Trying Not to Love You

Hailey tried to get up off his lap but he pulled her back so she couldn't move. Hailey looked down at him, and he looked up at her. She said, "You need to talk to her. Knock this shit off, Mase."

He looked at me and then back to her, and asked, "Talk to who?"

I stood there, stunned that he would say something like that to me. Hailey pushed his shoulder back, got up, and walked in the house. A second later, she came out with her purse and keys and told Mason, "I'm leaving. When you decide to grow up call me." Then she looked at me and said, "Love you Kenzie. I'll see you in the morning."

I didn't answer her, and she kept walking towards her car, I wasn't sure if I was going to cry or scream. Mason got up and pulled the door open with such force it banged against the house, and then I heard him say "Bitch."

After standing there for a few more minutes, I walked inside and threw myself into doing my laundry and cleaning up my room, before finally falling asleep.

23

The last two months had flown by in a haze. All my classes were going great; I was getting mostly A's and B's. Hailey and I had moved out of the dorms and moved in with Hunter and Bentley. We only stayed at the dorms once a week to make our presence known. I had offered Bentley money for Hailey and me staying there all the time but he told me as long as we cooked dinner 3 times a week that was payment enough. Otherwise, they would still be eating pizza every night.

Mason still wasn't talking to me, Hunter or Hailey. Hailey always said she was fine and that she wasn't worried about Mason. I knew it was eating her up inside. There were a few times I caught her crying late at night. She said they talked a few times but never for long, because baseball was taking up a lot of his time. I talked to Cooper and he said that Mason was still being a dick about all this shit. He was snapping at him and Jaylinn all the time and Cooper was fed up with it. I asked about what he was doing all the time that he claimed he was busy. Coop said that he was at baseball most of the time but when he wasn't he was out partying and getting trashed.

Hunter was not himself since that night at the house when he and Mason got into it. It was eating at him. I think when he caught Hailey crying a few days ago, that it caught up to him, because he started to take it out on me. He would pick a fight for no reason. I was late getting home from work last night and he flipped out and asked me a million times where I was.

I was starting to get sick from all of the tension around Hunter and me; my stomach never could handle that. Just the other day, as soon as I opened my eyes, I had to run to the bathroom to get sick.

I woke up this morning and as soon as my eyes opened, I ran off towards the bathroom to throw up. Hunter came in as he has the last few times and held my hair back for me. When I was done, he would help me in the shower. He apologized for taking things out on me and I would always forgive him. How could I not, when he looked at me with those eyes of his that had my stomach doing flip-flops. After we showered, he carried me back to bed and made love to me. He always made sure to take his time with me after I got sick or after fighting.

I must have fallen asleep after we were done because Hunter's side of the bed was empty and cold. After getting dressed, I went downstairs to get something to eat because I started to feel sick again. Hailey was sitting on the bar stool, eating a sandwich and reading a book.

"Hey Hails."

"Hey sleeping beauty. Hunter keeping you up all hours of the night?" she said laughing.

I shook my head. Only Hailey would bring that up. "No, actually he isn't keeping me up at all lately."

"You sure have been sleeping a lot. You feeling ok?" She asked.

"Not really, all this tension with Mason and all of us is really starting to wear me down. I wish he would just get over it so we can all move on. It's been two months since that fight, and enough is enough." I said, turning to grab a bowl from the cabinet.

"I know, I keep trying but as soon as I bring it up, he makes some kind of excuse to get off the phone." She closed the book in her hand and put it on the table.

"Hails, work on your relationship with Mase. Don't worry about us; I'm his sister. He has to get over this eventually. Once we go home for the summer, Mom will put a stop to this bullshit."

"I know..." A raging Hunter, who had just walked in and slammed the door, cut her off.

"What the f**k, CC?"

"Hunter, what the hell is going on?"

"You tell me, what else are you hiding from me?" He walked over and stood inches away from me.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." My stomach started turning. "What's going on?"

"Dominic showed up on Christmas morning and you never told me?"

I grabbed my stomach, trying not to think about getting sick again. "It wasn't a big deal. Cooper was there with me. He just stopped by to tell me that Brittany lied about being pregnant. That's it; he wasn't there more than 5 minutes before I told him he had to go."

Oh my God, I was going to lose it. I took off running towards the bathroom to throw up again.

Someone knocked on the door. "Come in." I said moaning from the bathroom floor. The tiles were cooling my face off.

"Oh sweetie, are you ok?" Hailey said lifting my head on to her lap.

"Hailey, you have to get me out of here. I can't do this shit anymore." My stomach was turning again; I held it tight trying to make it stop. "I can't be around him. Every time I am, my stomach knots up and I get sick."

I started crying. I didn't want this to happen. I tried to ignore it but it just wasn't going away. He was pissed off about something that happened two months ago, something that was no big deal at all.

"Alright look, you go grab your stuff and meet me back downstairs. I'll get us back to the dorms. I think you just need a little space." Hailey said while she was running her fingers through my hair.

I got up off the floor, threw some water on my face and went upstairs to grab my things. I quickly put everything in a bag. I didn't want to have another fight with Hunter; I just needed to get out of here. I was walking down the stairs and I could hear Hailey and Hunter's voices. I couldn't hear what they were saying so I walked out the front door quietly to wait for Hailey. She was taking forever in there with him. Bentley had pulled up in the driveway. I ran over to him before he got out.

"Bentley, could you give me a ride back to the dorms please?" I didn't wait for an answer. I just climbed in his car.

"Yeah sure, everything ok?"

"No, but it will be."