You Know I'm Never Gonna Let You Go

Alex

"So, Alex, how about you? Met anyone special?"

I stare at her for a few beats, my heart rate increasing. If I was going to tell her, now would be the time. But I just couldn't get myself to open to my mouth and say the words that she should probably hear. So instead I just respond with a muttered: "No."

She gives me a weird look before I turn away from her, looking out the window. We didn't say anything after that, but I was still burning with rage after the story she just told me.

It was hard to imagine that she had moved on. Yeah, we haven't been with each other for three years, but picturing her laughing and kissing some other guy made me see red from so much anger. Avery isn't mine. I don't have some claim over her. But knowing this guy was better than me in making her happy set me off.

I sneak a glance over at her, a mystified look on her face.

When she told me that her date with this Josh character was the best she'd ever been on, that was what truly got me so worked up. She had said for the longest time that our first date had been her favorite, and now that it wasn't was inexcusable.

We drove for a couple of hours, driving over into the next city. It was close to seven p.m., the sky getting darker and darker by the second. Stars began to appear.

Avery said something about finding a hotel, but I was barely listening.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever."

We went down the road for a few more minutes before a hotel came in sight. Avery parks it in the lot, mumbles a, "Come on" and then gets out of the car. I sigh and step out, taking my bags out of the trunk. She locks the car before we go inside.

We collect the key for our room before heading toward the elevator. "I think we should go out to dinner, you know, try some places," Avery says as we wait in the hall.

"Nah," I shake my head. "I'm tired. Why not just stay in and get room service?"

The elevator doors open and we get inside, Avery automatically pressing the floor for our room. "I've been in a car with you all day," she says, pointedly narrowing her eyes at me. "I'm not staying in a room with you too when I can get out for dinner." More glaring.

"But I'm tired. Can't we just stay in the room?" I whined as we moved down the hallway, easily finding our room. Avery slides the key card in, swinging the door open.

"Seriously, Alex, you sound like a five-year-old ki--"

She stops as we step into the room. Her eyes widen at the sight of the one bed. A smirk adorns my face as I see it too. I look over at her, the smirk widening. "Awesome," I say, my voice full of laughter. "One bed. That will be cozy."

She turns her head to meet my gaze. "If you think for two seconds that we are sharing that bed, you are sorely mistaken, mister." She throws her bags down haughtily.

"Oh, don't get your panties in a twist," I scoff, dropping my own luggage.

"Well, I'm sorry," she snorts, crossing her arms over her chest, "that I don't want to share a bed with my ex-boyfriend." She plops down on the couch with too much force, huffing and making sure that the back of her head was in my direct line of sight.

"Oh," I remark, venom creeping into my tone. "So now we're gonna talk about that. I understand the whole being ex's ordeal, but why do I feel like their is more hate coming from your end of the relationship?"

"What relationship?" she exclaims, standing back up. "We aren't together!"

"I know!" I snap. "I'm not talking about a romantic relationship. I'm talking about...what the hell we are now! You seem to be a hell of a lot more bitter than I am, which makes no sense because you are the one who fucking left me to begin with!" Her face was shocked, but she quickly composed it. But I didn't give her a chance to speak before I was yelling again. "I don't understand how can you can hate me so much when I feel like I didn't even do anything!"

"Didn't do anything?" she immediately fires back at me. "You feel like you didn't do anything? Well excuse me! I thought it was pretty obvious you had done something when I came downstairs three years ago to find you naked with my best friend!"

I fell silent. Oh shit. She knows about that? But...I thought...I thought...

"Why didn't you tell me you knew?" I ask quietly.

"It was the last straw," she replies. "I was so sick of our fighting and the petty arguments. And then when I saw you there..." She takes a deep breath. "I had to leave. I couldn't just stay there. I had to get out as soon as possible."

"Did you ever consider how that would make me feel?" I ask, scrunching my brows low over my eyes. "Did you ever think that you disappearing would hurt me?"

"I don't know," she speaks. "Sometimes it didn't seem like you cared for me."

"You couldn't have been more wrong then," I answer. There was a tense silence before I pick up a pillow from the bed and throw it on the couch behind her. "You can have the bed," I tell her. "I'll take the couch."