Finding Faith

“I’m sorry. I can’t help it.” I continued to laugh. “You’re like a rabid Chihuahua puppy.”

Anger flared in her eyes again. “Are you calling me a dog?” Again, she pushed me up against the wall.

I stopped laughing and took a good look at her. She was so different—so jaded. What had happened to her to change her so much? For me, it was her leaving me high and dry—literally—but her leaving me couldn’t have done this to her. Someone else had to.

The thought of anyone else hurting her made me irate.

“What happened to you?” I asked. “Who made you this way?”

The better question was why did I care?

She stepped away from me with sad eyes. Her face dropped and for a second I thought maybe she’d pass out again.

“You happened,” she said as she looked me straight in the eyes.

A tear wobbled on her lashes, but she swiped it away before it had a chance to fall.

“No. You happened to me. You left me,” I said as I dug my finger into my chest. “You don’t get to be altered. You don’t get to be hurt by it. I do.”

Her face paled before her cheeks filled with red heat again.

“You’re joking, right? I hurt you? Yeah, you were so hurt that a week later you were screwing your ex-girlfriend? Wow, Finn, you must’ve really been heartbroken.” A tear leaked down her cheek before she turned and hauled ass out of the room.

I was on her heels. I had no fucking idea what she was talking about, but I hadn’t had sex with anyone for a freaking year after Faith left. She didn’t know what the hell she was saying, but I wasn’t having it. She wasn’t allowed to play the victim in this. I was the victim. I was the one who was hurt—not her. She was the one that left me.

Before she could open the front door, I caught it and slammed it shut.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now? You don’t know what you’re talking about. I suggest you get your story straight before you start pretending like the poor preacher’s daughter with me,” I yelled back.

“Oh, I don’t know what I’m talking about? I saw you, Finn. I saw you with my own two eyes. I came back. I ran away from California and I came back to you, but you were there with her on your couch. I turned and walked away and I never looked back.”

Again, she tried to pull the door open to leave. She was talking out of her head. Maybe she was medicated or something. She had to be on something. Her story was nuts and there was no way in hell I was falling for it.

“You’re crazy. You’re really crazy,” I said as I released the door for her.

I’d dealt with crazy bitches before, but Faith took the cake. She was talking out of her head and making up stories on the spot. I hadn’t touched Jenny and I knew for fact that Faith never came back. I knew that because I’d received a letter from her saying how much she hated me a week after she left. She was nuts. It was impossible for her to be in two places at once.

“Yeah, you’re right. I am crazy. I should’ve never gone back to South Carolina. Especially after that awful letter you sent me,” she said before pulling the door open and running out.

She left me there staring after her like she was a fucking nutcase. She left me there with doubts about the past and the way things really happened, and she left me there wondering what fucking letter she was talking about. I’d never sent her any letter.

An hour later, after sitting and thinking over the argument we had, the memory of Leroy telling me he had to pull Jenny off me came back quick and clear. Had Faith really come back for me? And if so, was it at the exact moment that Leroy told me about? Things were getting complicated, and as much I knew I should’ve just let the past go and move on, I couldn’t. I wanted answers and I wanted to not feel things for Faith.

Twenty-Five

Faith

I couldn’t get food into my body fast enough. I was so embarrassed that I’d fainted in front of Finn again. I was turning into a weakling who was passing out at the drop of a hat. I needed meat and veggies, and I needed them as soon as possible.

Instead of cooking, I took the three of us out to dinner. Jimmy always got excited when we ate dinner out, and I enjoyed seeing him get excited about all the food on the buffet.

I ate my food and mulled through the argument Finn and I had earlier. I silently wished I could take back everything I’d said. I hated that I’d shown him my weakness like that. But mainly what bothered me was the fact that he had looked seriously offended when I said I knew about him sleeping with Jenny right after I left. Maybe I’d seen it the wrong way. When I closed my eyes, I could still play the scene over in my head and every time I did, I could clearly see Finn’s eyes closed with his arms at his side. Was he passed out?