Page 91 of Blitz

Her eyes flutter closed. She bows her head, sagging against me. I wrap my arms securely around her, steadying her. If she needs me, I’ll be her rock. I wish I could expect the same type of support in return. I don’t know that I’ll get it.

“I’m scared,” she whispers.

“Of what?”

“Of us.” She swallows. “I didn’t want to do it, King. I never wanted to hurt you.”

“I don’t care about the past,” I lie. “We can only worry about our future.”

“I don’t know how to have a future with you. You want all these big things for us, and I’m just trying to get through the track season.” She forces a laugh. “I can appreciate that you’re sure, that you know you want a future for us. After college, after grad school. But right now I have to focus on the here and now, and the scale of your feelings is sometimes too much for me to deal with.”

I can’t help the pang of hurt that ricochets through me. I thought we were on the same page. I thought we were building a life together.

I swallow. “What do you need?”

“I need a partner, in bed and out of it. And you’re not here with me.” I flinch, and she amends: “You’re here, but you don’t want to be. And I can respect that. I won’t force you to do something you’re not comfortable with. But don’t expect me to sit idly by while you—” She breaks off, breathing hard.

“While I what, Mason?”

She takes a deep breath. “While you waste your life away.” She meets my eye. “You lock yourself up and don’t let anyone in. Even me. You hide away in your room, or you sit on the couch with your friends. And I don’t want to be a reclusive shut-in at twenty years old.”

My heart pounds a thousand beats a minute. “I’ll open up more. We’re still getting comfortable with one another again.”

“We are, but you aren’t,” she says quietly. “We’re too different. We have different interests. That’s not to say it can’t ever work. I’m saying that it’s not working. Not for me. I’m not ready for forever. All I want is right now. And you’re not the right now kind of guy.”

I take a step back. “Okay then.”

Her brow wrinkles. “Okay?”

“I love you, Mason. I want you to be happy. And clearly that means that I’m not doing my job. So if you want to party with your friends, if you want to go out drinking every night and slowly kill yourself and all your brain cells, I won’t stop you. I’ll live my life the way I want to, and you’ll live yours. But we won’t be in each other’s lives. And I just want you to know that it’s because of you. Because I was trying. I was putting in the effort. But you refused to meet me halfway. You wouldn’t give me an inch.”

She flinches. “King…”

“No. Mason, no. You don’t get to call me that, not anymore. I won’t be your King anymore. You won’t be my Princess. We’ll just be two people who used to know each other.”

Her face crumples. “I don’t want to lose you. I love you.”

“Clearly that’s not enough.” I shake my head. “Have a nice life, Mason.”

Turning on my heel, I push my way through the crowds of people. She doesn’t chase after me. She doesn’t try to get me to change my mind. She lets me go.

Maybe my moms were right when they said love can’t conquer all. Maybe they were right when they said sometimes love isn’t enough. There are simply some mountains that are insurmountable.

And it doesn’t feel good—it feels downright shitty.

Chapter thirty-eight

Mason

My brother wraps his arms around me. I stand there, a little shell-shocked. I don’t know what to think, how to react. I’m just numb.

“It’s okay, sunshine,” Micah says, and that’s the straw that breaks the dam.

Tears run silently down my face as I stare at my brother. He curses and tugs me closer.

“It’ll be okay.” He pets my hair.

Tucker ended things. He doesn’t want to be with me. He would rather end what we have than continue on as we’ve been.