Chapter 43 #2
“Fuck.” Lively’s grip tightened and, before I could register what was happening, my feet left the ground.
A shocked gasp tore from my throat as he hauled me over his shoulder, one arm locking firmly across the back of my thighs as his strides cut through the crowd.
I caught a glimpse of his face as I dangled: crimson-flushed—with anger or embarrassment, I couldn't tell— but the rigid set of his jaw, the muscle jumping beneath his skin, told me it could very well be both.
We passed my family standing near the dance floor, their expressions a tableau of shock.
Mallory's eyes were saucers in her pale face, her tiny hands clutching the armrests of her wheelchair.
Karen's hand was pressed to her mouth, while David looked like someone had struck him across the face.
Gina and Dylan immediately dropped to Mallory's level, Dylan launching into some animated story that I couldn't hear as Lively pulled me toward the exit.
The cool night air hit my face like a slap when we burst through the doors. Lively set me back down so suddenly I nearly stumbled, my ankle twisting painfully in my heels. Then he stepped back, his hands flying away as if I'd burned him, as if touching me at all had become unbearable.
“ What the hell was that?” The words scraped out of him, low and dangerous, barely contained fury vibrating in every syllable.
“What was that? Are you kidding me?” I fired back, my blood still boiling, heart thrashing against my ribs like it wanted to escape. “How can you just let them say all those terrible things to you? You should have just made a scene!”
“Why should you care? It’s not any of your business!” His eyes blazed with a fury I’d never seen, his carefully constructed charm nowhere to be found. This was Lively stripped bare—raw nerves and open wounds.
“It became my business when I heard them threatening you!” My hands were shaking, adrenaline making everything too bright, too sharp, like the world had been turned up to maximum intensity.
“Stop acting like you know me!” He took a step closer, voice dropping to a growl that sent electricity skittering up my spine, pooling low in my belly despite my anger. “Like you suddenly care to know anything about me or my life.”
“I—” My pulse kicked in my throat as I tried to say something. I didn’t quite know what, but my mouth opened nonetheless. Not that he was interested in hearing what I had to say, though.
“No, you do not get to do this.” His laugh was hollow, scraping against my skin like broken glass. “You don’t get to ignore me for weeks and then suddenly decide you have opinions about my life. You obviously don’t care.”
I mean, he wasn’t wrong but…somehow, it felt… unfair that he would say it like that when he... “That's not fair. You're the one who's been avoiding me!”
“Because you told me to!” His control slipped further, voice rising into the night air. “You told me to ‘ stop acting like a lovesick puppy and leave you alone ’. I’m just following orders, Cap.”
Cap . Hearing him call me that now, in this situation, felt like a knife between my ribs.
“And now you want to lecture me about my family?” He continued, raking a hand through his hair. “That's rich coming from you. Stop being such a hypocrite and focus on your own problems.”
My skin went hot, then cold, in the space of a fraction of a second. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Lively scoffed, the sound scraping over me like sandpaper. “You don’t have the right to lecture me about my family when you've spent years keeping your own at arm’s length. The Hartleys love you, want to know you, and you treat them like they're strangers you're indebted to."
I flinched like he’d struck me, because he might as well have. I hadn’t realized that he would notice something like that. How did he even notice something like that? “You…You don't know what you're talking about.”
“Don't I?” His eyes locked on mine, unrelenting, seeing through every defense I’d ever built. “You’re lucky to have a family that cares about you, parents that want to know you. Yet you’re blowing all of that. You don’t get to tell me what to do about my own parents.”
He’d pretty much knocked the wind out of me with those words. So much so that I could barely come up with a defense, or even something to deflect with. No, my mind was totally blanked out. I hadn’t realized how easily Lively Summers’ had me figured out. Was he the only one who’d figured me out?
Now, he stepped back, already turning away, his shoulders rigid with a tension that made my chest ache.
“And if you're feeling some kind of responsibility because I said I loved you in the hallway…or because I…because I kissed you, please don’t .
I'm not trying to force you into liking me back or anything.
I'm fucking sorry, okay? So, just...Just leave it.”
Before I could respond, he was striding toward his car, each step widening the chasm between us. I watched, paralyzed, as he slid inside and drove away, tail lights disappearing into the darkness.