Beginnings and Endings [complete]

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

My hands tangled in his hair and I moaned into his mouth as he kissed me fully on the lips. Shit, he was good. Travelling hands tugged at the buttons of my shirt but I pushed them away gently, earning a disappointed grunt, replaced shortly after by a satisfied groan as I trailed my fingers up his abs to his chest.

Today would mark the first day I've seen him since after the two week mid year break, two weeks since our first anniversary, one year and two weeks of being together. Three hundred and seventy-nine days of an almost perfect relationship.

Almost.

His watch blipped, and I groaned. The blip marked seven in the morning, signalling we had to go. Granting me a long, hard, lingering kiss on my swollen lips, Dom lifted himself off me with a sigh. "C'mon," he said, straighening his shirt and patting his hair back into place.

I sat up reluctantly, retying my hair and smoothing the creases on my shirt; taking his hand, I let him haul me to my feet and we took the back staircase down to the canteen and to the locker room. There, he popped open his locker - our locker, I reminded myself with a smile - and like the gentleman he often chose to be, moved aside to let me take my books out first.

"How was camp?" I asked nonchalantly, pulling out a heavy Maths textbook with difficulty from its place squeezed between a sketchbook and a Science workbook.

"Alright," he said slowly, but from that tone alone, I knew something was wrong. Pressing my lips tightly together, I struggled not to say anything before he finished.

"Met this old girl from kindie," he went on to say, oblivious to my growing distress, "and I think I like her."

I froze, halfway arranging the books I had to take out to pull out something else back in the small space. Did he just say... My heart felt like it was being clenched until it tore. Admit it, Adrianne, I scolded myself lightly, forcing the welling tears to stay down. You saw this coming miles away. You just let him break your walls too many times.

Now and forever, forever and always, my ass, I thought bitterly, biting my bottom lip so hard it bled. Pulling out my notebook, I nearly slammed the locker shut in distress. His dark eyes were looking at me, expressionless, waiting to see the reaction of pain he so longed for.

Sadist, I thought, disgusted.

The refusal to relent overtook the pain and disappoinment that would be thought over later, and I let out a slow breath. "Okay," I said simply, completely monotonous.

Surprise made his eyes widen. You bastard, I wanted to scream. You sick, sadistic son of a bitch. How could I love you? Why do I love you? I amended, glancing at him. "You seem..." he fought for the right word. "...calm," he ended lamely.

Calm, bullshit, I nearly voiced, fighting the urge to glare at him and burn holes in his eyes to leave empty, charred sockets. Instead, I forced a smile at him, and pushed past him to get back to class.

I think I like her.

The five words echoed in my head over and over again, amplifying ten times each second it repeated. People moved out of my way when they saw my expression, and I had a clear path to my class.

I collapsed into my chair, grabbed my jacket and buried my face in it, oblivious to whoever greeted me by name. Why are you so surprised, so hurt? a voice in my head asked curiously. You knew it would happen. You saw it coming. From the start, you saw this happen in your head and you knew it was the future.

Unconsciously nodding my head, I forced myself to look up and rub the tears away from red eyes. Shit, I hate it when I cry, I look like a walking tomato. Swallowing down a stream of curses, I answered that voice with a curt, yes I knew. I always knew, I just lived under the illusion that he wouldn't and that I was happy. Yet I love him too damn much to end this. What hurts was how he told me, and his expression after. He wants a breakup - he just doesn't wanna say how.