"Leah!" Chris shouts after her. He hurriedly follows her through the park.
"You're lucky I have to drive you home!" she shouts back. "Otherwise, I would've left your ass here!" She storms through the playground, pulling down and fixing her shirt. The cold has no effect on her at the moment; she is boiling too hot with anger to even acknowledge it.
"At least let me have a second to apologize."
"Apologize?!" She turns around to give him the most soul-piercing, pissed-off glare. "You want to apologize?! Please don't even tell me you think that'll fix everything. Because let me break it to you right now: it won't."
"I know it won't, but I at least deserve that."
That single seven-letter word only enrages her: deserve. She licks her lips and looks around at the nearly pitch-black location, not sure whether to slap him or knock him out. But, knowing his strength, she cancels out both and takes a different approach. "Fuck you, Chris. Now I am seriously considering strapping you to the hood of my car!" She ends up screaming that last part at him, making her throat a little sore. Her arms begin to tremble, so she continues walking in the other direction before Chris can see how badly she's losing it.
She can hear Chris jogging over the half-frozen grass. "Leah, please wait."
"No. Stay away from me, please."
"It was an accident! I didn't mean to say--"
"Shut the fuck up, Chris! Just shut the fuck up. You are a heartless bastard. I fell for you! I lost sanity for a while because of you! I was willing to end my relationship for you! Now I find out it's just a fucking competition to you? Are you fucking kidding me?"
"I wasn't thinking when I said that! It just...came out."
"So you're telling me you didn't mean to say that, but you were thinking it? That's really nice, Chris. Real fucking sweet of you." She starts pacing away from and toward Chris in frustration. She's not quite sure what to do now. She can't even think straight. Her anger is fogging up everything. She digs her fingers into her hair, about ready to rip chunks of it out. She repeatedly takes deep, even breaths.
"Will you calm down and talk about this? Why are you reading so much into what I said?"
"You were thinking it! It was in your fucking head!" She stops right in her tracks and turns around to glare at him again, this time right dead in his eyes. "How the hell do I know that hasn't been your purpose of being in this relationship since your first met Robert? I know you guys didn't like each other. Hell, you were about to kill each other in my father's kitchen. Then you guys tried to play it off. How ridiculous can you get?" Her neck is starting to feel tense. She's about to cry, or scream. She doesn't know which will come out first. "I gave you everything. My love, my trust...I made love to you even though I swore to myself that I wouldn't. Not yet. As a matter of fact, this is exactly what I deserve. Karma just bitch-slapped me for making such a stupid decision!" Afraid of what she's craving to do next, she grits her teeth and turns away. Her angry tears sting the backs and rims of her eyes.
"So, because of one dumb-ass sentence, you're just gonna yell and walk away like a little bitch. That's really pathetic."
In the fastest split-second of her life, she spins around and back-hands him right across his face, knuckles hitting cheekbone.
