18 ✓

TWENTY

HUNTER

This time, I had truly fucked up. Trying to do the right thing caused much more pain imaginable than being honest. For once, honesty and following a moral compass did not go hand-in-hand. Yet, I was sure choosing either path would have ultimately ended with the same results. It was more a matter of convenience for when my path of destruction was to hit. Now, or three years prior.

The worst part of all was that I had no excuses for what I did. I thought I was doing the right thing by not telling her. Protecting her relationship with her family, letting them tell her first. I wondered how different things may have been if I had told her the day I had taken her to my family's vacation home. The number of times I tried - even with the fear that my sister's sudden appearance would ultimately expose the truth. But my own selfish actions stopped me once again. I was terrified to lose her over the thought of her hating me.

Flash forward three years later, and that past fear was almost laughable now.

I saw the colour drain from her face as she heard my honest answer. I saw the disgust in her eyes as she slowly stepped away from me. There were no tears. That wasn't surprising coming from Dylan. Besides, as she once blatantly put it herself, why would she cry over me? The silence, however, was the most painful part. I knew she wasn't one to get emotional, and sometimes that made it hard for me to read how she was feeling. But at that moment, not getting any sentence from her at a slightly raised volume told me all I needed to know. I had lost her. And I deserved it.

Technically, I had known what happened to her sister since our first date. It wasn't until later that night that I had a definitive answer. I hated the guy I always turned into when I tried to get her out of my mind.

There was something about her that always made it impossible for me to stay away. The first time was the night at that frat house, where I barely lasted a couple of hours and ended up waiting outside her apartment. The second time I managed to stay away for almost an entire month until I saw her out on New Year's Eve and called her Angel for the first time. I became blinded by love during that time, even to the point where I thought I would be invincible during a trip to her parent's house. My luck, however, quickly ran out. Her mother, instantly catching on as to who I was, encouraged her husband to sign a pretty penny to keep me away.

You might as well walk away with something, I recall her saying, Because when she finds out what you've been hiding from her, you will lose her completely.

Her father was all too eager to call me a cab in the middle of the night, practically tossing my bags out the front door. Little did he know, I wasn't just some guy who he had written off as a bad influence on his daughter. I was someone who knew his family's secret.

"Morning," the female voice purred. "Have you been awake long?"

"No, just a little while," I lied, peeling my eyes away from the spot on the ceiling I had been staring at for the past few hours.

Glancing to the side, I took in the female companion that laid next to me. For the past week, I had fallen into old habits, doing whatever - and whomever - necessary to forget. They say time heals all wounds, but I always thought of that as a crock of shit. Who in their right mind would want to sit around in their own misery? Besides, there was no winning Dylan back. What would be the point of acting any differently?

"I'm going to hop in the shower," she said as she sat up with a devilish grin, "Care to join me?"

"You head in. I'll be there in a minute."

The dark-haired beauty, whose name I had quickly forgotten, made her way out of the bed. As she walked towards the bathroom, I caught sight of the various tattoos she had: a phrase across her shoulder blades, one down her spine, and another on the side of her thigh. This woman resembled how the others looked; the complete opposite of my Angel - Dylan. The opposite of Dylan.