

"¿evitándome, cariño?" I hear from beside me, and I almost jump out of my skin. I was sitting down on the bleachers, watching yet another game of hockey, but this time I wasn't doing any research. My teammates were going around and interviewing people, and I had chosen to take a step back. Instead, I'd just been watching the game from afar, and I guess I had zoned out so as not to notice that the game had changed already.

I don't have to turn around to know who has spoken to me. Even though the words had made a flush rise onto my cheeks, I said quickly, "Don't call me that."

"It's just a nickname," he says with a little roll of his eyes. I squint at him in amusement, "You roll your eyes more than me now."

"As if," he says with a little grin directed straight at me. I roll my eyes in answer, and I watch the way his eyes follow mine. Averting my gaze, I clear my throat and say, "And I'm not avoiding you."

He is unconvinced as he says, "I mean, we have been seeing each other for three days straight, and you have yet to come over and say something to me."

"I've been busy," I answer, looking down at the journal I hadn't opened the entire time I've been here. Miles shakes his head and says, "Yes, I believe you so much."

I lean back in my seat, crossing my legs as I say, "So what if I were to have been ignoring you?"

"I'd say that it's rude," Miles answers, taking a seat beside me. I instinctively move my shoulder away from his, but his still hits mine. The hockey pads on the shoulder definitely weren't helping to maintain distance between us.

"Yeah, well, you know." I start with a little shrug. "You had accidentally used me to get what you wanted."

"Oh, come on," he chuckles, and even though my initial reaction is to laugh along with him, I don't know. I didn't know if I wanted to joke about that night already, but ever since, I have been different. I'd never had stressed about some guy so much before, and definitely didn't put so much energy into it. There's something about that night that wouldn't let me forget about it.

Forgive.

Not forget.

When Miles had apologized to me. The other day, we had been stressed that his apologizing to me wasn't to make me forget about what he did to me. He said that he apologized to me so that I could know how that night had happened and that he is wrong on many accounts. I wasn't going to be forgetting that it had happened and rather just forgiving him. But he also asked me to not forgive him yet, but maybe I'm already working toward it.

It terrifies me, actually.

Miles stops laughing once he realizes I'm not following him. He clears his throat instead and says, "Well anyway. I think I like it when you have me at least a little bit of attention."