Chapter 28

twenty-eight

HENDRIX

Two hours after she had left with my PlayStation, I sat in the darkening living room, the scent of her pussy and some rich dick's cologne still on me. My anger bubbled over because this was a fight my dumbass heart wouldn't win.

We were all or nothing.

Enemies who couldn't be lovers. Lovers who couldn't be enemies.

I was too jealous. Too possessive. And while I may have just fucked her like I would kill her if I could, the only thing those angry fucks were killing was me.

With every hard thrust, I'd caught a whiff of that bastard's cologne. I imagined him on top of her, spreading her legs and sinking into her.I could fuck him out of her as many times as I wanted, but he'd fuck himself right back in.

Any other girl was novocaine—touching them, fucking them numbed the pain. But Lola, she was an amphetamine. One hit of her, and I felt everything. Every-fucking-horrible-thing loving someone who didn't love you back could bring.

My phone lit up with a text.

Swiping an annoyed hand over my face, I glanced down at the message.

205-555-1538: My parents are gone if you want to come over and let me show you how good I am with my mouth.

I'd entertained her for one reason and one reason only. To fuck with Lola. To fuck Lola…

Me: Fuck off.

I chucked my phone to the couch, catching another whiff of that damn cologne before I pushed off the cushion and went upstairs to the bathroom. When I came out, my gaze strayed to Lola's open bedroom. Her bed was made, Sid pride of place on her pillow.

I'd spent twenty bucks to win that ugly thing out of one of those claw machines at Wal-E-Mart. And when I had run out of coins, I went around the parking lot for an hour collecting loose change. I'd been pathetic for Lola since day one. And as long as she'd give in to me, I'd stay pathetic. The only way to remedy this was to take a shit on everything we were, and I knew exactly what line not to cross.

The smell of Country Peach wrapped around me when I stepped into her room and snatched Sid's ratty body off her pillow, then grabbed a pair of scissors from the dresser.

Was this going to be cruel?

Yes.

But I couldn't take this back and forth anymore. Sid was the sacrificial sloth.

I carried the stuffed animal downstairs with me and took a seat on the couch. This was what it had come to. Me and a sloth. Her and my PlayStation. And betrayal out the ass…

Not too long after I came back downstairs, the front door opened and shut.

Swallowing, I looped my fingers through the scissor handles and placed the blades around Sid's limp neck. This ride ended here. Now. With Sid.

Lola's shadow hit the wall before she stepped into the living room. She froze in the doorway, my PlayStation clutched in her hands, and her pretty-as-fuck green eyes narrowed on Sid.

"You wouldn't," she said.

"Plug it back in." I nodded toward the rickety entertainment center, trying to make this seem like part of a petty war instead of what it was. Something desperate to make the pain of loving her stop.

Her jaw ticced right before she lifted the console into the air. "Drop the scissors."

"I can buy another PlayStation." I closed the scissors a little more. "You can't get another Sid."

"You can't even pay the power bill." She lifted it higher. "I swear to God, Hendrix, I will drop this motherfucker and jump up and down on it. Let him go!"

Panic flickered in her eyes. Sid the Sloth was a tattered symbol of who we used to be to each other. The bipolar emotions swinging through me like a wrecking ball were on the verge of driving me to total insanity. "Now would be a real good time for you to learn when not to be stubborn." God, I didn't want to do this…

"If you cut off his head, you will never sleep well again. You'll just be waiting for the moment I close those scissors around your balls."

I bit the inside of my lip. It shouldn't be this hard to decapitate a stuffed animal. Just close the scissors around its fluffy neck and end this all right here.

"I will never forgive you," she choked.

And that was what I needed.

I fought everything inside me that told me not to do it, then closed my grip on the scissors.

A loud snip broke through the silence. Stuffing spilled onto the couch cushion, and Sid's head fell to the floor.

With a war cry, Lola lifted the PlayStation over her head. "I hate you, Hendrix Hunt!" Then she launched it to the floor with a smash.

I sat there, fighting the urge I had to actually cry like a bitch as I watched her jump up and down on the broken bits of plastic—not over that stupid console, but over her. Because we were finally over, and I damn well knew it.

Sid, not Jessica, not all those other girls, but Sid was the final straw for Lola.

Her tear-filled gaze lifted from the destroyed PlayStation under her feet and landed right on me. "I hate you." She rounded the couch and collected Sid's remains before storming into the kitchen.

The clang of the trash can lid closing rang out before she cut back through the living room and went upstairs—without Sid. A few seconds later, her door slammed shut.

I picked at the stuffing left on the couch and let out a heavy breath. She'd carried that stuffed animal everywhere with her—even through two years of foster care. And now she'd put him in the trash.

Cutting off his head was the shittiest thing I'd ever done in my life, and I couldn't undo it.

I took the fluff to the kitchen and opened the trash can. Sid's decapitated body lay amongst beer bottles and Pop-Tart wrappers. It was the saddest thing I'd ever seen.

Shaking my head, I dropped the fluff into the garbage. I couldn't stand the idea of letting him go out in the trash. I grabbed his torso and head, picking bits of Ramen noodles off his fur before I carried him up to my room and shoved him under my bed.

I'd just gone back to the couch when my phone buzzed.

Medusa: You might not want to be here tonight.

And now, she was about to fuck me right out of her… I sent her a thumbs up, then shoved up from the couch and left.