Not Prince Charming (Completed)

22 - breathe

“I deserve nothing more than I get. Nothing I have is truly mine.”
~Dido

“If I see you twenty-two inches close to me, I’m gonna knock your teeth out!” Ad warns, shoving past Wesley and me.

Wesley stared at him hysterically. “knock my teeth out? Does that not mean you’d have to have a strong fist and a firm thrust?”

“You think I can’t take you on?”

“Oh sweet butt, I know you can’t take me on.” There’s a dark smirk on his face as he finishes saying these words.

Hadid storms to Wesley and shoves him in the chest, causing Wesley to stumble back many steps, maybe more than he should have.

“Put your dicks aside and give me peace in this house!” I snap as I walk out of my room to the parlour where the riot is taking place.

Wesley chuckles and raises his hands before walking out of the house.

“I still don’t know why we have to live with him!” Hadid exclaims exasperatedly.

I sigh, “Because that’s what friends do.”

“Tell me something, Avril, if you knew I had feelings, strong feelings for you and I was willing to pursue that feelings until we were in the same bed, having sex, would you have let me live with you?”

I frown, but no words come out as I open my mouth. “Yeah? That’s what I thought!” He says, sounding disappointed. He grabs his jacket and walks out.

“What do you want me to do? Send him away? He has nowhere to go.”

Last week Wesley came out to his father both about his sexual preference and career desire and I don’t know which one triggered his decision to make Wesley homeless but one did because a day later, Wesley was at my door with his bag packed in along with him. He told me he’d been to three of his friends who bailed and told him he couldn’t stay with them and I was the last place that came to his mind.

I felt guilty because it was my idea that he comes clean to his father and so his homelessness was partially my fault. So I let him in to live with us until he was able to get his shit together.

“Maybe that was what he wanted you to believe.” He murmurs under his breath, but still loud enough for me to hear it.

“So you’re saying I’m easily fooled?”

“Yes, Avril! You’re easily fooled. With Brian, with Noah and now Wesley.”

His words hurt me more than they should and maybe they do because he’s right, but he’s not the only one who can spit out hurtful words.

“Well, at least I’m not the one being insecure and insensitive!” I retort.

His eyes narrow darkly, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s exactly what you think it means,” I say and walk past him out of the house.

Coming outside, I realise it is dark and cold and I know I should have thought about taking a jacket at least, but I was not thinking straight. Wesley had gone out without me knowing where he went and I need air to breathe because I’m suffocating in that house.

After everything I’ve been through today, I owe it to myself to breathe and feel a little in control, even if it’s a brief lie.

Soon my legs wander to Kool, a bar I spot across the road I make my way to the counter and take my seat on the stool and the tall, slim, short-haired blonde, the twenty-something bartender walks towards me and his eyes dim curiously.