If anything, my insistence has made him even angrier. Not that I expected anything less from him, but still. And I really don’t want to take the next step but I will, if he makes me.
Which he does.
“You really think that’s gonna make me stop? Taking the money back.”
I sigh because it isn’t.
Money isn’t really the motivating factor here.
I wish it was. And that’s why I had to try that first.
“Is that why you came here?” he asks then, shifting on his feet. “Because after what happened last time, pissing me off isn’t really a smart choice.”
“Why, because you know my secret and you could ruin me?”
“Very easily.”
“Fine.” I shift on my feet too. “You leave me no choice then. If you don’t quit, I’m going to tell everyone.”
“Tell everyone what?”
“About your fights. About how some of them are fixed. Because you’re not the only one who knows things, are you?”
He remains silent. But his eyes promise mayhem.
Not that I care.
“I’m not kidding. And I think you know that.”
Which is why a vein emerges and beats on his temple.
Then sighing, I say, “I can’t watch what you’re doing to yourself. I can’t stand it. And I won’t. I will absolutely not stand for it. Now I’ve tried explaining it to you multiple times that you need to stop punishing yourself, but you don’t listen to me. So this is how things are going to go down: you’re going to stop or I will tell everyoneeverything. I will tell on you and then I will go all hysterical and dramatic on your ass. And you know that I can do it. You know I’m very much capable of that. So you’re going to stop. I don’t care how. I don’t even care if you want to or not. All I care about is that you —”
“Okay.”
“What?”
“Okay,” he repeats, his eyes and features grave. “I’ll stop.”
I frown suspiciously. “You will?”
“Yeah.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
My suspicion still isn’t gone. “And you promise?”
He lets a second pass by and then he nods. “I promise.”
Oh, thank God.
Thank fucking God.
“Thank you,” I say then. “For both. For promising to stop and… for NYU.”
For a few seconds all he does is stare at me. Then, shrugging tightly, “It was nothing.”