The Twenty Year Triangle

Chapter Forty-Four

A nervous look flashes through his eyes, and he sits up straighter and nods.

" I know you feel I owe you an apology for leaving."

"I do. Of course, I do!"

"I don't," Oliver argues. "Not everyone is 'owed' what they think they're owed. Is it fair? No. It's super unfair to you actually, and I am sorry about that part of it, but I won't apologize for leaving."

"Then this is getting off to a bad start," I say feeling my cheeks starting to warm up already.

"I think you need to hear my side of things to get what I mean by that," Oliver says slowly. "Kinsey we didn't break up that night. That night was the break, but we'd been breaking up for months, we were having the same fights over and over."

"I know," I say with a long sigh. "But you-"

"Hold on," he stops me. "I did some questionable things in our past, and I knew that the pact with Hunter and the summer Hunter rejected you for me... I did those things to fight for us, to give us a chance, but I was always left to wonder what would happen if Hunter ever told you the truth. I was always insecure about our relationship, because of how it came to be."

"But.."

"I know," he cuts me off. "It was my own fault, that I had that insecurity, but, it wasn't always like that. We had this great beginning, we fell madly in love, we lost our virginities to each other, couldn't take our hands off each other, and had all these amazing times, until..."

"Senior year," I offer.

"Before senior year," he corrects me. 'Your jealousy of Erin... that's what really started to change my feelings on things. I was a little worried before, but I felt secure with us, especially after the summer of 2001. Then we started back up at school, and Hunter had a serious girlfriend, I thought this was going to be great, we could all double date and all four be friends, and any remaining worries I had would be long gone."

He lets out a humorless laugh. "The total opposite happened. You were so jealous of her that it hit me like a ton of bricks."

"I won't insult you by denying now that I was jealous of Erin, but at that time, that's not what I thought it was. I thought she wasn't right for him. But I did try and accept her and I was nice to her."

"Kinsey, come on, Erin knew you hated her. She always knew, how jealous you were," Oliver says. " and I was pissed about it."

I blanch at the biting tone towards the end.

"I'm sorry, but I'm just being honest," Oliver says. "Did I do the wrong things in the past? Yes. But we had been a serious couple for over a year, and you being jealous of a girl our best friend was dating was bullshit."

"Yore right," I admit. "I was jealous of her, but in my defense, I honestly didn't see it like that. She was so bitchy and –"

"Stop," he cuts me off. "Was she a little assertive and blunt, yeah, but any bitchiness you perceived was her feeling defensive about you, and what could she do? Hunter would always defend you."

"You're defending Erin?" I raise an eyebrow. What gives him such insight into her stuck-up little head anyway?

A strange look crosses his face that I can quite read, and I furrow my eyebrows in confusion as I lean closer, tilting my head.

"This isn't about Erin. This is about you giving me a reason to feel so insecure. That's what started our downfall."

"But you said nothing about it; you let that all fester and build up, and then after Erin left town, you got so jealous seemingly out of nowhere."