50 Things I Hate About You

I Hate That You Couldn't Care Less About Anyone or Anything

My plan to break up with Ty fell through my fingers like sand the second he managed to parallel park in a spot between an old Chevy pickup and a Volkswagen. I'd had a pretty good idea of our whereabouts for the night from the second he asked me out this afternoon, but the second he shifted the car into park and turned the key in the ignition was only the beginning of what would domino into a catastrophic mess by the end of the night.

He was as polite as usual, walking around the car, offering his palm, then helping from the car despite me being willing and able. I allowed him to help me on to the curb before I caught his elbow between my index finger and thumb. "Ty."

"Hmm?" his eyebrows slowly shot up, but his eyes remained glued to his phone as his fingers danced across the keyboard at lightning speed.

"I've been wanting to talk. I think we—"

My words fell dry as Levi tackled his best friend from behind and would have sent him straight into me a few feet away if Mikey hadn't snuck up on me and yanked me to the left and into his arms. I hugged him, guiltily forcing a smile, then stepped away and turned back to Ty and Levi. They were deep in conversation already, the different shades of brown's eyes illuminated by the streetlamp over our heads.

"Hey, you good?" Mike asked, leaning into me and resting a hand on the small of my back.

I tore my eyes from the boy before me and to Mikey on my left. "Yeah, I'm great."

*

Every time I figured I'd be able to catch Ty alone for a second, some jock would swoop in and interrupt me the minute I opened my mouth to try and get a word out. Unfortunately for me, by the time I was able to get Ty to follow me upstairs and step into the quiet of a bedroom, he was four beers in and had that stupid drunk smile on his face.

"I've been trying to talk to you all night." I stated, glaring at him.

"Oh, come on, babe. Loosen up." he reached out and tried to touch my arm but I jerked away and dodged it. "You're so uptight, Aurora. Breathe, go with the flow. It's okay."

I shook my head, "I don't think this is working, Ty."

"Huh?"

"This. You and me." I said it slower, gesturing between the two of us for added affect so it'd get through and into his thick skull. "I just think we're too different."

There was a flicker of something in his eyes, but I couldn't place it right away and it was gone as soon as it'd entered. "You're joking, right?"

"Ty, you deserve—"

"No, no, none of that it's not you it's me bullshit." he closed the distance between us and took my face between his hands. An action that'd once brought butterflies to my stomach had it churning and sour within seconds. "Baby, we'll be fine. Real relationships take work. They aren't like all those dumb books you read. Life isn't always happily ever after-and if it is, you work for it."

The words shouldn't have affected me, but as my brain processed them, Onyx leaning outside my bedroom window and whispering, "I promise you'll get your happily ever after, Princess," sounded and wouldn't vacate the premise, even with my boyfriend's eyes burning into mine.

"We're done, Ty." I whispered.

He rested his hand on my back and gently eased me forward until my body was flush against his. I tried to shift out of the compromising position, but his grasp on my forearm had tightened and the hand against my back didn't feel as though it were going to move anytime soon.