COMPLICATED.

CHAPTER 17

TOO LATE

I’m breathless. I’ve been running for I don’t know how long. The school hallways are deserted, eerie and silent, matching the mazes of my nightmares. I want to hide, to slip into a black hole where no one can find me. But Leo is a persistent shadow; he keeps shouting my name, his heavy footsteps echoing against the linoleum.
​I pick up the pace, but he’s faster. He blocks my way at the emergency exit, bracing his arms against the doorframe. I’m at my breaking point. I can’t stand the sound of his voice anymore; I can’t stand his very existence in my space.
"I won’t say it again. Let me through," I hiss. My tone is a sharpened blade.
Leo turns pale; he’s not used to hearing me speak like this, stripped of any trace of sweetness. He’s lost, but he doesn't move.
"No, Emma. You have to listen to me, please..."
"Do you want another slap? Because I’m very close to giving you one," I reply, my voice trembling with suppressed rage.
​I try to turn the handle, but his hand snaps over mine, stopping me. The contact makes my skin crawl. It’s as if a reptile had touched me.
"Don’t touch me. I burn just looking at you."
"You aren't leaving until you hear the truth!" he shouts, desperate.
"The truth? Which one? More carefully crafted lies? You already made a scene in front of the whole school, isn't that enough?"
The vision of him and Sasha hammers at my temples. The mud of shame still covers me.
"She was the one who kissed me! I didn't have time to react!" Leo yells, the veins in his neck bulging. "I would never hurt you on purpose!"
"Sure, because sleeping with someone else for eight months while I waited for you was just an accident, right?" I look at him with a disgust so deep it almost calms me. He’s a worm.
​"Emma, I love you! We can fix everything, you can't just leave New York..." he stammers, beginning to lose control.
"It’s too late," I whisper, turning my back on him.
In a split second, I feel his brute strength. He shoves me against the wall, pinning me with his strong arms. The coldness of the wall contrasts with the suffocating heat of his body.
"Leo, stop! You’re hurting me, let me go!" Tears fall, betraying my facade of strength. He doesn't let go. His pupils are dilated, fixed on mine. He’s terrifying.
​"Don’t you ever dare touch her again, or I’ll ruin you for good!"
Nick’s voice cuts through the air like a gunshot. He appears out of nowhere and flings Leo away from me with a violence that leaves me paralyzed. I take cover behind his back; Nick is my shield, my barrier against the monster.
Leo bursts into a fit of sobbing, humiliated and defeated. He gives me one last look filled with a sick kind of love and runs away, vanishing down the hall.
​The silence that follows is heavy. I’m still pressed against the wall, unable to move a muscle. Nick turns to me. His face is a mask of tension. He reaches out to wipe away a tear, but my defensive instinct kicks in fiercely. I shove him back.
"Are you okay? I see pushing people is becoming your new hobby," he comments, trying to regain his usual sarcasm.
"ARE YOU OKAY?! You’re asking me if I’m okay now?" I explode. "Where were you for the last two days? You disappeared! You didn't answer your phone, not a sign of life! Do you think that’s normal?"
"I had nothing to say to you," he replies, cold.
​Those words hit me harder than Leo’s shove. Two days of dying from guilt, wondering if I was the one who ruined everything with that kiss, and he... he just had nothing to say to me.
"Nothing to say? Is that your explanation? Nick, we need to face reality. That kiss..."
"That kiss was a mistake," he interrupts me sharply. His words are stones. "It shouldn't have happened. I don't know what came over me. I’m sorry, Emma. We’re friends. I messed up."
​I stare at him. His eyes are dull, devoid of any readable emotion. It’s as if he’s built a concrete wall between us. A mistake. Just a damn mistake.
The pain I feel is searing, sharper than any betrayal from Leo. Because with Nick, it was real. Or at least, I thought it was.
"Perfect. I’m glad we’re on the same page," I reply with a voice I don't recognize, filled with a mortally wounded pride. "I’ll see you around, Nick."
​I turn and walk away, my heels clicking furiously on the floor. I hear a dull thud behind me—the sound of a fist hitting the wall with violence. I don’t look back. I can’t.
The Nick chapter is closed. And that’s what hurts the most.