Page 288 of Tell Me I'm Enough

“Yeah. I bet.”

It’s then that I notice how red her eyes are, puffy like she’s been crying for a while.

“Simone—”

“Why are you here?” she asks flatly.

“I’ve been calling you,” I tell her hesitantly, knowing she obviously already knows that part. “You’re mad at me. I—I get that. I just…don’t know why. What…what happened last night? I don’t…remember everything,” I admit, hating how pathetic that sounds. “But I—I want to know what I did.”

“Trywhoyou did,” she throws back.

That stops me.

“What?”

“The blonde bitch you slept with last night, Mason.” She shakes her head, and it looks like she’s choking back the emotions she feels, saying that. “I can’t believe after everything…after what I already dealt with, after you know how it feels, you would go and do the same bullshit to me!”

“I never touched any girl, Simone.”

Her jaw tightens.

“You expect me to believe that?”

“Yes.”

I take a step inside before she can shut the door. “I promise you I didnotsleep with that girl or any girl. I don’t knowwhat you saw or what you heard, but I didn’t fucking touch her. Simone, I would never do that to you.”

“Maybe sober Mason wouldn’t. But it seems like drunk Mason doesn’t have the same standards.”

I try to reach out and grab her hand, but she snatches it away.

“I didn’t sleep with her. I didn’t even entertain any of that girl’s advances. I pushed her off on Chase and then found the first way out of that situation. I was looking for you the entire night after you left me.”

“Well, you lookedrealcomfortable with her, like you were enjoying the attention.”

“I wasn’t.”

“You were drunk.”

“I amnotTyler,” I snap before I can stop myself. “I wouldn’t fucking do that to you.”

The name hangs between us like smoke.

Her eyes flash.

“I know you’re not Tyler,” she says. “But it’s starting to feel the same.”

That hits harder than anything else she could say.

“That’s not fair,” I say.

“No?” Her voice cracks slightly. “You don’t even remember half of what you did. You never do. How am I supposed to trust you when you turn into someone completely different when you drink? We havenolabels, nothing stopping you from going back to hooking up with any girl around if you wanted to.”

I run a hand through my hair. “I left with Tanner.”

“I know,” she says quietly.

“What?”