Chasing the Browns

Chapter Twenty Six - Part Three

Chapter Twenty Six - Part Three

‘It’s you, Lea. It’s always been you.’

The whisper rang in my ears.

I grabbed Nick’s other hand and he pulled me close – so close that our noses touched – and his lips had just brushed mine when realisation dawned on me and I pulled away.

There was a silence.

I waited for Vince to laugh, but he didn’t. Neither did Jack.

Smile fading, Nick bit his lip. ‘You don’t believe me, do you?’

But I wanted to. I really, really wanted to.

‘How am I supposed to?’ I asked quietly. ‘You’re lying! You’re in love with Rita, remember?’

He didn’t say anything.

My eyes widened. ‘So, you did lie to me, then?’

He shook his head, weary. ‘Lea, I made a promise to you, remember?’

‘You said you would never lie to me. Is that true?’

‘Do you want it to be?’

‘B-but…’ I trailed off. No, this couldn’t be right. This was just a way to lure me in, right? So that he could kill me instead of Jack, right? The tears were coming back again. I wiped at my eyes, sniffing. ‘If you…if it really was me, then why didn’t you say anything?’

‘I couldn’t. Jack…he blackmailed me.’

I turned ever so slightly, my sight snagging on Jack who was sporting a grin so wide I thought it was going to split his face in half.

‘He said…’ Nick broke off, looking away.

I unlaced one of my hands from his, gently touching his face and turning it back. ‘What did he say?’

‘He said that if I told you, he would kill you.’

By this point, I wasn’t particularly surprised. Death to Jack was like a game. And, right now, he was winning.

I nodded slowly, focusing on his bare chest. ‘But…what about Rita?’ I asked. ‘Nick, tell me everything.’

‘That day when I walked into the classroom, when I saw you and realised you were the one that I was supposed to lie to – to manipulate and seduce – I knew that I just couldn’t do it—’

I couldn’t help but laugh a little. ‘What, like love at first sight?’

Ugh, how cliché.

A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. ‘Something like that.’ His smile turned sad. ‘And I panicked. Like, I didn’t have a clue what to do, so instead of acting like how I wanted, I did the total opposite. And, when I went back home and told my dad that I couldn’t do that to you – lie to you – he told me to carry on being horrible bastard, because that way you would never guess. If you knew how I felt, I wouldn’t be able to lie to you, and you would be able to find out everything, therefore making me vulnerable. So, I had to distance myself from you…and they decided to do that by telling me to pretend to fall in love with someone else—’

‘—Rita,’ I finished.

He nodded slowly, looking down at our linked hands. ‘At first I…I was angry. Really angry. I dealt with it really badly. Those horrible things I said…I didn’t mean them. I didn’t mean any of it. And I can’t even begin to apologise for the way I lashed out at you, Lea. I—’