Good at Games, Bad at Love (18+)

Chapter 23 - Exposed

Peter's words make my heart sink and I feel the tears want to flow, but I stand strong. I try my hardest to keep it together. He doesn't deserve my tears. I can't say a word, nor move.

Then he keeps going, but his speech comes out so fast that I'm having trouble processing it, "Kelly, I know I don't owe you any justifications, I know I broke up with you. But I don't feel good about this at all and had to tell you. Look, I don't even know how this happened, or how you and I got to this point. Yesterday I was venting to Becky about you and us, and I really thought you had given up on us. We got a few drinks at our place. Look, it happened, I feel sorry that it did because I still like you, I really do. I've explained this to Becky. She feels sorry too. Things between us are cleared up. It was a moment of weakness. Kelly, please say something."

I close my eyes and take a deep breath; I don't even want to believe the pain and rage that I'm feeling. I open my eyes and I'm furious. I'm absolutely furious. But I try to appear calm and not looking at him to avoid exploding. 

I finally talk to him, keeping my voice low, "You are a hypocrite. You made me feel bad about going out with Hardin because I ruined the surprise you prepared for me. But what you did was much, much worse. I've been trying to change these past few weeks, to be good, to give you space, so you'd trust me again."

"You're right. I'm sorry." He takes my hand, but I pull away. 

And this time, I look him in the eye to make sure that what I'm about to say hurts him.

"Don't touch me. No, Peter, I'm not forgiving you. And I'll tell you something else: you don't need to feel sorry, you can stay with her. I can assure you I won't be thinking about you anymore. I'll move on and find a guy to forget about you. Or several. As you've said yourself, I can't be with one guy at a time. You're not special and I'll forget about you very quickly."

"Don't say that. Please, Kelly!" I ignore him, head inside and put on the best poker face I can. I head to the kitchen where Becky's doing the dishes and Marcus is drying it and putting it away.

"Becky, I need to talk to you. Can you please come with me to the hall?"

"Yeah, sure."  She looks apprehensive for a second, then relaxes her face and wipes her hands, "Marcus, are you good?"

"Yeah, I'll keep doing the dishes. Go on."

Becky and I head to the hall by the exit door so we get more privacy. She sits on the stairs leading to the rooms and I'm standing. Unfortunately, Peter follows us and I don't even have time to start talking to her.

"Peter, can you give us some privacy? I have to talk to Becky."

"Talk about what? I need to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk to you, please get out of here so I can talk to my friend," I say and Peter lifts his eyebrow.

"I bet you're gonna talk about me, so I should be present."

"Well... I think I'm the one who's overcrowding the room, clearly you're the ones who need to talk." Becky gets up but I hold her arm.

"No. You stay. He goes." I look at Peter angrily.

"Okay, but when you're done with this conversation, I need to talk with you, Kelly." He turns around and leaves, and Becky sits.

"Well, what I want to talk to you about is..." I start, but she interrupts.

"Is it because I was with Peter last night?" I feel my stomach twisting, but keep it together.

"It's not that. I should have had this conversation with you a long time ago. I just wanted to apologize. I shouldn't have hooked up with Peter while you were with him. I'm sorry. I hope one day you can forgive me. And I shouldn't have hit you. Your words were harsh, but I deserved to hear them."