Bittersweet

Bittersweet: Chapter Twenty

THIS BOOK IS CURRENTLY BEING REWRITTEN AND HEAVILY EDITED. NAMES, PLACES, AND SOME SCENES WILL BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. SOME STUFF WILL BE TAKEN OUT AND SOME WILL BE ADDED.

THE INITIAL PLOT STAYS THE SAME.

So, if you begin reading as of 5/21/2021 and choose to read ahead further than I have updated-some things might be confusing or might not make sense. As of right now and will continue, slowly, adding the new chapters as I write them. CHAPTER TWENTY has been rewritten & updated.

**IF A CHAPTER HAS BEEN REWRITTEN/EDITED THE ^^ABOVE^^ NOTE WILL BE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CHAPTER.

***TRIGGER WARNING**TRIGGER WARNING**

This chapter contains scenes of sexual assault/violence that may be triggering to some audiences. PLEASE proceed with caution.

Chapter Twenty

Eliza

I was beginning to think I had a problem. A big one.

As soon as I walked up on Austin and Madison in that parking lot, I felt myself slowly dying inside. It was like every single amazing moment I had with him flashed before my eyes as a series of events that I could no longer let myself cherish. You see over the past month, things had shifted for me. I no longer lived in a fantasy world where I believed a knight in shining armor, named Jack, was going to sweep me off my feet. Why? Because for once in my life, my reality was far better than anything a fairytale could offer me. Even with the dramatics between the two of us, simply having Austin in my life was enough to make me want to stay and absorb every single detail of this genuinely real experience I was having with him.

Because of that, here I was, utterly broken. Not only that, but I was angry. I felt stupid for being so damn blinded by what I felt for him that I ultimately gave him the ability to make me feel as devastated as I did the moment I saw them together.

I was even angrier that he took advantage of it.

Like I said before, it wasn't that it was much of a surprise to me-him being with her. I guess I just thought that I'd never have to witness it. I never thought that he would be the type of man that would let me witness it. Come on, I knew good and well at this point that we would never be together like I wanted but a part of me truly believed that in some fucked-up way, Austin did care about me enough to not hurt me more than I already was.

Man, oh man, was I wrong. What I witnessed earlier was like a knife to the heart.

As I willed my shaking legs to take me back to The Gin, I found myself becoming more impulsive by each passing second. This was a different kind of impulse, though. This time, I felt reckless. I'd already learned that nothing good ever happened when I did something without considering the consequences first. But at that moment, I couldn't see reason.

All I could think about was getting out of there-away from the one person that was capable of breaking me to the point of no return. I knew that things with Austin and me would never be the same after tonight. I kept telling myself that it was okay-that I should have expected this from him. That I knew this was coming. It was a small town, I was stupid to think that something like this wouldn't happen sooner or later.

I guess you could say that's what lead me to be sitting shotgun in Tucker Wells jacked-up Bronco, listening to some god-awful rock song on full blast.

Let me start off by saying that it wasn't my intention to get in his vehicle, period. Much less alone with him. As I replayed the past half hour in my mind, I realized just how thoughtless I was.