Beneath Our Faults (30 page)

She winced, her face turning white as a ghost. Her shock drew her away from Vic and I swiftly moved around her to grab him by his collar. He pushed back against my chest but I held on dragging him out of the house like he was the size of Theodore. I tossed him on the lawn when I reached the last step like a used rag doll. "If you ever come into this house again, I will beat the living shit out of you. Do you understand me, asshole?"

My mom bumped into my side, sprinting to Vic sprawled out on our lawn. "Vic, I am so sorry," she rushed out, kneeling down on her knees by his side.

"You're sorry for him?" I screamed at her, getting every neighbor's attention on the block. "This fucking creep just watched me have sex with my girlfriend, offered her a job as a porn star and called me a bastard, but you're sorry to him? Shouldn't you be saying that to me?"

She staggered to her feet, brushing her long hair away from her face and perusing her enlarged lips. "You are the one who started this whole fiasco," she cried out, pointing at me and I noticed the tiny glimmer of wetness in her eyes. "You shouldn't have said anything. Why can't you just let me be happy for once?"

"Please, tell me what the hell you aren't happy about Layla? You've never had to take care of me so you're unhappiness is nowhere near my fault. You're unhappy because you've fucked up your life so bad you will never be able to fix it? It is not my fault you fucked a guy and had a kid with someone who didn't want you!" My voice grew quieter. "You fucked up my life, too. But you know what? I realized it before I turned out like you." Her mouth dropped open into a horrified expression.

"You don't mean that," she mumbled, running her hands down her too-tight neon pink dress.

"I do."

"You just wait you little shit," Vic warned, pulling himself to his feet and hobbling to his car. "You'll get what's fucking coming to you." He looked at my mom and opened the driver's side door. "You coming or what?"

Her head nodded and she looked away from me.

"Pathetic," I spat out, turning around and walking away from the woman who gave birth to me but never once choose to act like a mother. I turned away from the woman who chose a man over her own son; her own blood. The entire house shook from the force of me slamming the door shut from behind me. The lock clicked around my hand and I twisted my body around to turn up the stairs but my legs stumbled into something hard on the bottom step.

I glanced down to see Daisy curled into a ball with tears flushing down her red cheeks. What had she seen? She scrambled to her feet and shuffled backwards away from me. "Baby." My mind instantly flew to the worst-case scenario where she left me. "Say something," I choked out, desperation clear in my scratchy voice.

"I want to," she blew out, throwing her hands to her sides. Her dark eyes smoldered into mine. "I really do but I don't know what to say after all of that."

I stepped closer to her causing her to take a few steps back. Stopping, I held my hands out. "We both know I've done some stupid shit. I won't even try to deny it, but that was all before you. You can't stand there and try to chastise me for something I did before I even met you!"

Daisy stared at me motionless. "It's just," she stopped, looking down at the floor and trying to find the right words to dump my ass. "It's just too much for me to handle right now. You're too much for me to handle. This," she gestured between the two of us then around the room filled with broken glass. "This isn't something I want. This isn't the kind of relationship for me."

I rolled my neck around. “Here we go again. You don't want me?" I shouted, slamming my already bloody fist into the wall. My eyes glared daggers into ones that could barely meet mine. "Quit playing games. We both want each other and you can't even try to deny that. I am in love with you." The words fell out of my mouth, shocking the two of us but I didn't stop there as I began pacing in front of her. "Do you understand how hard it is for me to love someone and let them in? I have given you everything I could possibly give and I just want something in return," I stressed before stopping in my tracks as realization struck me. "You were never going to give me a chance were you?"

“What are you talking about? I did give you a chance!” She said, stumbling back a few steps. “You just don’t understand.”

"You think I don't understand hurt?" I fired back, my hands dropping to my sides. "I'm a bastard child whose parents want nothing to do with him. My dad doesn't even want me to know who he is and my mom stays away screwing people on camera because I am nothing but a mere reminder of the guy who didn't want her. The only reason I am here right now is because I am her paycheck. So you may have lost one person in your life but I have never had anyone in my life to lose."

Her head jerked forward. "You have me," she whispered. "No matter what happens between us, I will always be there for you."

No matter what happens between us? She was just trying to break up with me for no goddamn reason. "Wrong," I seethed. "I thought you did but you're all the same. You needed a distraction and a fuck." Her head whipped back at my crude words.

"You don't mean that."

I laughed harshly. "The fuck I don't. You got what you wanted. Now you can leave me the hell alone."

"Keegan," she breathed out, walking towards me but I held out my hands to stop her.

"Get out of my house," I shouted and she winced. Whipping around, I stomped to the door, swinging it open.

Her shoulders slouched and she clutched her arms around her body like a barrier. "Just talk to me. Let’s talk about this.”

"Too late," I answered. "Leave."

"But-"

I held my hand up and over talked her. "Daisy, get the fuck out of my house!" I roared. I wasn't sure how I went from having hot as fuck sex with my girlfriend to punching my mom’s boyfriend to kicking Daisy out of my house. She sighed, rubbing her eyes with her knuckles and walked passed me.

I knew I was being an idiot but I was done. Done with all of them. I tried everything to get the girl but sometimes even when you try your damndest, you can't always win. I tried to fix her but should have remembered the number one rule about fixing broken people: you always get stuck with their sharp edges.

M
Y EYES
singled in on Keegan passing me with a skinny red head arms wrapped around his torso. They merged through the lunchroom crowd and stopped at his old lunch table before lounging in a chair. Red head's arms folded behind his back as she parked herself directly on his lap, practically straddling him in front of everyone. Memories flashed back of the last time Keegan and I were in that position together.

I regretted the words I said to Keegan but he wouldn't listen to my apologies. In fact, he never bothered to answer any of my calls or texts. From everything that had happened that day and what I heard, I was in shock.

"You know he's only doing that to piss you off, right?" Lane said, a soft and sympathetic look passing through his features. He had repeated those same words to me everyday sine Keegan had kicked me out of his house. "He's actually pretty beat up about whatever the hell happened between the two of you that you both refuse to tell anyone about."

Cora scoffed, throwing her braid over her shoulder. "Sure looks like the jackass is so distraught. I sure hope you don't let other girls bathe your neck with their tongues when we have an argument and you are," her voice lowered to mimic Lane's, "pretty beat up about it. Puh-lease."

Lane's eyes whipped over to Cora. "Babe, I wouldn't ever pull that shit but what you three don't understand is that this is all new to him. Daisy is the only girl he's ever cared about and you hurt him."

My head snapped to look at Lane. "I didn't do anything," I snapped, slightly annoyed at me getting the blame. "Just because this is his first relationship doesn't mean he can just do whatever he wants then say, "Oh my bad, I'm new at this, and get away with it."

Lane puts his hand up to stop me from saying anything else. "And I'm sure he hurt you too. Both of you just need talk to each other. This silent treatment, immature bullshit isn't going to do anything but make it worse. Silence is deadly in a relationship."

"Obviously, we don't have a relationship. I've tried to talk to him but he ignores all my phone calls," I grunted, leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms.

"Give him time," he shot back, his thin lips creating a small smile.

I shook my head. "Nu uh. I'm not going to give him time to hook up with all of his groupies and wait for him to decide he's ready to be serious about our relationship. I might not be able to save this relationship but I'm at least going to save my pride."

"Stay strong, girl," Gabby said, beside me, patting my head and looking across the table to Lane. "And when did you become some relationship guru, Dr. Phil?"

Lane's smile grew, spreading from ear to ear. "I'm a fucking genius on every level. I know how to treat the ladies." He grabbed Cora's head and kissed her cheek.

Cora rolled her eyes and the bell rang, causing everyone to start filing out of the lunchroom. Sliding out of my chair, I dreaded what was coming. My muscles were practically jumping out of my skin as I headed to my next class - with Keegan.

He hadn't shown up for school the next two days after our fight. When he finally did, he acted like I was invisible. Sitting down in my usual seat, I spotted him heading towards the opposite side of the room from me. "Heya, Daisy," Dirk greeted, throwing himself into the chair next to mine and tossing his books on the desk.

"Hey," I answered, but kept my eyes on the back of Keegan's head while he talked to the girl next to him.

"So I was wondering if you wanted to get together this weekend? We could go to dinner and see a movie?"

Before I could even muster up a lame excuse to tell Dirk, the loud boom of a book falling on the floor brought my attention back to Keegan. He whipped around in his chair and his eyes were glaring daggers at the guy next to me. "Dirk, I don't give a fuck if Daisy is with me or not. If you ever touch her, I promise you will never touch anything again because I will break every finger on that scrawny hand of yours."

Dirk chuckled. "Ah come on, Keegan, you never care if anyone has your leftovers. What's the deal?"

My body flushed in embarrassment, coloring my features of Dirk announcing to the entire room that I was his leftovers. Keegan surged out of his seat, causing the chair to slide against the floor. "What did you just say?" He screamed, stalking his way to us and I noticed his firm knuckles clenched into fists.

Oh shit.

I hopped out of my chair and made it in front of Dirk's desk before him to block him from Keegan. The sad part was that Dirk actually let me.

"Move Daisy," Keegan barked, his eyes blazing fire at Dirk. If looks could kill, Dirk would have been annihilated instantly.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "No, because you will do something stupid and get expelled."

He bit out a laugh. "You think I give a damn about getting in trouble? This is none of your business."

"I'm pretty sure it is considering this entire argument is about what he said to me."

"Dude, I'm sorry. You know I didn't mean it like that," Dirk choked out from behind me. As much as I wanted Dirk to suffer for his stupid remark, it wasn't worth Keegan getting in trouble.

"See, he just apologized," I informed Keegan, in case he didn't hear, and gestured to the jackass.