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The worst wounds, the deadliest of them, aren't the ones people see on the outside. They're the ones that make us bleed internally. - Sherrilyn Kenyon | from „Infamous"
•••
That's totally irrelevant. These words swarmed around in his head. Totally irrelevant. He did not know why, but somehow those words hurt.
Was he in love? No. They were just friends with benefits. No obligations. He had made this rule himself.
But that afternoon it was different - when he stood at her front door because he wanted to see her; he missed her.
He wanted to be with her. In her, he found security he had never found before. Not at home, not in the fields, not with Bryce.
Was it too fast for him? Definitely.
As he sat at the kitchen table with her parents, he felt safe. He envied how she sat there with them and everyone laughed together. He wished his parents were a bit like hers. All he ever got was hate and violence.
"Mont, I'm sorry. That didn't mean to come off so harsh." She gently touched his arm and ran her delicate fingers over his warm skin.
„I just wanted to see how you were doing.." He took her small fingers in his strong hand and placed a kiss on the back of hers. Her eyes shot up and hit his. Those eyes.
Her heartbeat stopped for a short moment - before it continued to beat ten times as fast.
"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be fine..."
„The day; you know - the one with Sherri. You looked like shit, you looked really fucked up. I noticed everything, I just acted like I didn't." He took a strand of her dark hair between his fingers. He remembered well the day when for the first time a girl lay in his arms and cried. She sought protection and comfort with HIM, which he was not used to.
„That's not worth mentioning. I think we all know what she did... it's just not fair that those people are still walking around free - like Bryce Walker, for example." With a bitter undertone she spoke her last words. To Lara, this man was a devil. Ruthless. Selfish. Power hungry.
"What do you know about Bryce?" His gentle facial expression immediately changed to a hard, aggressive expression. „tell.me.", he repeatedly slowly, condescendingly.
Gasping for a breath, Lara felt her blood run cold. „You know damn well..." She took a step back and slightly bumped her back against her wall. Montgomery, on the other hand, took a step towards her so that she was trapped between him and the wall. "He's a good guy. He didn't lay a finger on that bitch Hannah!" He seized her by the arm and gripped her firmly. Her gaze went to his hand, his ankles shimmered white through his skin.
„You don't believe that yourself, do you? Monty, please let me go." She tried to loosen his grip, in vain. She's never seen Montgomery so aggressive towards her. Why is he suddenly so different?
He puffed through and let go of her, his right hand went through his brown hair and he hit her wall with a loud "bang". „You're no different from Hannah. Nice for fucking, that's all you're good for anyway." He spat out the words and looked at her from top to bottom. He was angry; he just didn't know why.
„Fuck off, de la Cruz! What is your problem?!"
"You're my fucking problem - I can't believe you!" Montgomery continued on, shoulders shaking and hands clenched into white-knuckled fists at his sides. He seemed uncontrollable - nearly unstoppable at this point. „You know how much we - I despise those tapes, the rumors and all the shit going on about Baker! I thought it went without saying that talking about Bryce was off-limits but I guess you're too much off an idiot to realize that on your own! To be against him is a mistake! Do I need to spell it out for you? Do I need to speak a little slower so for once in your life you actually unterstand? Do I-„ His voice droned on and on, lips twisted into a mocking sneer and eyes blazing with a burning sort of fire that seemed as if it would kindle for years without falter.
"Seriously? Being against him is a mistake? What's he gonna do to me, rape me like the hundred other girls who've had to go through that? Are you his ass-kisser or what?" She gathered all her courage and was no longer afraid of him, she is at home, she is safe. She knew damn well what that son of a bitch did to all those girls and was all the more scared that Monty was defending him. Is he just like Bryce?
"I have no idea what kind of little, shitty secret you and Hannah had that she's so desperate to keep secret," he whispered in a rough voice in her ear, "but I'll find out. Bryce could help you - but you're against him. Or were you Jeff Atkins' little fuck buddy - like you're mine, or did you have something to do with his death, huh? Or Hannah - like a lesbian fuck buddy? Wasn't she kind of a..?"
She reached out and slapped him, so that after a short time a red mark appeared on his cheek. „Don't you dare come near me again, you psycho! Get.out.of.my.house!"
