Chapter 34
34
Hearing Ellie say she thought we had an expiration date hurt more than knowing she was using us to get her dad a job. Ryan O’Leary is a jackass of the highest order. Not only did he cheat on his wife and essentially abandon his kids, he is also a slimeball. There is a reason our dad declined all his offers to help us in the past and we continued to do so.
I didn’t think he’d stoop as low as to use his daughter to get an in. I have a hard time believing Ellie planned to take advantage of her connections to us since the beginning. But I do wonder if a plan came to fruition once Lainey left. It never crossed my mind that maybe Ellie should have gone home, too, probably because I was trying not to fall into her bed.
I don’t want to believe I got played again, but when Eliza came to us with what she heard, I was crushed. Declan and Grayson were both skeptical, but agreed to let me talk to her first .
I thought maybe Eliza heard wrong, or that she was venting after being mad at me for missing our meetup with her grandmother. Never in a million years did I expect it to all be true. And that Ellie thought I was cheating on her to boot. If it wasn’t clear we were not on the same page, that would have been a dead giveaway.
There isn’t a universe in which I would have ever cheated on Ellie. She was my dream girl. The girl I thought could finally make an honest man out of me. I didn’t tell her about the meeting, but that’s because I wanted to get my shit together and have a plan first. I couldn’t go to the woman whose to-do list has to-do lists when a half-baked idea.
I’m teeming with emotions when I storm out of the bus. I spend an hour walking around trying to calm down. It’s past midnight at this point and everyone is either out partying in the city or asleep. I consider going to a bar, but even I know that isn’t advisable. I settle for pacing the parking lot until the sun peeks out of the horizon. Only then do I return to the bus.
When I get there, I find Grayson asleep in the lounge as if he was waiting up for me. My entrance rouses him as he slowly blinks awake.
“Where the fuck have you been?” he asks when his brain fog lifts.
“Out.”
“Out? We called you over a dozen times. Declan wanted to send out a search party for you two, but I convinced him to let you have some space.”
“I was walking around to clear my head. Wait, what do you mean ‘two’?”
Grayson shoots as stern an expression as he can with pillow marks on his face. “When we got back earlier, both you and Ellie were missing. Since her shit was all gone, we figured you took her to the airport or something. I thought Dec was going to blow a gasket at the idea of her spending the night at Logan. ”
Ellie’s stuff is gone? I told her we’d book her a flight out tomorrow. I didn’t mean she had to leave tonight. As angry as I am, worry stirs in my gut, wondering where she could be and if she is safe.
I pull out my phone to check, noting all the missed calls from my brothers. Before I can call her, Gray stops me. “We talked to her.”
“You did? Where is she?”
“She went to crash with a cousin. Said she’d figure out her own way home, despite our insistence she let us take care of it.”
“That’s good,” I say, blowing out a breath.
“What happened, dude? I knew you were going to talk to her, but things seemed to have escalated.”
“We broke up,” I say in defeat.
“Fuck.” Grayson slumps back in his seat. “Are you sure?”
“Considering I told her to go home, and that we hit our expiration date, I’d say I’m pretty sure.”
“You kicked her out?”
I nod, holding up my hand to stop him from diving deeper. “I can’t do this right now. I’m exhausted and walked like 50,000 steps last night. I need to get some sleep, then I’ll tell you all the story, at least the parts she didn’t.”
“She didn’t tell us shit except that she was safe at her cousin’s and not to worry about her. You know Lainey is going to freak out about this.”
I didn’t even think about Lainey in this mess. This is exactly what I was trying to avoid by staying away from Ellie in the first place. Why didn’t I listen to my gut? If I thought telling her we dated was bad, telling her we broke up will be worse. This is going to be hardest on her out of all of us, and she wasn’t even involved. I’m the worst fucking brother in the world.
Not having the emotional capacity to deal with anything else, I nod my agreement and then crash in my bunk. I avoid peeking into Ellie’s room. Even though I told her to leave, I don’t think I can bear to see the room I’ve spent the last several nights empty. It would be way too close an analogy to how hollow my heart feels.