I don’t like this silence. I’d take him being an asshole to me over this awkward tension any day.
“Hey,” he replies, his voice flat, and steers his focus back to his phone. Either I really pissed him off when I lost it at the party, or he simply couldn’t care less about my existence.
I’m not sure why option two bothers me so much.
“Do you know when Theo’s coming home tonight? I cooked a shit ton of food.” I fish for conversation.
Without even sparing me a look, Finn drawls, “Theo won’t be living with us anymore.”
I’m stunned.
“Wait, what? Why not?”
It’s not that I consider Theo a friend, but he was the closest thing I had to one in this house. Not to mention his absence implies I’m going to be alone with Finn for the rest of the summer, and I’m not even close to ready for that.
Finn shrugs. “He moved back home. Something about trying to patch things up with his folks.”
“Oh.” I give a small nod. “Okay.”
No reply.
I turn to leave and go dry Lexie before Vee gets here, but I stop before I walk out onto the patio.
“I… I wanted to thank you,” I confess.
It takes me a deep breath and inner pep talk to spin around and face him. My comment seems to have been enough to earn me his full attention because he’s staring at me with an arched brow.
“For what?” he asks.
Slowly, I edge my way to the kitchen to meet him. I come to a slow stop in front of him and clear my throat.
“What you did for me, it… it meant a lot.”
I’m overwhelmed with the urge to crawl under a rock when he downright laughs in my face.
“What’s so funny?” The question comes out as defensive.
“You thinking I did it for you.”
Ouch.
I wait for him to elaborate, but he takes his sweet time, guiding his water bottle to his lips and taking a sip. I watch as a drop of water drips down his jaw and throat.
“You’re not the only one who got robbed that night.” He places his water bottle down on the counter. “A guy from the team saw the losers that did it. He gave me an address, and I showed up to take back what they’d stolen. They kept it all in a bag, so I grabbed that and hauled ass out of there. I was getting my own stuff back, Gem.” He pauses. “Yours just happened to be in there.”
I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that.
“Did you really think I’d get into a fight for you?”
I chew down on my bottom lip harder than intended, the metallic taste of blood trickling into my mouth.
I’m mad.
Embarrassed.
But mostly, I’m disappointed.
Why am I so disappointed to learn he’s the heartless bastard everyone told me he was?