She took a tentative step forward, away from the door. “Okay, I should have told you about Denny, I know that, but we didn’t do anything!”

My eyes slammed shut as her words sizzled my brain. Didn’t do anything? They didn’t fucking do anything? They made a fucking baby! They fucked me over. They both fucking lied. They did…everything.

I felt myself shaking, I felt my control slipping. I couldn’t stay here much longer, not without escalating this in a way I didn’t want it to escalate. Let me fucking leave, bitch! Barely holding the reins on my fury, I kept my eyes closed and tried to speak calmly, rationally. “I need to get away from you. Please move, so I don’t do something really stupid.”

Instead of respecting my wishes…she did the exact opposite. She grabbed my fucking face, shocking me into opening my eyes and looking at her. I instantly batted her hands away and shoved her back, into the door. My breath was heavy, and my fingers dug into her skin as I stared at her. Calm down. Get out of here, then lose it.

Kiera shook her head. “No, talk to me!”

Talk to her? Why? There was no point, not anymore. The damage was already done. Forcing myself to back down, I shook my head and took a step away from her. Maybe if I stood here long enough, silently stewing, she’d finally give up and leave me the fuck alone. But of course…she didn’t.

She shoved her hands into my chest and fucking yelled at me. “You son of a bitch! No, you don’t get to run away from me. You’re always trying to run away from me!” She shoved me again, pushing me back a step as her sudden anger took me by surprise. “But not this time. This time…you will talk to me! We talk things out, remember!”

No, we don’t…not anymore. Seeing an opportunity, I shoved her hands off of me and lunged for the doorknob. I had the knob twisted, the door partially cracked open, escape finally showing itself, but then Kiera fucking body slammed the door shut with her shoulder. Fucking bitch. Glaring at her, I snapped, “I’ve got nothing to say to you. Get out of my way!”

Her eyes glistened with tears. Even furious at her, it tore something inside of me. “Nothing to say? After everything you’ve done to me?”