Overtime

“Whoa, calm down, Kacey,” Lacey said from the doorway, Mena Jane cradled in her arms, but Kacey’s gaze didn’t leave Jordie’s.

“No, I don’t have to calm down because this asshole used me like a pair of gloves and threw me in the Dumpster without even a reason why. All I did was admit I loved you, and I really did think you loved me back. But no, you completely shut me out. How dare you? After all we went through, after all we shared, after what I did for you. I mean, I was commuting from Minnesota to Colorado for you! So obviously I meant business. So please, Jordie, explain to me why I didn’t mean more to you?”

“I didn’t use you, Kacey,” he said softly, his eyes averting like the coward he was.

“Oh, really? So that’s why you answered my calls and my texts after I left your cabin on New Year’s?” When he didn’t answer, it only made her madder. “I was nothing to you. Just an easy fuck, and when shit got deep, you moved on to the next slut. Like you always do. Can’t stay with one person, because they’ll fuck you over like every man in the world fucks your mom.”

“Kacey Marie!” Lacey scolded, but Kacey rolled her eyes. Lacey didn’t know half the shit Jordie had done to her. The heartbreak he caused. When she looked over at him, his eyes met hers and she saw the pain and hurt in his eyes. But she refused to let that affect her. He broke her. She wouldn’t be sorry for saying the damn truth.

“No, you were more than that. And don’t use my mom to hurt me, that’s fucking low,” he said, cool as a cucumber to her, but she knew differently. His mom was a low-blow subject and she was wrong to use it, but she couldn’t hold it in. She was just so damn mad.

“Really? But it wasn’t low or rude that you didn’t answer my texts or calls?”

“I was scared, Kacey,” he said softly. “You scare the shit out of me.”

She only glared. What a fucking stupid thing to say. He didn’t say shit like that, because he wasn’t scared of anyone! He didn’t let anyone in to be scared of them, and she didn’t believe him for a second.

“Bullshit. Tell the truth, Jordie. You didn’t answer because I made you feel something more than what you were used to.”

“That’s the same damn thing, Kacey. That’s what I fucking meant,” he yelled back at her. But that couldn’t be true…

“Bullshit! You don’t mean that. You rejected me and made me feel like I wasn’t worth anything!” she yelled, her eyes clouding with tears. She wouldn’t let them fall though. No matter what, she wouldn’t. He didn’t deserve her tears. It enraged her that he walked in here, assuming they would be cool after all he did. He ruined her.

Honestly broke her.

She knew she should have been smarter and not fallen as hard as she did, but she couldn’t control her heart. It did want what it wanted and she just followed it. For some reason, it always led to Jordie. Always.

“You’re right,” he said, his gaze burning into hers. “And there isn’t a day I don’t regret it.”

She didn’t expect that, but then again, that was Jordie. He was quick to say sorry but never owned up to his mistakes. If he meant any of what was coming from his lips, he wouldn’t have hurt her the way he did. He wouldn’t have let her walk away and ignored her for months. He would have been there for her like she had been for him when he was facedown, lying in his own puke, drunk. She was always there, cleaning up and believing that he would change. It was the injury, it had to be, that had had him so depressed. So she loved him extra hard, and yet, he still tossed her out on her ass.

Her lip started to wobble and she looked away, sucking in a deep breath. Looking back at him, her eyes in slits, she asked, “Really? Well, wanna know what I regret?”

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