La Douleur Exquise

Eighty

"Because I like you."

From the pained expression on her face, it wasn't what Darcie wanted to hear. With her eyes tightly shut, she shakes her head and frowns. Getting up, she adjusts the jersey she's wearing and grabs her bag, kicking my leg and motioning for the door behind me. 

"I'm leaving," she announces. "That means you have to leave, too."

Confused as hell about what's happening, I stumble to my feet and follow her out the dance studio and back to the entrance. "Did I miss something? What did I say? What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" Darcie practically shouts. Pausing at the door, she grabs my arm and yanks me outside, locking up behind her. Once we were outside, she lowered her voice and hissed, "You do not get to say you like me. You don't get to date Mia, then try to kiss me and then say you like me."

"But you like me back," I assert.

"No, Nixon, I don't," Darcie's words are like a slap across my face. Stumbling backwards, I stare at her, my jaw hanging open, wondering when she was going to tell me that she was joking. She doesn't. "I used to like you back but do you know what I've learned recently? I only ever liked the idea of you. You're an asshole who plays with people's emotions, stringing them along for your own benefit. Trying to kiss me was just your way of being in control. It's an ego boost to you to have girls fawning over you but I am done with propping you up, Nixon. I'll be your RG if you want but I am done fawning all over you."

Pushing me aside, Darcie starts to make her way towards her car. Beeping her car open, she pauses momentarily before turning back to me and saying, "What did you think I was going to say, Nixon?"

Without giving me a chance to reply, Darcie gets into her car and drives off. Feeling defeated, I return to my car and sit there, thinking over and over what just happened. I hadn't really expected Darcie to say she liked me back because that was a slim chance but I was expecting something slightly better than what I got. 

I mulled it over in my head, wondering if Darcie's accusations were true. Did I string people along simply to boost my ego? I mean, whenever girls flirted with me, I enjoyed it and despite dating Mia at the time, I never discouraged them. That doesn't mean that I strung them along, though. Does it?

I mindlessly drove across town until I came to a stop outside Harlan's house. I wasn't sure why I chose to come here but the longer I sat outside the house, the more I came to understand the reason. Getting out of the car, I stroll up the driveway and climb the steps slowly, reaching my hand up for the doorbell. A few seconds after the buzzer sounded, the front door swung open. 

"Do I string girls like Darcie along because it's an ego boost for me?" I ask.

Lauren, dressed in a unicorn onesie and holding a cup of hot cocoa, stares at me momentarily before she laughs. "Yeah, Nix, you do." I let out a long sigh and brush my hand through my hair, frustrated that I'd never noticed this before. Pulling the door open, Lauren invites me in. "Come in, silly, and I'll make you a drink. Then I can tell you all the ways that you are an uber douche. Take the piss out of my onesie and you die, Campbell!"

Laughing, I step inside and close the door. "I wouldn't even dream of it."