Tethered Hearts | ✓ | Books 1 & 2

Episode 29| Say What You Want

Bryce's P.O.V.

There's a point in many movies where the lead – usually an oblivious, clueless protagonist that couldn't see the truth if it hit them upside the head—says something so bizarre, so downright idiotic, that it causes the entire cast to look back at them in befuddlement.

That mirrored what had just happened, here in the lobby of my apartment building. Sophia had taken a one-way plane ticket to looneyville when she settled with the strange conclusion that I wanted to get lucky with her. She had stripped our relationship down to something solely physical, as if I had been leading up to this opportunity for weeks.

I stuck my hand out, stopping the elevator doors from closing. I planted my feet, firmly on the ground. Putting forth a blank stare, I dismissed the sprouts of annoyance that were making way in to my thoughts. At last, I gave her a single glance. "How long have I known you?"

"Not very long. I met you in the beginning of September." Sophia delicately swept her hand through her hair, pushing it past her shoulder. "At least a month, I'd say."

That's not one-hundred percent true.

A year ago, I met the highly impressionable Freshman that was Sophia Álvarez. It was during the first quarter of the fall semester. Conner was the one who found her struggling in the parking lot with a box, yanking it out of her trunk. Conner had said something about how he knew her. I suggested to help.

After bringing her boxes in to her dorm, it led to a conversation with Conner that made me believe being with Sophia meant trouble.

I didn't want tragedy to strike for a second time. Loving Julia taught me that sometimes you had to put other's lives before your desires.

That's all she is, I had thought a year ago, a lustful desire that would distract me from the growing gash in my chest, left by nonother than Julia.

I funneled my energy into my work, thinking that money could somehow fill-up the missing pieces.

Any promiscuous activities I had started earlier that year vamped up, peaking into a haze of sensuality.

Conner was too busy staring at the bottom of his glass to regulate me. What could've he done, anyhow? He was no better than me.

An addict can't frown at a fellow addict. We could only wallow in our sins together, numbing the world into a canvas of fuzzy backdrops and swirling colors. Praying that the morning after wouldn't be as modifying as much as it was fun.

I saw Sophia again in a class that term and I left the interactions in the realm of my imagination and never put purpose to my infatuation. I got worse, much worse.

Like I thought when we first talked last month, most girls don't like it when a guy with a fuck-load of tattoos already knows your name. I played it off as if we were strangers. Conner, for another time, told me be cautious like he knew something I didn't know.

Before Kelsey stepped into the picture, Conner and I had promised that we wouldn't get hung up in a relationship. I had stayed true to the oath we shared, and he had given up four months after being introduced to Kelsey.

I wouldn't tell Sophia about the first time we officially met eye to eye, because that would be creepy. Girls didn't find that type of shit romantic. I bottled it up into a jar, shelfed it along with every other significant memory in my life, and housed it there until further use.

"I want the keys to the car." Sophia flattened her palm out for me to give her the keys. "I'm tired of repeating myself."

"I wouldn't be preventing you from going if it wasn't for a good reason. You're not safe on campus."