Prove It

Chapter 31

                                                                         ******Tristan*******

Tristan was running late. He had no idea if she'd still be there. He entered the park and saw her sitting in the grass under a tree by the park's north end. She spotted him right away and smiled. He could sense she was nervous but she looked happy to see him. He couldn't say the same about seeing her. She was as stunning as he remembered but all he felt when he looked at her was regret. He didn't want to fucking do this. He walked toward her anyway.

"Thanks for coming," he said.

"I didn't think you'd ever talk to me again. I had to come," she said.

He leaned against the tree she was sitting under. "I wasn't sure you'd be here considering how we left things the last time."

She looked away. "About that, I owe you an apology. I can't believe the way I acted. It was embarrassing.

Tristan didn't want to go there. He suspected she was just trying to get on his good side and that annoyed him. He decided not to dwell. He didn't care to hear her apologies. "Don't worry about it. I'm not mad."

She released the breath she was holding. "That's a relief."

He watched her while he spoke. "I wasn't in a place where I could hear you out then, but I'm willing to listen now. I want to know what happened to us, Jess."

Jessica seemed to be caught off-guard. Her smile faded. "Is that why you asked me here? It's in the past. Why can't you let it go already?"

Trying to deflect as usual. He didn't want to talk about it either. But he didn't have a choice. And if he had anything to say about it, neither did she. "You don't think I want to? My life would be so much easier if I could forget. Too bad closure doesn't work that way. I need to know why you cheated on me. That's why I asked you here."

She looked embarrassed. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Too late." His dry tone seemed to upset her. Did she think he asked her here to catch up and chitchat like old friends? He wanted her to understand that he wasn't here to rekindle anything. This was all about moving on.

"You really want to know why I cheated?" Dealing with Sierra had chipped away at all of his patience and he had none left at the moment. He crossed his arms and waited. "Okay, if you insist, let's talk about it." She craned her neck to see him. "Can you sit down so I don't have to look up at you?" Tristan chose to sit at a nearby bench about two feet away from where he was standing. He knew she meant for him to sit next to her, but he couldn't be that close. Not while they talked about this.

"Do you remember your first swim meet of senior year? It was pretty remarkable. You won first place in every event you raced. I think you were a fraction of a second away from breaking some school record or something. We were all ecstatic. The coach, me, the team, everyone." She raised her eyes to meet his. "Everyone, except you."

Tristan remembered. No one had come that close to breaking that record in over twenty years. Coach was so proud. He couldn't stop bragging about it. His father, on the other hand, didn't see anything to celebrate. Tristan could still hear his dad criticizing his technique. He'd won every heat and it still wasn't enough. It was never enough. With clenched fists, he looked back at Jessica as she continued.

"You didn't go out with the team afterward like normal. I hoped it was because you wanted to celebrate alone with me. You took me straight home instead. It bothered me but I didn't say anything. There were a lot of things I should have said and never did. You were suddenly hard to talk to. You stopped having fun and stopped smiling and I couldn't ignore it anymore. I waited for you to talk to me about it and you never did. And then I noticed you with her. You talked with her. She made you smile. When you were with her, you were the old Tristan again. That's how I knew I was losing you."