I stopped.
Everything stopped.
That wasn’t me anymore. I didn’t give up and give in just because it was easy. I wasn’t her anymore.
“This is for the best, Mouse.”
“Don’t call me Mouse,” I snapped as fury flooded my system, overtaking the welling hurt and washing it away. “I am not Mouse. That girl doesn’t exist anymore.”
Rider recoiled as if I’d slapped him. “Mallory...”
“No. Don’t look at me like I’ve hurt you.” I rose from the couch, hands curling into fists. “You need to give me a better explanation than just because. You owe me that.”
He lifted his chin, his eyes bright as he finally looked at me. The shadows beneath them were deeper, darker. “Don’t you get it?”
“No. Obviously I don’t.”
Rider stared at me for a moment. “You deserve better than me.”
My mouth dropped open.
“And you shouldn’t be fighting with Rosa and Carl because of me. They took you in, gave you the world, and I’m not going to come between you,” he said, and I think he kept talking, but I really wasn’t hearing him.
You deserve better than me?
Wasn’t that the same thing Paige had said before she said the opposite? It was.
“Are you serious?” I cut him off. “Are you really serious right now?”
He swallowed. “Yes, Mou—Mallory, I’m serious.”
I laughed, but there wasn’t any humor to the sound whatsoever. “So let me get this straight. You’re breaking up with me because it’s what’s best for me. Because you don’t want to come between me and Rosa and Carl?” There were no pauses in my words now. “It’s because of what happened this weekend.”
Straightening, he raised his hands. “It’s more than that, Mallory. You and I—we aren’t the same. We used to be, but not anymore. You’re going in one direction and I’m staying the same. That’s how it’s going to be.”
My hands unclenched. Funny. For the longest time it felt like everyone around me was going places while I sat, immobile and stuck, but this whole time I really had been moving and it had been Rider who wasn’t.
“You’re so wrong,” I breathed.
His brows shot up. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. Seriously.”
His cheeks flushed pink. “You know what we used to be? We were just discarded trash. That’s how we were treated. There’s no prettying up that shit. Our fucking parents didn’t want us. Or maybe they just died in some tragic car accident or couldn’t keep us. Who knows? I asked. Do you know that? No answer. No one cared enough to find out. And Miss Becky and Mr. Henry? We don’t even have to talk about that mess,” he continued, eyes flashing. “And the group home I was in afterward? They tried—the staff. They really did, but they couldn’t keep their eyes on everything. By the time Mrs. Luna came around, what the hell was the point?”
I paled. Whoa. I was not expecting all of that.
He wasn’t finished. “You got out of all of this. I didn’t. What you have is real. I don’t have that. I’m just pretending.”
I flinched. “I don’t understand. Hector’s family is good people. How can you say that I got out and you didn’t?”
“It’s not the same. I’m just temporary. It’s nothing like what you have with Carl and Rosa.”
Staring at him, I shook my head. “That is utter...bullshit.”
He blinked. “Did you just cuss?”
“Yes. Yes, I did, because that’s bullshit,” I repeated. “Hector’s family cares about you. I don’t know Mrs. Luna that well, but it only took two minutes around her for me to see that she thinks of you as one of her boys. They all care about you. They don’t treat you any differently, or like you’re a burden to them.”