Started With a Lie

Chapter Nineteen

            “What?” Lee growls.

            “I don’t see how this is any of your business,” I say to Lee, throwing daggers with my eyes. “So what he lives next door? He’s been a real nice friend to me and I can count on him.” I cross my arms. “Unlike someone,” I mutter.

            “No,” Lee protests. “I don’t think it’s right for a grown adult male to be living right next to a helpless seventeen—eighteen year old girl. He could sexually assault you or something and nobody would know!”

            “I am not a defenseless girl! I’m an adult also!” I argue. I couldn’t believe Lee right now. Calling me a kid? “And don’t you dare talk trash about Mark. He has been nothing but kind to me!”

            “Yeah, Lee. Back off,” Mark adds, his arms crossed.

            “No, I,” Lee pushes Mark’s chest with his index finger, “will not back off. Why don’t you? You can’t just stay here while she’s living alone. She could get hurt.”

            “I could protect her!” Mark shouts at Lee.

            “I don’t care!” Lee yells back. He puts his arms to his side, hands clenched. “I have made my decision.” He looks up at both Mark and I. “I’m moving in.”

            “What!” I shout. My life is turning into a nightmare. Why is Lee so reckless? He has a company to run and other things to do besides bother me. I know I started all this crap by being a whiny, jealous teenaged girl but I’m human—I make mistakes.

            “It isn’t right for a girl to be living alone while her mother is in the hospital. And it certainly isn’t right for a predator-type male”— Lee glares at Mark—“to be living right next to her.”

            “I’m not a predator!” Mark retorts, his eyes burning with anger.

            “Mark’s a better friend than you’ll ever be!” I yell. “And you can’t stay! You have work to do! You have a company to run and people to pay. Start taking responsibility, Lee! Just go home.” My eyes soften. “Please. Just go.”

            “God, you sound like my mother,” Lee mutters under his breath, his facial features completely blank. His mother must be a touchy subject. There I go, getting on nerves again. Lee gains his composition back and stares back at me. “And I am not leaving. That is final. I’m not stupid either. I know how to run a goddamn company. I’ve been doing it for a while, if you haven’t noticed. I’ll just work online and get my workers. Besides, I can go to work when I want.”

            Lee’s real personality is coming out. Unlike his fake plastered smile over all the latest magazines, he was a real douche on the inside that didn’t care what people said. He acts like a sarcastic, narcissist king when he’s actually himself.

            And I guess that’s what I like—liked about him.

            I shake my head from thoughts about Lee. He might’ve been an okay guy but he played my feelings just because he was lonely. He played with me because I was a weak girl. Not anymore. I’m going to change. I’m going to be stronger now.

            I lift my head and stare dead into Lee’s eyes. “Where are you going to stay?”

            Lee shrugs. “I guess I’ll stay with you. I mean we’ve lived together before.”