“Steven didn’t want it, so you thought I would?” My voice was cold, detached.
Her smile faltered, and for the first time, she looked unsure. “How did you—”
I cut her off by showing her my phone.
On the screen was a text Steven had sent me that morning:
[Margot gave me some stupid handmade scarf. Bragged about it like it was the best thing in the world. I told her to keep that crap away from me.]
Margot’s face paled for a split second, but she recovered quickly, trying to close the distance between us. Suddenly, she wrapped her arms around my neck, leaning in close. Her lips moved toward mine, slow and deliberate.
I turned my head at the last second, and her lips landed awkwardly on my cheek. The warmth lingered for a moment before I wiped it away with the back of my hand—deliberately, in full view of her.
Her expression hardened.
“Frank! What the hell is your problem? Am I some kind of plague or something?” she snapped. “Stop picking fights over nothing. You’re so—ugh—annoying.”
I stared at her, bitterness twisting my face. My voice was low, but it carried every ounce of my frustration and pain.
“Nothing? You ruined my career. You ruined my life.” My hands clenched into fists. “I can’t even look at my phone without seeing people tearing me apart. I can’t go outside without hearing strangers curse my name.”
I took a shaky breath, my voice breaking. “Margot, is this what you call nothing?”
For a moment, she just stared at me, her lips pressed into a thin line. I rarely spoke to her like this. In the two years we’d been together, I’d always been the one to apologize first after a fight. Every single time.
Afterward, she’d always hold me close, her eyes softening as she whispered,
“Frank, you’re mine. Do you understand? In this lifetime, you can only stay by my side. Only I will tolerate and care for you. Everyone else will just hurt and betray you.”
The irony of those words hit me now like a freight train. The person who promised to protect me had become the one who hurt me the most.
When my father cheated and my mother fell into a depression that eventually took her life, I became everyone’s favorite punching bag. The bullying was relentless. And then, like some kind of savior, Margot had appeared.
She had shown up at my house in the pouring rain, burning up with a 104-degree fever, just to tell everyone harassing me that I wasn’t alone. That I had someone.