Chapter 60: Finally

POV: Carly

She had been standing outside Tommy's classroom for four minutes.

She knew it was four minutes because she had checked her phone twice and the second time was exactly four minutes after the first and she was still standing there with her palms sweating through her skirt and her bottom lip caught between her teeth and the bell had not rung yet.

She had a plan.

She had a very clear plan this time. No diversions. No deflections. No letting him say something sweet that made her fold like she had the last time. She had spent the night in the library going over it and she had spent the morning going over it again and she was ready.

She was genuinely ready this time.

The bell rang.

She jumped approximately three inches off the ground.

Students flooded the corridor immediately. The specific chaos of a lunch break starting. She pressed herself slightly to the side and waited and watched the door and told herself to breathe.

Tommy came out last. He always came out last. Too busy being charming at everyone on his way to the door, that full smile going in every direction.

He looked up and saw her and the smile widened.

She felt the guilt move through her clean and sharp and made herself hold her ground.

"Carly." He said, swinging his bag onto his shoulder as he walked over. "I was literally just about to text you."

"We need to talk." She said.

He looked at her face.

The smile adjusted. "That serious huh."

"Yes." She said.

He nodded slowly and gestured toward the bench at the end of the corridor. She followed him and they sat and she put her hands flat under her thighs to stop them from shaking and looked at him properly.

He was looking back at her with that expression. Patient and slightly braced. Like some part of him already knew and had been waiting for her to catch up.

She took the biggest breath of her life.

"Tommy." She said. "I care about you. You know that. We've known each other for years and you were one of my closest friends before any of this and that has always mattered to me."

"Were." He said quietly.

She pressed her lips together. "This isn't working. Me and you. It hasn't been for a while and I think somewhere underneath everything you know that too."

He looked at the floor.

"I'm not putting this all on you." She said. "I haven't been the girlfriend you deserved either. Our issues have been building for months and neither of us wanted to be the one to say it."

"But you're saying it now." He said.

"Yes." She said. "Because it's the right thing to do. For both of us."

He was quiet for a moment.

She watched him thread his fingers through his dark hair. Watched the muscle in his jaw move.

"Is there someone else." He said.

She had known this was coming.

She had prepared for this.

She did not say anything immediately and he looked up and read her silence the way she had known he would.

"Right." He said. Quietly. Like the word cost him something.

She opened her mouth.

He put his hand up. "Just give me a second."

She closed her mouth.

He stood up and she watched him pace. Short tight steps. His hands going to his hips and his head dropping and coming back up. She had seen him angry before. She had never seen him angry at her and the distinction was something she was going to carry for a long time.

She waited.

She owed him that much.

"Who is it." He said finally. His voice had changed. Lower. Controlled in the specific way that meant the control was costing him.

"Tommy." She said.

"I want to know." He said.

She pressed her lips together. "It doesn't change what I'm saying to you right now."

"It does to me." He said. He looked at her steadily. "Do I know him."

She held his gaze and said nothing and he read that too.

He nodded slowly. "Okay." He said. Working through it. "Not a warlock. Not a wolf." He looked at her face. "Unless."

She kept her expression as still as she could.

She was not good at still.

His face changed.

"No." He said. "No, tell me it's not."

She exhaled. "Tommy."

"Are you serious." His voice cracked on it. "You're breaking up with me for a vampire."

She stood up. "I know how it sounds."

"A blood sucking vampire." He said. Louder now. "Carly what the hell."

"I know." She said. "I know and I am sorry for how this is happening. I am genuinely sorry for hurting you and for how long I waited and for not handling any of this better. All of that is on me and I own it."

He laughed. Short and dark. "You own it."

"Yes." She said. "But I am not sorry for how I feel."

He stared at her.

She held it.

He turned and grabbed the chair nearest to him and threw it against the wall and she flinched back from the impact and the sound of it.

He paced. Cursed under his breath. Came back.

"I was going to fix things." He said. "I told you I was going to fix things."

"I know." She said softly.

"And you were sitting there nodding and you had already decided." He said.

"Yes." She said. Because lying to him again was not something she was willing to do.

He looked at her for a long time.

Then he walked away.

No final word. No door slam. Just his back and his purposeful strides and then the corridor was empty except for her standing next to an overturned chair and the specific silence of something ending.

She stood there for a moment.

Then she picked up the chair because it felt like the right thing to do and set it back where it had been and walked toward the nearest bathroom.

She had things to fix before lunch.

POV: Tommy

He walked to the field.

Not because practice was happening. Practice was not happening for another three hours. He just needed somewhere to go that was not a corridor or a classroom or anywhere that had people in it and the field was usually empty at this hour.

He pushed through the door and walked out onto the turf and stood there in the cold Black River Falls air and breathed.

A vampire.

He turned it over. Could not make it sit right no matter which angle he approached it from.

He thought about every time she had been distracted lately. Every time she had come back from somewhere at odd hours. Every time she had deflected or changed the subject or looked at him with that expression he had not been able to read and had been trying not to look at directly.

He thought about the east lawn.

He thought about his father in the study room. Some things are just what they are whether we like it or not.

He thought about sitting at the lunch table watching her leave to follow Niko Monroeson out of the room and telling himself it meant nothing.

He sat down on the bench at the side of the field and put his face in his hands.

He was angry.

He had a right to be angry.

He was also aware somewhere underneath the anger that Carly had been telling him the truth when she said their relationship had not been working. He had felt it too and had been choosing not to look at it directly because looking at it directly meant having this exact conversation and he had not been ready for it.

He was still not ready for it.

That did not make it less true.

He lifted his face from his hands and looked at the goal post at the far end of the field.

A vampire.

He shook his head slowly.

He was going to need to know which one.

Author's Note:

He picked up the chair. She picked up the chair he threw and put it back and walked to the bathroom to fix herself up and that small detail says everything about who Carly McPherson is underneath all the noise. And Tommy sitting on that bench knowing she was not entirely wrong. Drop a like and tell me in the comments how you are feeling about Tommy right now because I have complicated feelings.