Colors of Us

19| Arianne

He stuffed his hands in his pocket as his shoulders slumped. "It wasn't about you."

"I know," she murmured. And she did. Garrett wasn't callous. "It's a lot to process."

He gave a jerky nod as he swallowed hard. "I kept away so I wouldn't give you mixed signals while I was thinking, but I ended up..." Frustration sounded in his voice as he gestured to the stretching distance between them. "Staying away isn't my answer."

A tendril of hope wrapped around her chest despite telling herself she didn't care. "So what is your answer?" Her heart dropped to her stomach at the long pause.

"I'm all tangled inside," he finally muttered. "It'd be so much easier if life came with guarantees."

That was a feeling she knew all too well. "The calls and texts were to say you don't know yet?"

"And that I hadn't forgotten you." He jerked forward, hands out of pockets, but stopped himself with a muttered curse. Rubbing a hand over his face, he planted his feet firmly on the ground as if reminding himself they couldn't move from that spot. "I'm sorry for not talking to you those first couple of weeks. I messed up."

She acknowledged his apology with a nod. "You must have questions."

"Hundreds." He hesitated. "Do you mind telling me?"

She'd already given him the majority, might as well tell him the rest of her sad tale. After putting on her boots and jacket, she motioned with a flick of the head to follow.

They strolled down the bridge, water lapping the shore in a lulling melody. She hated to disrupt the night with something as ugly and tainted as her family history, but it had to be done. Garrett needed to make an informed decision and to do that he needed all the facts because this wasn't just about her STD. No, he needed to decide if he could handle the jagged remains of her heart.

"After I found out about my mom and Chase, I turned numb. I buried myself in schoolwork hoping to forget." But how could a teenager forget such a betrayal? It impacted the very core of who she was.

During those months, Arianne avoided her mother like the plague, and her father picked up on it. She'd overheard them arguing one afternoon.

"Something's wrong with Ari. She's been quiet, standoffish, and in the past few weeks I've heard her crying when she thinks we're asleep." His almond-shaped eyes narrowed into thin slits as she poured herself another drink from the half-empty bottle of gin sitting next to the couch. "What did you do?"

"What did I do?" her mother exclaimed in outrage. "Why is it always me? Maybe you did something."

"It's not me she's refusing to look at."

Her mother took a sip, then another. "She's overreacting."

"About what?"

She gave a sharp glance filled with icy indifference. "It's mother-daughter stuff. You wouldn't understand."

"Then try and explain it to me," her father said in a gruff voice that demanded obedience. It had little effect on her mother who was numb to it by now.

"We had a minor fight." She threw back more gin, finishing half the glass. "She should be over it, but she's a teenager. Hormones have her all over the place. Give her a few weeks, and she'll be fine."

"This is beyond hormones," her father insisted. "She's not talking or texting to her friends, and I haven't seen or heard about Chase." He paused and leaned back on his heels, disbelief etched into his face. "Don't you care?"