Jem
I’VE BEEN ANNOYING the girl I love. I have no idea how else to get her back. I want to talk to her, but she won’t listen. I get it. What I did was fucked up. But I don’t care — I just need to talk to her once.
It’s only May, and since I’m not working full time anymore and only start college after the summer, I have all the time and patience in the world.
I’m getting my girl back.
Just then, there’s a knock at the door. I’m not expecting anyone, but I’m thinking it might be Mason, wanting to see if anything came through about the prototype yet.
When I open the door, I’m met with the view of an irate Indigo. Wisps of her curly hair fly across her face in the breeze, her hazel eyes blazing. My heart falls to my ass. She’s so fucking beautiful.
“Good morning, my love,” I say, leaning against the door frame. I’m fully aware of how obnoxious I’m being, but I don’t really care. “How do you like your eggs?”
She looks at me like she wants to pummel me to death. I’m not entirely opposed to the idea. Truthfully, I’d let this girl do anything to me.
“You need to stop,” she says, storming in with clear plastic bags filled with pot plants. “I’m going to kicked out of my apartment block.”
Not hi, or hello. But it’s the first words she’s spoken to me in months. Fuck, I’ve annoyed her so much that she decided to come to my door first thing in the morning. With the plants I drop off at her door every day.
Clenching down on her jaw, she pushes past me as she enters the apartment and dumps the bags of plants on the table.
Shutting the door behind me, I’m about to ask her if she wants something to drink, but she whips around, livid. “What do you want, Jem? What do you want from me?”
“Hey,” I say, gently, taking a step closer to her. “Just hear me out.”
“Fine,” she snaps, crossing her arms across her chest as she guns me down with her stare. “Say what you want to say.”
I sigh. “I never should have asked you to leave.” I pause for a second and wait for her to meet my gaze. When she finally does, I say, “I’m sorry, Indie.”
She swallows, shifting uncomfortably on her feet.
“I don’t want an apology,” she says. “Please stop showing up at my apartment with your stupid music.”
I give her a half smile. “It’s good music, baby.”
A furious flush creeps up her neck. She growls, and turns to the door, pushing past me to leave. No fucking way. I lunge forward, scooping her up and hauling her over my back.
“What the hell?!” she yells. “Let go of me!”
The scene takes me back all the way to that frat party when she almost kissed Ace in that stupid fucking game of spin the bottle. Even then, I knew she was mine.
She’s so easy to carry, it’s almost funny. I chuck her onto the couch, and her body bounces. If she was angry before, she’s a mountain of burning lava now.
I love her so much it hurts.
“You said you’d listen,” I say, glancing down at her. “And I’m not done.”
She grits her teeth and stands up, glaring up at me.
“I’m not letting you leave,” I growl, “Hell fucking no. Not now, and not ever again.”
She knits her brows, breathing heavy. “You can’t hold me hostage in your house, Valentine.”
“Yes,” I say dryly. “I can. Now listen — I scared myself. I came to you first, and I never should’ve gotten in your bed that night. I thought I’d be using you to cope with it all. You couldn’t become my drug, Indigo. You couldn’t become something unhealthy.”
She softens, just for a second, and then her guard is back up.
“No,” she says, shaking her head, her eyes tearing up. “No, no, no. You can’t do this! You never said you were going to come back! You never said that!” Her big brown eyes glaze over. “You left me. You just discarded me.”
A heavy guilt settles at the pit of my stomach.
“Why didn’t you fight me?” I say, like the selfish fuck I am.
Her brows cross in indignation like she can’t believe what I just said. “You wanted me to fight you? Just after your mom died?”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. There’s nothing more I can say. I’ll say it over and over, write it out a thousand times over, if I need to.
Her face crumples. “It’s unfair, Jem! It’s unfair. You can’t just run when things get hard. You never said you were going to come back, and it hurt. It fucking broke me, okay? And yeah, maybe you were dealing with your own shit, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t dealing with the mess you made of me.”
“I thought I’d never be able to be happy again,” I say, “And I didn’t want to be with you if I was going to be that constantly unhappy person. I was a fucking idiot. I’d never experienced loss before. You were right.”
Indie just shakes her head as tears fall from her eyes. My heart just rips into fucking two at the sight.
“Look at you,” she says, throwing a hand my way. “All put together. So perfect. And look at me. I’m the mess. I’m always the mess.”
I scoff. “Perfect? I’ve been so monumentally fucked up these past few months, you have no fucking idea. If I was perfect, I wouldn’t have left you. I wouldn’t be at your door every day, telling you that I messed up. Big fucking time.”
Indie huffs a breath, turning away from me.
“You look perfect, by the way.” Gripping her tear-streaked face, I bring her gaze back to me as I wipe some stray tears with the pad of my thumbs. “I love you.”
“Stop. Just stop,” Indie shakes her head, not believing a word that comes out my mouth, “I need to leave. I want to leave Jem.” She hiccups. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t,” I murmur gently.
She looks straight in my eyes. “I really do hate you, Jem.”
“No,” I say again. “You don’t.”
She breaks into a sob. “Why did you do this to me? Why did I ever meet you?”
My heart goes still in my chest.
“I want to stop,” she says, “I want it all to stop. I want you to stop trying to get me back.”
“Don’t,” I say softly.
“I regret you.”
“Don’t,” I say, my voice breaking, “Please.”
She goes still in my arms.
“You’re right.” I nod. “I didn’t know how to deal with the grief. I completely fucking lost myself. I spent so much of my life worrying about my mom that I didn’t know what to do with it once she was gone. I’ve spent most of my life living for someone else. Whether it’s my mom or my sisters or my friends. You were the most selfish decision. You were just for me. No one else. Just mine.”
“So what now?” she asks, knitting her brows as she looks up at me. “I take you back, and the next time something bad happens, you cut me loose again? I won’t let that happen. So what now, Jem?”
“I won’t make the same mistake twice,” I say.
She doesn’t meet my gaze.
“Tell me you love me,” I say. “Say it once, and I’ll never leave you again. I’ll share it all with you, the good times and the bad. Just once, baby. Say the word.”
“I hate you, Jem,” she says.
My chest caves.
She looks away. “But I love you so much.”
YOU ARE READING
Fragile Little Things ✓
RomanceIndigo Gallagher was born with osteochondroma, a condition that leaves her physically fragile. Between shifts at her granʼs flower shop and her tumultuous relationship, all she wants is to get through her second year of pre-med unscathed. Although...
