Without You

chapter twenty one

CALISTA 

IT'S MY birthday today and I'm having the worst day ever. For starters I woke up late so I was in a rush to get to work and then everybody decided to get hurt today so I've been running around all morning. I haven't even seen Morgan yet but have the pleasure of running into Ethan.

"You didn't show." I accuse as we cross paths in the break room briefly while I'm filling my bottle up.

Ethan looked like a deer in headlights. He coughs awkwardly, "No, I didn't."

"And you didn't tell me." I add.

He shrugs, "Sorry." He doesn't sound sorry at all.

I nod and purse my lips. "Yeah me too."

My eyes narrow and he watches me with an almost bored look. I almost crumble at his coldness towards me.

"Why?" The question hangs heavy in the air between us.

As he's about to open his mouth with some bullshit excuse I cut him off, "Actually never mind. I don't want to hear it, you don't deserve to give me an explanation."

I turn to walk out of the room, not wanting to cry on my birthday for once and Ethan decides to open his fucking mouth.

"I only asked you out cause I felt bad for you and thought that you were easy." I stop in my tracks but don't respond.

"Everybody knows what happened to you. And I thought if you were stupid enough to stay in that relationship for so long that you'd be an easy lay. I changed my mind last minute though, you weren't interesting enough."

My heart crumbles and falls slowly to the bottom of my stomach, making me feel sick.

"You don't know what the fuck you're on about." I snap at him and turn around.

"You're so pathetic, you know that right? Who the hell would stay for four years? It's your fault for not leaving." His voice is full of judgement and it makes my skin crawl.

Tears gather in my eyes and I pinch my leg to stop them from falling as I respond. "You don't know what it's like and even though you're an asshole, I hope that you never find out. I don't know why you've gone out of your way to be so fucking horrible to me when I've done nothing to you. And I don't know why you've decided that you can have an opinion on my life when you so clearly shouldn't."

I take a pause to breathe, "And I'm not fucking easy, I'm not naive and I'm definetly not pathetic. If anything you're the pathetic one here. So stay the fuck away from me if you know what's good for you."

All Ethan does is roll his eyes and my anger flies through the fucking roof. The audacity of this man makes me want to kill myself. I absolutely hate how much power men seem to have over me because no matter what I do I can't seem to get them to respect or listen to me. It makes me feel so disrespected and frustrated.

I decide to leave before I slap him in the face and start walking out of the room for a second time. "You're a cunt!" I shout at him and turn before he can see the tears streaming down my burning cheeks.

I spend the next twenty minutes in the bathroom sobbing by myself.

I though things would be different this year, because for the past three years Wyatt has forgotten my birthday and it upset me every single time. I thought this was going to be a good day.

Through my blurry eyes, I attempt to call Morgan on my phone and she picks up instantly.

"Hello?" Zane's voice reaches my ears and I double take.