Evangeline Lawrence has a secret. A big secret. One involving her birthday, the player, August Griffin, who's (almost) like a brother to her, and a kiss the night before he ran away. No one else knows about it, aside from August, of course, and Evan...
The coolness in my brothers tone and eyes shocks me. They used to be best friends, what happened? Me? Could I really be the reason they hated each other or was there something else they weren't telling me?
"I see you've got yourself... reacquainted with my sister," he sneers.
Beside me I can feel August, tense and ridged. The air is thick with anticipation and my stomach is leaping nervously. A sick feeling settles over me.
I feel August's stare burning into me and I look over at him. His eyes trail over my face. His eyes are tender, longing, and melancholy. After a second he turns back to Nathan. It only takes a fraction of a second for his warm brown eyes to turn steely and cold.
"You... you..." his voice is shaking with barely concealed furry. "You fuçking bastard! How the fuçk could you?! You fuçking lied! You're a fuçking liar! You fuçking kept her away from me!"
Nathan's face is expressionless. "You don't love her. You want to play with her. She's just another toy to you. If you had ever really loved her, you would have come back for her. You-"
"Don't tell me what I feel! You aren't me are you sure as hell will never be me, as I would never keep ANYONE away from who they loved!" Augusts face is red with rage.
"You don't love her."
"If you fuçking think that, you must have been living under a fuçking rock! I'll bet you fuçking knew. I bet you fuçking knew and I bet you didn't tell her I called. Actually, I know know you didn't fuçking tell her!"
"You're a player. You play with girls emotions. You toy with them and leave them hanging. You will never, ever be good enough for her."
I open my mouth to retort, to say that he is good enough, that he's more than good enough, but the words seem to freeze on my tongue as August seems to loose some of the redness in his face. His breath comes out in gasps and his eyes are wide. I can feel the pain radiating off of him and for the first time I realize how much this must be hurting him.
I turn to Nathan, my eyes blazing.
"You idiot!" I yell. "How can you say that?! You don't know him anymore. You don't know him because you chose to lie to him, your best friend! And you chose to lie to me, your sister! Don't you see what your doing, Nathan? Your breaking him! So just stop, okay? Just stop because he's right."
Nathan looks stunned but I don't care. I don't care because August is looking at me strangely. And not a good strangely, the type of look that makes my blood turn to ice. He can't believe that Nathan is right, can he?
"Evangeline," August's voice is barely audible. He never says my full name. Nobody does...
"Evangeline... I-" his voice breaks. "Maybe... maybe Nathan is a liar and a bastard but... but he's also right. I... I'm no good for you." He swallows. "You deserve someone who can be there for you all the time and that's not me. I'm not dependable and I can't always be there. I've hurt people and I've lied. I-"
"I don't care!" Tears are stinging my eyes as I fight to keep them at bay. "I don't care! I wouldn't care if you killed a billion people. It wouldn't matter!"
"I care." His voice is cold but there's something fragile about it. Like the ice on a puddle that's just froze.
"But-" I try.
"'But' nothing. This could never work. We could never work."
"August. Please, just listen for a-"
"My God, Ann!" He erupts. "You just don't get it, do you? You think that this could be a "happy ever after," don't you? You think this is a fuçking fairy tale! You think that people can change, that I can change. Well, I can't. It's as simple as that. I can't change. In fifty years, I'll be the same fuçking person I am right now and right now, right now, I'm a player. I play with emotions. And guess what? I'm a fake. A liar. I pretend to be someone I'm not. This, this is not me. I would never fall for someone. Not ever. In the end, I'd just hurt them like I hurt other girls. It's better to end things now, before I do that to you."
Tears are falling like snow in a blizzard down my face. My vision is blurry but I know August isn't looking at me. I know he's walking away.
"Don't you see?" I whisper to his departing figure. "Don't you see that I don't want you to change? I don't want someone dependable, someone perfect. All I want is you. And you are hurting me, August. You're ripping me apart."
He doesn't turn around, just keeps walking. As he fades away, I slowly sink to the ground.
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