fight for control ↠ harry styles [b1] ✓

CHAPTER 85

"I don't need you to take me off the market," I mumbled.

"Why is that?"

"Because I don't want to be in a relationship," I said as a matter of fact.

"Bullshit," he scoffed. "You can't tell me that's true..."

"Well, it is."

"Okay. We haven't talked since you got back from New York and that was two weeks ago. The only thing you told me about what happened is that you're single and that still makes no fucking sense to me," he rambled as we got outside and in my car. "It really confuses me how you two ended it when I genuinely thought you were going to propose to her any day now. Bro, you literally picked a potential location for where you will have your wedding and now, you're telling me you just broke it off?"

"The distance was too much, okay?" I tried to shake him off, not a fan of the topic of our conversation. It was still somewhat fresh and it didn't do me any good to talk about it.

"Is that what you are gonna go with?" he mocked me.

"Can we switch topic?" I asked although I already knew the answer.

"I can't tell if you really are such a dumb fuck or if you are pretending. Please, do enlighten me."

"To me, it feels like you want me to admit to being a dumb fuck so—yes, I'm a dumb fuck," I replied honestly. "Now, can we drop this conversation before I lose my appetite and drop you off at the side of the road?"

• • •

The tiniest part of me really believed that my best friend wouldn't press the girlfriend topic any more after he was told to forget about it. But Levi was not that easy to flick off if he annoyed someone. Especially me. He saw through me, he knew the ways I bent and he wasn't afraid to push me to my breaking point.

He made me leave work for the day to get pissed at his place and since going back home was too hard, I gave in. I think I needed it since I pushed the whole break-up as far from my brain as I could since it happened. Which was not good for me and also very unlike me.

But I just didn't want to deal with it. If I pretended like nothing ever happened, it didn't hurt as much as thinking about how I broke it all off.

"Listen, we're almost half-way through this bottle... how long is it going to take you to open up?" Levi questioned, although he knew the whole of it had to be gone for me to spit anything out. I was way too stubborn to do otherwise.

"You know... whilst we're on the topic... you never really told me any more about your little girlfriend... Steffi?" I cocked my eyebrow in question, all my power pushed towards the goal of changing the subject from me to him. Or anything or anyone else.

"We're fine. Casual sex works well for both of us," he concluded easily. "Now, what about you and Renleigh?"

"What about me and her?"

"C'mon mate... what happened?" he questioned. "I know you're devastated; you look sad and I can only look at you for so long until I crack and start to laugh at your face."

"Be my guest," I scoffed as I took another sip of my drink. He gave me a look of annoyance and I sighed. "I don't know what you want me to tell you. We broke up. That's it."

"Okay. Why?"

"Because of the distance."

He laughed at me and shook his head. "Neither do I or you believe that shit excuse. There is clearly more to the story and you are keeping it from me."