Six Degrees of Seperation (Book Two in the Glen Power Series)

Chapter 20

I don't know where he's taken me. I walked in a daze until we entered some kind of café somewhere. Must be somewhere he's found since we...

I glance up from the table to see him looking at me. That look of genuine concern in his eyes is something I haven't appreciated in a long time. In fact, I don't know how long it's been since I actually looked at him properly.

“I'm sorry for ruining your evening.”

“Don't be. I didn't really want to go anyway.”

I nod with a heavy heart. How did we get to this point in our lives? Wasn't America supposed to be the greatest thing for our future? Something that we were supposed to look back upon with smiles on our faces, knowing that this is what made us?

But look at us. Sitting across from each other in a tiny café, totally uncomfortable in the other's company, not really managing to say a word. In what world is this right?

“So...” he struggles. “How are you?”

“Good.”

“Are you?”

“Yes.” I pause. “I don't know. I just don't know any more.”

“Mark's been looking after you.” His eyes have gone dark and I avoid them as I nod. “I know about...”

“I'm sorry.”

“I should have seen it coming. You couldn't really keep your hands off of him towards the end. I knew you didn't want to be with me any more.”

“It's not like that.”

“What's it like, then?”

“I don't know.”

“You don't know?”

“No.”

“Maybe you need to grow the fuck up, then.”

I stare at him in disbelief.

“Glen...”

“No, Em. I'm serious. I've waited around for you for months now. I sat watching you blank me out after the accident. I dealt with the fact that you wouldn't let me touch you, but threw yourself at Mark. Hell, I wanted to be with you, even after you threw that plate at my head. If you had turned around that night and told me you loved me and that you were sorry, I would have forgiven you. But you broke up with me with a shitty excuse and let me walk out of your life. D'you even understand how much that fucking hurts?”

I don't know what to say. I don't want to interrupt him. As much as this hurts, I know he needs to say it.

“And then I hear that you and Mark have been fucking like rabbits. That you're trying to keep it a secret from us. Why was that, by the way? Because you couldn't deal with that fact that it was completely out of order? Or because you just didn't give a shit about anyone any more?”

I know he doesn't really want me to answer. I know him too well.

“I hate you. I fucking hate you. But only because I'm still so much in love with you.”

That comes like a punch in the gut. But it's only fair. I've hurt him. It's about time that he hurt me.

“And then you have to come storming out of that party crying. You had to go and do that, didn't you? Everything that I've worked so hard on getting rid of comes rushing back and hit me like a bullet. I remembered how I used to make you happy. How it was me you came to when you needed someone to talk to. And now...now I can't help you.”