Living with the Millers

Chapter 28 - Caught

Chapter 28 - Caught

As I stormed into the bathroom, it was like I was seeing red.  Hot anger burned through my veins, sending away any rational thought and replacing it with fury.  How could Ben do this to me?  I had thought he was different, but this whole time he was entertaining Monica, too.  I felt stupid and mortified.  I had let Ben in, and in less than an hour it had bit me in the ass.

I flung the door open, still clutching the blanket around my bare chest.  With Ben's phone still clutched in my hand, I flung the shower door open to find Ben looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Someone knows how to make an entrance." He chuckled.  The teasing tone in his voice just made my temper flair even more.  With all the strength I could muster I threw the cellphone at his head.  He ducked just in time for it to miss him, rebounding off of the opposite wall and shattering on the floor. "What the hell?!" He shouted.

Oh god, I had lost my mind.

But in that moment I didn't even care.

"Get the fuck out of my room and go slithering back to Monica like the snake you are!" I screeched, pointing to the door.  I wanted him gone.  I needed him out of my sight.  If I kept looking at him, I just might strangle him.  All of a sudden it was like all the blood drained from his body.  His face went white.

"What did she say to you?" His voice was calm and collected, the opposite of my hands shaking in rage.  It made me hate him even more.

"She didn't have to.  Her contact picture on your phone says it all!" I pointed at the broken phone on the floor. "She called you, by the way.  You may want to call her back on a different phone.  Yours seems to be broken."

"Can you stop for a second?!" He yelled, making me jump.  He tried to grab my shoulders, but I jerked away.  Suddenly I was very aware that we were both still naked. The only thing between us was the blanket wrapped around me, which was getting heavier by the second, now weighed down with water. "I'm not with Monica.  I haven't talked to her in so long that I forgot she even has a contact picture."

"Bullshit," I hissed, grinding my teeth.  The urge to slap him was growing. "You're an asshole, Benjamin Miller.  A lying, cheating, scumbag asshole." With each word I shoved my pointer finger into his chest, forcing him to move backwards until his back was against the shower wall.  Even though I was several inches shorter than him, I felt like I was towering over his flinching frame. "I can't believe I fell for your tricks.  Was it just a game to you to get into my pants?  Well congratulations, mission accomplished!  You fucked me, so just get out!"

"I love you," he blurted, making me freeze.

He, what?

I clamped my mouth shut, suddenly feeling minuscule in the shadow of his words.  They hung heavy over us, feeling like a weight that couldn't be lifted.  Finally, I found the strength to breathe again. "How dare you say that to me?" My voice came out shaking, barely more than a whisper.  I was still shaking, but all the anger had seeped out of my body and turned into fear.

"Because...I..." I looked him in the eyes, and it became clear that he hadn't actually meant to confess his feelings. "I just..." He sighed, wiping a hand over his face.  I was trembling. "Look, Monica...I have a history with her, and-shit." He wasn't looking at me.  In fact, he was looking anywhere but me. "I'm not with Monica.  I haven't been in a while.  Not since you came around.  She calls me sometimes because...She had an abortion, Shiloh."

I sucked in a breath.

"A couple months before you moved here, she told me she was pregnant. We couldn't tell our parents, they would kill us, so she did the only thing she could do..."