What Deceit Looks Like | ✓

17: cassidy

It's been two weeks since I'd made the decision that I was going to end things with Noah for good. Jupiter asked that I take time to think about it, and at the end of the time, my answer was still the same. A lot had changed in that time as Dean and I became fast friends after he finally had a much-needed conversation with his dad that led to him calling and asking for a job at the bar. We'd smoothed things over after Dean apologized for being drunk at the gala, and I'd started training him at the bar. He was a quick learner. I have a sneaking suspicion that has more to do with his time at college based on Maddox's stories than his time spent at the bar.

Things have been going well with Maddox too after I slowly started to let him into my walls. He hadn't said anything about Paige yet, but the more parts of himself he showed me, the more I knew I was making the right decision.

Which leads me to the present.

I knock on the door, taking a shaky breath as I prepare myself for the conversation that's about to happen. Noah opens it immediately, frowning, "You know you don't have to knock."

I smile tightly and don't say anything as I step into the place I've lived the last three years. Except there's a lot of things different. The couch has been replaced, and there are actually things hanging on the walls, the goddamn television is back. There's no way he has enough money for all this stuff.

"Noah, what is all this?"

He shrugs, "Just some things I found for sale and thought I'd treat myself." I look him over for the first time in a long time noticing the expensive clothes he's wearing.

"You clearly haven't learned anything," I snort, folding my arms over my chest.

Noah bristles and stands taller if possible, "I think I've learned plenty."

"I didn't come to fight. I just wanted to talk." There's no point in us fighting. We could go back and forth all day.

He doesn't back down, clearly itching for us to fight, "You just want to talk? Let me just go put on a fancy suit, and I'm sure you'll look great in the black dress you stuffed in the back of the closet. Then we can talk."

I clench my fists at my side and let them go with a breath out. "You're being unfair."

"How am I being unfair? This was never just a scam for you was it?" Noah asks, moving closer to me.

"Maddox is a good person."

And then he laughs. Noah fucking laughs at me. "You really think he's going to want to be with you when he finds out who you are? What you've been doing to people like him for years? CJ, I thought you were smarter than that."

"I thought you were smarter too, but it looks like you're going to drink yourself to death just like my mother is," I hiss back at him, slowly losing my grip on my temper.

"Maybe it's the only way people can put up with you," He says, leaning in, and my heart stops.

I swallow my feelings down, striking him where I know it will hurt, "Or maybe it's the only way you can live with yourself for not being enough."

Noah tilts his head, looking at me curiously, "I thought you said you didn't want to fight? I guess that's just another lie like when you said asking for space wasn't a breakup. This feels pretty much like a breakup."

My jaw drops, "I don't want to fight. I just wanted to talk, but you're the one spending money like it's growing on trees." He cups my face just like he used to and presses his mouth hard on mine. Once I overcome the shock and taste the bitterness of the alcohol on his lips, I shove him back hard. "You don't get to do that."