Fight For Me
by
Bethany Bazile
Chapter One
Alexis
Confessions & Consequences
My phone chirped simultaneous to the sound of my fist rapping on the door. I juggled the brown paper bag and my books to my left arm so I could pull the phone out of my pocket. It was a text from Paige.
We need to talk. How soon will you be home?
Paige was my roommate. We’d had a plan to go to the same college and room together since our freshman year in high school. My mother, of course, was not on board. She’d offered me a car if I stayed home and commuted to school. There was no bargain that would’ve talked me out of our set agenda, so my brother took the car, and I packed up and moved into the dorms.
I sent her a quick text letting her know I was at Logan’s place. I stuffed the phone back into my pocket and banged on the door a little louder. Just as I was about to call him to let him know I was there, the door flung open.
He looked incredible despite the fact that he was only wearing a pair of jeans. Well… maybe because of the fact. Logan was the guy most girls on campus had their eyes on and wanted. He was there on a football scholarship. He had bad-boy good looks but came from a prominent family. Dusty-blond hair and a killer smile that lit up his blue eyes. I didn’t care that he drove his motorcycle like a maniac; I just loved to jump on behind him and hold on for the ride. He was everything that made a girl melt. And I melted.
We’d met in high school. Logan was two years ahead of me. After he graduated, we maintained a long-distance relationship. He spent quite a few nights sneaking into my window after Mom went to sleep. Once we were living on the same campus, everything seemed to be lining up. At twenty, I thought I had my life together.
“Guess what I got us?” I smiled as I strolled past him, waving my brown paper bag. I dropped my books on the table near the kitchenette. His apartment was small but a lot bigger than the room Paige and I shared.
He smiled. “You’re the only girl I know who gets this excited over grease truck burgers.”
I pouted at him. “Don’t make fun of my love of burgers.”
“I would never,” he said, pulling me into him and wrapping his arms around my waist. “As long as you love me more.”
“Hmm?” I pretended to think about it, and he frowned at me. I laughed at his expression. My phone rang, so I pulled it out of my pocket. We both looked down at Paige’s face on my screen.
“Maybe I should get this. She’s been texting me all day.”
“No!” He snatched my phone out of my hand and stepped back. What the hell was that?
I knit my brows as I looked at him. He continued looking down at the phone until it stopped ringing. “What was that about?”
“We need to talk.” He looked edgy, like he wanted to bolt.
“That’s the second time today someone ‘needs to talk.’” I didn’t like it. Any conversation starting with those words didn’t end well.
He walked around, placing my phone on the table and then pulling out a chair. “Sit.”
I shook my head. Another bad sign. I wasn’t going to sit down as though I were too weak to take his news.
“Just tell me what’s going on.”
“I love you—”
“Logan… just spit it out.”
He reached for me, but I stepped back. His eyes dropped to the floor. “I slept with Paige.”
Huh?
Wait….
I needed a minute for my heart to start beating again. I took a few steadying breaths, but it didn’t work.
“I’m so sorry, Lexi.”
Sorry?
“What do you expect me to do with this, Logan?” I even sounded unsteady—shaken—as my tone echoed through my head.
“We can work through this.” He clasped my head between his palms, forcing me to look into his eyes.
“No, we can’t,” I said as calmly as possible. I wanted out. Out of the room that felt like it was suffocating me with its proclamations of truth. He’d confessed. He’d unburdened his secret on me, but how was I supposed to move on after he cleared the burden off his chest and laid it upon my bleeding heart? I tried to pull my hand away, but he tightened his hold. My eyes were stinging, but I refused to shed a single tear in front of him.
“No more lies. I just want to be with you without this between us.”
I gave him everything for four years, and it all came down to one confession. Logan betrayed me with Paige and broke me. I grew up with Paige, and I couldn’t comprehend how she’d hurt me this way.
My relationship with Paige would never recover from this. I wasn’t sure if I’d recover. Then I remembered all the messages from Paige and…