Prove It

Chapter 24

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

As soon as Tristan got into his car he banged his fists on the steering wheel. He was too wound up to drive. He knew now why he didn’t want to be in love. Love made you vulnerable and it had a way of magnifying your insecurities making you do stupid things. Like start fights for no reason. Or walk out on your girlfriend.

Sierra would never cheat on him. He was as sure of that as he was that he was messing up everything. But it was impossible to shake the small voice that constantly reminded him that he thought the same thing about Jessica. How long will the memory of what happened with his ex haunt him? He thought he’d forgiven her. He thought he’d left the hurt in the past, but all he truly did was ignore it. He was still tethered to his pain. And he didn’t want to live like this.

So why did he expect Sierra to?

It was selfish of him to think he could be with her and not have to fix himself first. Sierra was the most caring person he’d ever met. She hated confrontation. She never argued with him and he couldn’t remember a time he ever heard her raise her voice. She was loyal and fun and never tried to be anything but herself. How could he expect someone like her to be okay with the way he was acting? He trying to force her to accept his bad attitude and his impulsive behavior when that wasn’t who she was. Was that even who he was?

It was clear that he had no clue what he was doing, but he knew couldn’t leave things like this. He owed Sierra an explanation.

~~~~~~~~Sierra~~~~~~~

Sierra sat in disbelief for a long time after Tristan left, expecting him to walk back through the door. Did Tristan really give her an ultimatum and then walk out? Who does that?

She went for her phone as soon as she found the willpower to get to her feet. She looked down at the cell and fought the impulse to call Tristan. What do you say to your boyfriend after he walks out on you? Even if she did know what to say, Tristan was being so dense it probably wouldn’t make a difference. He didn’t want to listen to her and she didn’t want to fight over the phone. She didn’t want to fight with him at all.

She thought back to Tia’s birthday party when she first told him how she felt. He said he wasn’t ready. She should have believed him. She was naïve to think love was enough to fix everything. If things were going to work, Tristan had to start letting her in. And they had to talk about Jessica. His past with her was going to be a part of their life whether Sierra liked it or not, so they were going to have to learn how to deal with it so Tristan can finally move on. That’s if he wanted to move on. What if he was still in love with his ex-girlfriend? What if Tristan secretly wanted Jessica back and Sierra was just the rebound?

Sierra shook her head. Tristan would never want a girl who cheated on him back. And, even if he did, Jessica couldn’t have him. She went through too much to get here and she wasn’t going to give up now because times got hard.

--------

“I thought sex was supposed to make guys more relaxed and calm. Did I not do it right?” Sierra complained.

“Who told you that sex makes guys calm and relaxed?” Tia asked.

“I don’t know. I heard it somewhere.”

“Girl, that is not true. Maybe after you’ve been having sex for a while, it might have that affect, but I had issues with Tony, too, after the first time. He drove me crazy. He followed me everywhere always wanting to know where I was, what I was doing. He called me every ten minutes to check in with me. We almost broke up because we couldn’t figure out how to be on the same page.”