The Lifeguard Hates You (Completed)

July Chapter 11

"You hit him," I snap throwing my bag into my room and then slamming the door. I whirl around to glare at Bryce who has been arguing with me from the very moment I got in his car. I'm pretty sure my point is clear but he either doesn't get it or is being obtuse on purpose.

"He deserved it!" Bryce snaps, having followed me down the hallway to my room.

"No! He didn't. Why did you have to make scene? I was merely giving him an orientation!"

"Because that's not what was happening Rory. You heard what he said! A Real Man! Like I'm not a real man!"

"He was trying to get a rise out of you, and you fell for it. Like a CHILD!" I shout.

Bryce glares at me. "Let me make one thing perfectly clear here," he says bearing down on me. "I will not tolerate you spending any extra time or being nice to that asshole. I know you still have feelings for him, but if you seriously think I'm going to sit back and let him talk you into thinking that he has any interest in you then you have another thing coming. Jay wants you back to work. That's it. He has no romantic interest in you. So get that fantasy out of your head!"

I stand there, tears falling down my cheeks as he glares at me. Both of us our heaving. I feel like I may throw up. I know everything he's felt the need to shout at me is true and it hurts to hear it coming from him. As if I had any allusions.

I quickly push past him and towards the door. "Where are you going?" I hear him ask but I don't answer. Before I know it, I'm at Milo's, who bunks with Daphne and Kaitlyn and I'm knocking at their door. Rather insistently. In fact I knock rapid fire until someone answers the door.

I know they have a spare room since Charlie got fired and I wait until someone answer the doors, trying to stubbornly wipe my tears away. Luckily for me when the door is answered it's Milo who is immediately concerned.

"What the hell is wrong with you, chica?" he asks me and I find the tears falling again.

"I just want to sit down and not get yelled at for... like... five minutes," I tell him.

"Yeah, yeah, sure, come on in. Go sit on the couch," he says, letting me in and ushering towards their living room.

"Can I stay in your extra room tonight?" I ask, just as Daphne pokes her head out of the kitchen and says: "I've got Bryce on the phone looking for Rory, I thought I heard her voice."

I immediately start shaking my head and mouthing: "Tell him I'm not here," to her and while she seems confused she puts the phone back to her ear and says: "Nope, I was wrong. Apparently Milo saw Rory run by the house. Looks like she's heading towards the front gate. Why are you two arguing?"

Milo hits me with an appraising stare that I try to avoid. I was so upset I left without a book, I can't even avoid his questioning stares by reading.

"I don't want to talk about it," I say instead hoping that that will satisfy him.

"Not a chance. You don't get to show up here in tears asking to stay over the night and not tell me what happened," Milo says folding his arms over his chest. "Now you can either start talking or I'm going to tell Dee that you want another make-over or something and you'll never get her out of your hair."

"Ohhh, make-overs?" Daphne asks as she saunters out of the kitchen now phone free.

Milo shot a glare at her. "No. Rory's going to tell us what's wrong."

"Oh good, cause when Bryce realizes I sent him on a wild goose-chase and comes back here to scream at me I'm going to want to hold this juicy little tidbit over his head," Daphne says taking the seat next to me. Both she and Milo flip their hair at the same time and I wonder if they realize they've synchronized their movements.

Daphne puts a hand to mine and whispers encouragingly: "Go on."

I realize that there's no point in arguing. They're not going to take no for an answer. So, I take a deep breath and the story just sort of tumbles out of my mouth.