Chapter 40: Fuck Off

Aaron's point of view:

I'm gonna tell her.

I am going to tell her.

This is my moment.

I've got myself hyped up, completely ready to tell Cassie how I feel.

I'm going to do it.

And then she turns around and hands me the sandwich i asked her to make for me—so I could have more time to work up my nerve to tell her how I feel.

Correction: I was going to tell her how I felt.

There's just something about looking into her eyes that does something to me, makes me so much more nervous.

Her eyes are beautiful. Everything about her is beautiful, but her eyes especially.

"Are you going to take the sandwich, or..."

I break out of my thoughts to see Cassie staring at me with a weird look on her face, and i realize I zoned out.

I take the sandwich from her and lift it to my mouth to take a bite.

Her eyes remain trained on my mouth.

I stop lifting the sandwich to my mouth and place it on the napkin in front of me.

"Cassie, you like me, right?"

Her eyes widen, and she looks away from me, diverting her eyes to the island surface.

What hurts, though, is that she doesn't answer.

Wait, that means yes, right?

I stare at her waiting for her answer, and she eventually lifts her eyes to mine.

Right as she opens her mouth, barking and the sound of paws hitting the floor enter the room, and Cassie laughs as the three of her dogs crowd around her.

I crack a smile and watch on.

Blue turns around and sees me, and just when I think she's about to huff at me, she walks closer and nudges my hand with her head.

I watch her, waiting to see if this is a trick, but when he nudges my hand again I slowly reach up and ruffle her ears, hesitant with my motions.

She comes even closer to me and I grow more confident with my movements.

Blue lets out a sigh against my body, and I smile down at her.

She's a really cute dog. And, for some strange reason, she reminds me of Cassie.

"I guess she likes you," Cassie says, and I look up to see her eyes burning into mine.

Burning into mine like she's trying to tell me something, trying to get some secret message across.

Before I can ask her a question about what that secret message might be—because I'm not catching on—the doorbell rings.

Zeus and Pickles immediately shoot off like bullets to bark at the door, barking, Blue staying next to me, and I shoot Cassie a confused look. "You expecting anyone?"

She returns my look with her own face of confusion and shakes her head. "No." She pauses, thinking. "Do you think Girl Scouts sell cookies in December?"

I have to laugh at that one.

I stand up from the island and start walking towards the door, Blue trotting along next to me, keeping pace with my steps.

Beautiful dog.

As soon as I step into the front hallway, the excited barks of Pickles and Zeus fill my ears, and I fight a wince.

They're jumping around my feet, racing between me and the door, and I shake my head with a smile.

When Cassie first got these three, I wondered why. Three dogs for one shorter than 5'9" girl doesn't exactly add up.

But now, now that I know all of them, I know that Cassie made a great choice in getting all three of them.

I manage to get around the two fellas, Blue calmly following me, and open the door.

I start out with a smile on my face, but that quickly falls away once my brain fully registers who's standing in front of me.

The one and only Kyle fucking Buchanan.

His eyes widen as soon as he sees me, and he tries to discreetly take a step away from me.

I should kill him, or at least physically harm him in some way, but I know Cassie wouldn't want that.

I actually don't know what she wants, but I'm telling myself she wouldn't want me to hurt him because I don't want to hurt him; hurting him unprovoked will result in me getting in trouble.

A scowl grows on my lips. "What are you doing here?"

He opens his mouth to speak, but a low growl coming from my left causes him to close it.

I glance down to see Blue staring at him, her muscles tense and her posture defensive.

Not good.

As much as I want to, I can't let her bite the dick standing in front of us.

I'm not able to get a words out to tell Kyle to fuck off, because another car pulls up into the driveway, and out steps Tiffany.

Is there a magnet in Cassie's house that is attracting all these people that have less personality than a fruit fly?

"Kyle," Tiffany yells from her car, her heels clicking on the cement as she walks closer. "What the hell are you doing? You said we were done. You said you were done with her."

He turns around to face her. "Now is not the time, Tiff. Go. We'll talk about this later."

You messed up there, buddy.

"Talk about this later? Talk about this later?" she screeches, her voice rising an octave. "We will not talk about this later. We're going to talk about it now. You promised you would stop, Kyle. You promised."

"Don't you know he always breaks his promises?" a voice chimes in from behind me.

Fuck.

I feel Cassie hop on one foot next to me and she places a hand on my shoulder to steady herself.

Why isn't she—

I left her crutches at Grace's house, didn't I?

I'm a dumbass.

I reach down and wrap an arm around her waist, helping to support her, and Kyle's eyes turn darker.

"You're jumping between guys now?" he asks her, his tone dark, his hands clenched at his sides.

"Watch it," I warn.

I could hold myself back from hurting him if all he was doing was standing on the porch harmlessly, but insulting Cassie is another story.

"Wow, like your opinion matters to me. Fuck off, Kyle."

That's my girl.

Well, not my girl, because she's not mine.

Yet.

Kyle just needs to leave so i can make the whole 'making her my girl' thing happen.

Kyle sneers. "I'm not going anywhere until you admit you're still in love with me."

My blood boils and runs cold at the same time.

There's no way she's still in love with him.

Right?

I feel her tense against my side, and I squeeze her waist with my hand. She remains tense for a while, but after a couple of seconds, she relaxes.

"I don't love you, Kyle," she says evenly. "I don't think I ever did, actually."

He looks taken aback by her words.

Huh.

Didn't think he had feelings.

But suddenly, his face goes from shocked to angry again.

"You don't mean that," he says. He sounds angry, but I can hear the desperation and hurt in his tone. "You're still the same lying bitch you always were."

Okay, maybe I was wrong about the hurt and desperation thing.

"Alright, that's enough. Get off her property."

His gaze shifts to mine. "You don't get to order me around."

I release Cassie, making sure she's alright before I completely move away, and take a step forward, towards Kyle, who tries to, once again, discreetly take a step away from me.

"I'm not telling you again," I say, my voice low. "Leave before I make you leave."

Almost like she's backing me up, Blue steps forward out of the house and growls at Kyle, baring her sharp teeth.

Kyle's eyes widen and his face pales as he takes in Blue's aggressive stance.

"Fine," he says, clearing his throat to hide the panic.

He turns around without another word and stalks away, getting into the passenger seat of Tiffany's car.

Did he seriously walk here?

Tiffany turns to me and I raise my eyebrows.

We already discussed our breakup, and in that discussion I layed out, quite clearly, if I do say so myself, that I didn't care what she tried to do to me or my family.

Safe to say she's not going to tell anyone anything about Autumn.

Her eyes quickly glance behind me—she must be looking at Cassie—before she brings her eyes back to mine.

"I get why you broke up with me."

I was expecting her to say a lot of things, but that was not one of them.

"You...do."

She nods, sending my a small, and sad, smile. "I do. You guys are great together, and I saw that, even when you weren't together, and I just... I don't know. I couldn't handle it." My eyebrows furrow and she lowers her eyes in shame. "I'm sorry," she whispers. "But...Kyle asked me to do it, and I—"

She cuts herself off and I give her a nod, placing a hand on her shoulder as I give her a smile.

She nods back and looks around me to give Cassie a smile. "He's lucky to have you."

"...Thanks?" Cassie replies, her voice filled with confusion.

Tiffany gives Cassie and I one last smile, and then she moves away towards her car and gets in he driver's seat.

A second later, the car pulls out of the driveway and drives away.

A lick on my hand catches my attention, and I look down to see Blue staring up at me, her head tilted to the side.

It's almost like she has a questioning look on her face, and I reach down to pat her head.

"Aaron," comes a soft voice, causing me to look at Cassie.

She has a skeptical expression, but there's something else too. I can't place it, but it's almost like...

Hope.

I straighten up. "I think we have some things to talk about."

---------

We are almost there! Yay! I was going to make this chapter sad, but then i changed my mind because a) it would've messed up the whole plot and b) it was really sad and I'm not looking to cry anymore today.

So, yeah. Anyways, I think I've mentioned this before, but I am rewriting this book; I've decided to write it in past tense, and a lot of things will be different. This version will stay up—I can't bring myself to delete it—but, hopefully, the rewritten version will be better.

Well, that's it for me. Until next update (which will be on either Sunday or Monday).

--Rose

P.S. My friend suggested a ship name for Cassie and Aaron:

Caron.

It's pronounced like Karen.

Jade, if you're reading this—and I know you are—I booked that flight and am ready for our fight. Be ready.

Anyways, what are your thoughts on the name? Any other suggestions?