[Sequel to The Merciless Black List Of Highland High]
Secrets and lies.
The very flesh and bone of the infamous Shameless Foursome guys.
Collin Adamms, the supposed creator of The Shameless Virginity Games, knows what it's like to make mistakes t...
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i didn't have a choice
The question hangs in the air for half a beat, and much to my surprise, Bishop's answer comes way faster than I anticipated.
"Nothing," he says, though it sounds more like a sigh. "He's just . . . he has a lot on his plate right now."
I can feel my face twist in confusion. "Lot on his plate right now? What do you mean?"
"Jesus, Aspen." Bishop sighs openly this time, raking his fingers through his messy blond strands. "He's swamped with work stuff. I don't know."
His answers seem to be evasive. Which makes me alert because Bishop's never been one to hold back out of the two of us.
He's been very patient with me keeping secrets all the time, so the least I can do is try to do the same. That doesn't mean I'm letting it slide though. How are we ever going to fix what's been fucked between the two of us without opening up to one another?
Keeping my eyes on his face, I draw out deliberately, making sure he hears every syllable. "You don't have to talk about it, but I'm here, okay? I know it's been pretty back and forth between us lately, but you can still talk to me, Bishop. About anything."
I had my share in the way the things between us escalated, too. I'd be lying to myself if I pretended otherwise. But I'm ready to put an end to it. I'm ready to be there for him, the same way he used to be when I was too withdrawn to acknowledge that. And I need him to know it.
His green eyes blink at me once, twice, thrice. He gulps. I wait patiently.
However, the spell gets broken when a door slams loudly upstairs. The words I get from him are, "It's not that I don't want to talk about it. It's . . . complicated."
I know we're in the midst of a serious conversation but I can't help the laugh that escapes. "News flash. Everything is. But only because we human beings tend to make it that way. In reality, everything is extremely simple, but there's this deep need rooted somewhere within us that makes us crave struggle, even if most people would deny this, so that once we get over the complications that weren't there in the first place, we would feel better about overcoming them."
Something about what I had just said quirks the corners of Bishop's lips up. "When did you become so philosophical?"
I roll my eyes at him, playing along. "I'd always been like this. You were just too busy to notice."
"Uh-uh," he shakes his head at me. "You were too big of a brat to share your wisdom with me."
Aaand he's shifting the topic somewhere entirely else than where I want it to be.
But it's that moment, when I open my mouth to somehow turn it back around, that the main door clicks shut and Sarah stalks in.
I haven't seen her since this morning when she stood up from the couch and rushed upstairs in order to answer her phone, and then came back downstairs, told us she needed to go somewhere, and left Bishop and me to our hockey marathon.
