Tom’s POV
“She seriously needs to hurry up” I huff staring out the car’s back window. The two of them stood there intertwined saying their sappy goodbyes as if they were never going to see each other again. He leans down and kisses her forehead like I used to; I feel sick.
Even after he called her desperate Laci still clung to Jack as if he never did anything wrong to her: she drank God knows how much that night because of him, and if she hadn’t stumbled across me on the front porch who knows how much more she would have drank, I wouldn’t doubt that she would have ended up with alcohol poisoning. Who would have found her if I hadn’t, would they have helped her or taken advantage of her drunken state, would she have known them or would it have been a stranger? Ughh, I just don’t understand how she could forgive him so easily as if nothing had ever happened and yet she wouldn’t speak to me nevertheless even look at me. Oh wait that’s because she doesn’t remember that night in the slightest bit, she doesn’t remember him being a dick or me helping her and telling her I still love her, she doesn’t remember the waterfalls cascading from her beautiful eyes or the sweet kiss we shared that confirmed that our feelings for each other still exist; she only remembers me being a complete knob on that night so many months in the past.
“Someone’s jealous” Chris scoffs from the front seat, catching me off guard and breaking my stare away from the ongoing scene outside for a split second
“I am not.” I grumble back at him.
“Yeah okay Daley,” his voice is drenched with sarcasm. “You’ve been in a funk ever since Jack showed up and started hanging out with Laci”
I just ignore him. Was I really that transparent? Did everyone else around sense my jealousy, if that’s what this even was? Everyone couldn’t know could they, I mean of course Chris could read my every thought, I’ve know the kid basically my entire life.
“If you’re not jealous, why are you still burning holes through their backs?” he asks irritating me.
“Just shut up Chris!” I snap at him. My glare instantly shifting away from Laci and Jack and onto Chris’ face.
“Whoa dude, calm down. I’m kidding” He puts his hands up defensively.
“Whatever” I mumble, slouching down in my seat and crossing my arms across my chest.
An awkward silence fills the air between us as neither of us dared to say a word. I had no desire to talk about Lace with anyone, especially Chris, and Chris was obviously too afraid to speak again due to my fit of anger towards him.
“In all seriousness though, why’d you break up with her if you’re only going to be all mopey every time you see her?” Chris asks breaking the sound barrier that existed between the two of us.
Thousands of answers flooded my head: I’m an idiot, I had to escape, my world was crashing down, she was stubborn, I didn’t-I couldn’t agree with her. But all of them would lead to more questions I wasn’t permitted to answer. I made a promised Lace that I wouldn’t tell anyone what happened and I intend to keep that forever.
“It’s complicated” I finally mange to say. It was vague yet it was the truth: everything that has happened between me and Laci was complicated to say the least. Nothing between us could ever be explicitly stated. I still love her and she has never stopped loving me, despite her attempts, and yet we are not together anymore, we would never be together again.
“Don’t give me that ‘it’s complicated’ bullshit” Chris says obviously ticked off by my response. I could see the anger rising throughout his entire being. His breathing quickens and he looks like he could beat the shit out of me, something he has threatened to do many times in the past if I messed with Laci. “You’ve put my sister through hell, and all you can say is ‘it’s complicated’. You can’t even give me a reason why you did it. You owe me that.” He yells at me. I have never seen Chris so angry in my life, yes he was super protective over Laci but I never expected anything like this to come over him.
