for, liar

Chapter 71

My head is spinning. This was difficult enough having an argument on our mini reunion date but now I have to deal with the popup of my ex boyfriend. Am I more surprised that Ben is at the state fair or that he thought it would be an amazing idea to intervene with me and Miles talking?

"Who the hell is this?" Miles asks.

This looks bad on my part. Who knows what he's thinking. I've never talked about Ben nor have I talked to him since graduation. I was already mad enough, but now Ben has the fucking nerve to act like he needs to protect me over something he was no idea about.

"Who are you, bro? Why are you yelling and grabbing her?" Ben fires back.

"You literally have no idea what's going on. You can't just barge up here and throw yourself in someone else's problems. Get the fuck out of here." Miles spits.

"I'm not leaving Bree alone with you because she would obviously much rather be anywhere else. Look at her, you're scaring her."

They both face me and my heart is practically beating out of my chest. I'm so incoherent at this point that I'm at a loss of what to do. I have to say something soon or this will never get resolved and I'm still two hours away from home.

"Ben, you need to leave." I say through gritted teeth.

Miles bites down on his tongue to avoid saying something. That was a good decision on his part.

"Do I? I don't think anyone should leave you with this guy."

Miles takes a step forward and I put my hand out to his chest to stop him.

"Miles!" I yell so he'll back off.

Ben's eyebrows shoot up and he laughs. "No way! Hart? You're fucking around with Hart? That's really funny that you couldn't dream of working things out with me but you'll jump right into that scum. I thought you had more respect for yourself."

I turn to go to ask what the fuck he was talking about. I lose grip of Miles' shirt and he tackles Ben to the ground on the pile of stuffed animals. My eyes widen and I panic, frozen in place as my boyfriend is punching the shit out of my ex.

"MILES!" I scream and grab at his shirt.

Ben musters up enough strength to push Miles off of him. His fist makes direct contact with Miles' nose. Dammit not the nose again.

I pick up the lobster off the pavement and beat it upside Ben's head to get him off Miles. He looks at me puzzled, probably wondering if I really expected that to hurt him. I didn't expect it to do anything but catch him off guard.

Miles pushes Ben off and jumps to his feet. He puts his hand over his bloody nose and huffs.

"Ben, get the fuck out of here!" I yell and shove the lobster at his chest to push him back.

He clenches his fist and looks at Miles. "You're lucky, you pathetic bastard. If anything happens to her I'll be the first to go straight to the police. No one in the entire city trusts you so don't even think for a second that they won't believe me."

He walks off and disappears into the crowd of people staring at us. I drag my hands down my face and close my eyes tightly. I have way more questions now and don't even know where to start, but for right now I just want to go home.

"Bree, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"Give me your keys. We're leaving. I'm driving."

He nods slightly, reaches into his pocket for his keys, and tosses them to me. I pick up my lobster from the ground and walk towards the exit to the parking lot.

Miles grabs a handful of napkins on the way out to cover his bloody nose until we could get to an emergency room. The irony of us ending up at an emergency room again with Miles' fucked up nose is hilarious to me but I wouldn't dare to choose this time to laugh and reminisce.

I drive us to the hospital in silence as he's sitting in the passenger seat staring out the window with both hands on his nose. I'm actually able to  find a spot near the door and climb out. He doesn't follow behind me so I walk around and open his door for him.

"You got lucky your nose didn't break the first time you got punched there. This time I doubt it'll be the same so come on." I say and step to the side.

He sighs under his breath and doesn't argue with me. He seems hesitant to go in but I grab one of his hands and drag his ass through the doors anyway.

The front desk lady was very nice and assured us the wait wouldn't be too long.

That was two hours ago.

We've been sitting in silence the entire time we've been here and I've tried to occupy this time by switching back and forth from my dry Instagram feed and playing solitaire. Miles always teases me about playing it and calls me an old lady. He hasn't made any comment tonight but I've seen his eyes wander over to my screen a few times and a smile curls just for a second. He catches himself a few times to stop from saying anything. The reality must have set in and he realizes this perfect night had been completely ruined.

There were so many things I wanted to say to him. So many things I wanted to ask him. I wanted nothing more than to clear all of this up between us but I can't find a good way to start off this conversation while we're sitting in a hospital waiting room. I didn't want to argue again.

They finally call Miles back and he gets up without saying a word to me. My nerves are shot so I decide to step outside and call Maddy to let her know what happened in case she was waiting for me to get home. I doubt she is. I'm pretty sure she has to work tomorrow.

"The emergency room? What happened?!" She asks through the phone.

I lean up against a pole outside the front doors. It's gotten even colder since we pulled up here. I shiver and shove my free hand into my jacket pocket.

"Me and Miles got into an argument about him leaving and then fucking Ben shows up out of nowhere and starts a fight with him! Miles tackled him and then Ben punched him in the face and I'm pretty sure his nose got broken so I took him to the emergency room. They've been super busy and they just now took him back." I ramble.

"Ben was there? Since when does he go to literally any public setting?"

"I know right! It was so weird!"

"Not as weird as him punching Miles, like what the fuck did he do to make him so angry?"

I groan and screw my eyes shut, trying to think back to what he even said. "He either knew Miles or knew of Miles because he called him scum and said no one would believe him if something happened to me."

"Whoa, what? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I have no idea but as soon as he gets checked out, I'm talking his ear off. I'm sick of waiting around for an explanation. I think I deserve it by now."

Revised;