Chasing Elliott - Published

chapter thirty seven ... three little words

Alexithymia (n.)
difficulty in experiencing, expressing, and describing emotional responses.
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"Nice of you to finally make an appearance," I mocked as I brushed past Cooper to unlock the apartment. Quickly walking inside, I threw my keys on the counter and turned around with my arms folded over my chest.

Cooper slowly closed the door behind him before turning to me with a sad, far off look on his face and he held the flowers out to me. I stared at them before looking back up at him and sighed as I leaned against the counter.

"Look, I'm sorry, Elli. I just needed to clear my head," he apologized as he sat the flowers down on the chair and gave me a sad smile. "It was just a rough night for me and I overreacted."

"Why does Jonathan bother you so much?" I questioned as I relaxed my posture slightly.

Cooper sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "It's a long story but we don't have a great history is all."

"Yeah, it is kind of hard to have a good relationship with someone who slept with your ex girlfriend."

He stiffened suddenly as his eyes widened but I stood there, emotionless. Cooper very noticeably swallowed and shifted his weight between his feet before he wrung his hands together. Cocking a brow, I stared at him as he began pacing in front of me.

"How'd you find out?"

I scoffed as I glanced up at the ceiling before looking back at his distraught face. "Does it really matter? What matters is I didn't find out from you. Why did you hide that from me?"

"I was ashamed, okay?" He snapped as he stopped and looked at me desperately as he threw his hands in the air wildly. "I let her walk all over me and even brought her home to meet my parents and then she stabs me in the back. What am I suppose to say?"

"You could've told me that was why she was so hung up on trying to split us up," I fired back, growing frustrated. "You had so many chances all those times I complained about her going after me and King or all those times we ran into her when we went places. But you hid it from me and I still don't understand why."

Cooper sighed loudly again as something suddenly seemed to flash across his features before his eyes narrowed in on me. He went from distraught to angry as quick as the snap of my fingers and it startled me.

"You want to talk about hiding things from each other?" He started to say as he took a small step towards me. "What about the fact that you lied about your family?"

"What on earth did I lie about?" I asked, confused as my eyebrows furrowed.

"I heard you and Benjamin talking in the alleyway," Cooper told me which caused my entire face to fall slack. "When you guys didn't come back I went out on the balcony. Why didn't you tell me any of that?"