Reece
Alarmed, I shot up and did a quick scan of the room trying to grab everything that belonged to me. I got a pair of shoes and my jacket. Then I dashed into Aiden's wardrobe and closed the doors, hoping I was over reacting and he wouldn't be coming upstairs but I wasn't taking any chances.
While I was more than prepared to come clean to Max today wasn't the day. I had my hands full with Lacey's situation and I couldn't deal with anything else. Once she was out of the woods I would deal with my messed up personal life.
My heart hammered in my chest and I heard voices. I strained to figure out if it was Max with Aiden but the voices were too soft to make out.
This felt like something right out of a movie and I was struggling to figure out how it had got to this. Hiding in a guy's closet so my boyfriend wouldn't find me. Who was this person? It wasn't me but I couldn't deny my choices had led to this. I had no one to blame but myself. I signed and leaned my head against the door.
The sound of the door opening made me catch my breath.
It was then I remembered I had forgotten my duffel bag. Any thought of dashing to retrieve it evaporated. Could I hope that Max wouldn't notice it beside Aiden's bed?
"It's in the closet." I immediately recognised Aiden's voice.
My eyes widened. The same closet I was standing with a few of my items, dressed in my pjs. There would be no acceptable explanation. This was like my worst nightmare playing out in front of me and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
"Thanks." This voice belonged to Max. He was in the room.
Despite every best intention to handle this situation with some dignity, it was going to unravel this way. Max deserved better than this.
I held my eyes closed tightly. The door opened and my eyes flew open to stare into Aiden's. He didn't miss a beat. He reached for a jacket hanging on the coat hanger. Our eyes held for a fraction of a second before he closed the doors. I couldn't believe I was still hidden in the closet and Max hadn't seen me.
How was that possible that Max hadn't seen me. My heart was beating so loud I swear I heard it echo in my ears but I tried my best not to make a sound. I had got this far without being discovered.
"Here."
Would that be enough? Was that all he would need?
"How's Reece?" Max asked.
I froze, barely breathing. For a moment I was scared he may have seen me.
"She's um handling it as well as can be expected."
I listened intently, hoping Max would leave before he saw something that would tip him off to her presence in the room.
"I haven't seen much of her. I hate not being able to be there for her. It kind of feels like she is shutting me out and I don't know how to get her back."
Max's words hit me right in the chest. I had no idea he felt that way. He was a great guy, he had done nothing to deserve my treatment of him. I felt like the worst person on the planet.
"She's just going through a lot," Aiden explained. "Just give her space. I'm sure once Lacey is out of hospital and on the road to recovery everything will go back to normal."
The ease to which he lied took me by surprise. He was smooth, I would have believed him had I not known different. He knew full well there would be no going back to normal. Not after what had happened between them. Memories of what they shared in the janitor's closet made my cheeks warm but in the same instance the guilt I was wrestling with grew heavier.
"Thanks," Max said. "I'm going to follow your advice. But let me know if you think she needs me to step in for support."
There was a moment of silence.
"Sure." Aiden's response was clipped and short. He yawned.
"Late night."
"Yeah. And I have to go back to the hospital soon."
"Thanks for my jacket. I'll let you get back to Lacey."
Footsteps retreated and I heard the door close behind them. They had left and I signed with relief. I still wasn't confident enough to leave the safety of the closet incase they returned.
I replayed the scene in my mind feeling the doubling guilt at Max's concern for me while I was wrecking everything we had.
A few minutes later I heard one set of footsteps return. I was sure it was Aiden but I didn't move for fear I was wrong.
The door of the closet opened.
"That was close," he said.
His words flipped a switch in me and I threw everything I held at him. "Close?"
I pushed past him. My temper had been ignited and my breathing was hard. "What if he had caught me? What then?"
When Aiden didn't respond, I turned to glare at him accusingly even when I knew he wasn't the only one responsible party. I had played my part in it.
"What if he did?" he asked softly.
My mouth opened and I didn't have an immediate response. I shut my mouth abruptly trying to figure out what he was getting at.
"Then everything would be ruined." My chest rose and fell with each hurried breath.
"But it's already ruined." His eyes held mine. "He just doesn't know it yet."
His words blew me away, because although they hurt to hear, they were true.
"I...um.." I couldn't even argue, feeling like the wind had been taken out of my sails.
Defeated I sat down on his bed trying to grapple with how I felt about his statement.
"We need to talk about what happened."
My eyes lifted to his. "I know but I'm not ready. Not just yet."
In all honesty I didn't want to have to face it at all. The idea of telling Max about what I had done
"Dragging this out is only going to make things worse Reece. You can't ignore it."
And yet again he was right. I didn't want to hear it though. I wanted to run and hide as I was in no place to admit what I had done something I had never believed I was capable of. It was looking in the mirror and seeing your true self and not liking the reflection.
No matter how much I argued that I wasn't a person who would do this, I had to finally admit I was the person who had done this to Max.
"I don't know how things could get worse," I mumbled, feeling like I had hit rock bottom already. I couldn't go any lower.
Things were pretty bad right now.
"What if he discovers the truth before you're ready to tell him? You don't think that's going to hurt him more?"
I pressed my lips together, refusing to answer. Again, he was right. Just minutes before Max had come so close to discovering me in Aiden's room. And what if he had? Being told you had been cheating on was one thing but being faced with it was much worse.
"He nearly caught you in my room today. What are you going to do the next time?"
He was getting worked up with each word and I couldn't look at him so I dropped my gaze to the floor not ready to face any of this.
"Are you going to wait until he catches you with me before you'll finally admit what's going on?" His voice rose. My eyes shot to his.
Images of the two of us from the janitors closet flashed through my mind and I swallowed.
"And what exactly is going on?" I asked, feeling a rise in my temper again. I stood up and walked to him. "Tell me."
"You know what's going on." His voice was steel and unwavering.
"I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing. This isn't me. I'm not this person." I was yelling. I put my hand to my heart. "I'm the person who finds out her boyfriend has been screwing some girl for two months without having any idea it was happen. That's who I...was. I was Max." My voice wavered toward the end.
But no amount of talking about it would change things. I was the person in the wrong, I was the one who had made all the choices. The blame couldn't be steered to rest solely on Aiden's shoulders. It took two to tango, I had been with him every step of the way even if I couldn't figure out why I had made the decisions I had. I couldn't blame it on Lacey's situation either. There were no excuses for the choices I had made and I had to take responsibility for them.