Ice Cold

03

Landon Reilly

I needed to change my running route or else I was going to end up on my ass every day.

Wren looked down at me with a smug expression, his mouth quirking up ever so slightly in amusement. I glared up at him and pushed myself up from the ground.

"You're doing this on purpose now?" I spat.

"Perhaps," he said. Who fucking says that?

"I know who you are, you know," I told him.

"I don't think we've met," he replied, feigning ignorance. I could practically feel my eye twitching in annoyance. This guy was infuriating.

"Cut the shit," I snapped, pointing a finger at him. "I know you know who I am. And I know who you are now."

"I figured you would," he replied with a shrug, showing off his nonchalance. "How long did it take for you to figure it out?"

Longer than I would ever admit to him. He looked enough like Fox that I should have known instantly.

Wren smirked when I didn't say anything. "You don't have to tell me. Your non-answer is an answer in itself."

"What the hell are you even talking about?"

"You not answering is telling me that you're too embarrassed to tell me how long it took you," Wren said, the smirk staying on his face. "And now I know that for sure, since I'm having to spell this out for you."

I wanted to run at him and punch him in the face, my anger coming at me in waves. That was what the Landon of a few months ago would have done, but not this one. Not the one that was a shell of who he once was, or the one who knew his old anger was always misplaced.

That didn't stop me from clenching my fists at my sides, my fingernails digging into my skin. Wren seemed determined to push my buttons and showing him that it was working was only going to make him do it even more.

"You knew who I was the whole time." I said it as a statement because I knew it was true. He wouldn't have been so smug if it wasn't.

"The whole time?" he asked. "I didn't think about you at all since we first saw each other. But, yes, I knew when I saw you. I thought that much was obvious."

He continued, "Is that what you were doing? Thinking about me all weekend, trying to place where you knew me from? I'm flattered, Lance."

I grimaced. "Lance?"

"That's what you're hung up on? And not the thinking about me all weekend thing? So it must be true."

I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest. "No, it's not. You look a lot like Fox."

"Right. And you've punched his face a few times so it's a hard face to forget," Wren replied, the smirk dropping, though he still looked entirely at ease like this conversation bored him.

I didn't want him to see the remorse I felt. I already felt dumber than him with the way he spoke and the way he looked at me, I didn't want him to see how truly weak and broken I was. God knows what he would do with that.