Destroy Me Gently:Ex-Enemy Becomes My Lover!
Chapter 44: Unexpected admission

Chapter 44: Unexpected admission

Chapter FORTY FOUR

**Kieran Morrison**

"So what’s the deal with you and Oliver?" Heath cut through the afternoon air as we stood around the basketball court. All day, they’d all seem to be dancing around the edge of my behavior which according to them was strange.

I’d be damned if I said I understood myself too, I bounced the ball once against the wall, the sound echoing off the empty gym. "What do you mean?"

"Come on, man." Claude grinned, leaning against the fence. "You’ve been acting weird all day, ignoring him completely when usually you’re all over the guy, and don’t even get me started on that kiss this morning. What was that all about?"

My grip tightened on the ball, I didn’t even know the answer to that "I’m trying a different approach."

"Different approach to what?" Claude asked, pushing off from where he’d been slouching against the wall.

I kept bouncing the ball, the rhythm steady, controlled. The truth was something I wasn’t about to spill to these idiots.

I couldn’t let Oliver go, I couldn’t not let him go either. If he was no longer my enemy, he would have to become something else, or I felt I was going to tear apart from everything .

"Does it not bother you that people think you’re gay?" Heath asked suddenly, and something flickered in his eyes, it was gone before I could read it properly. Why did he look so serious too?

My shoulder lifted in a careless shrug. "Why would it?"

"I mean, it’s just weird, you know? The whole school thinks you’re dating a guy now."

"So?" The ball hit the wall harder than before, my lips tightened into a grim line.

"So is it true?" Claude stepped closer, genuinely curious. "You’re going to date the one person you bullied so much? I still don’t understand you."

My jaw clenched. "There’s not much to understand. I can fucking do whatever I want, it’s no one’s business,"

"Dude, that’s pretty intense," Heath muttered, his eyes studying me. "I kind of feel sorry for him, I don’t know what he ever did to you, or what you’re planning. You’re really not going to let this go, are you?"

"Never." The word came out sharp as I suddenly remembered how friendly he’d been toward Oliver in the past few days.

"Why do you feel sorry? You’ve been quite close lately to him, anything I should know?"

Heath looked at me as though surprised, then he clapped my shoulder "Easy man, no one is taking away your favorite boy, I just thought he was interesting, that’s all."

Interesting.

This was the problem, I didn’t want anyone to find Oliver interesting at all. I loved when everyone completely ignored him, because it meant only I got to think about him... to mess with him.

I looked to see both Heath and Claude still watching me closely, and I tensed up defensively "What?" The word snapped out from me.

Everything was grating on me. My skin felt too tight, like I needed to move, to find something, to...

"I’m leaving." I grabbed my jacket from the bench.

That’s when I caught it. A flash of messy hair disappearing around the corner. That familiar backpack.

My heart slammed against my ribs.

Oliver.

Had he been...? My mind raced backward through every word we’d just said, every careless comment that might have reached his ears.

How long had he been standing there, and why?

Vince strolled into the court with that lazy confidence he always carried, and I caught something in his eyes that made my spine straighten.

Amusement. Like he knew a secret.

My eyes followed him suspiciously as he walked up to us.

"You’re not going to play?" He asked, nodding at my jacket, but his tone suggested he already knew the answer.

I studied his face, searching for clues. "Did you see Oliver outside? What was he doing?"

The amusement in Vince’s eyes grew brighter, his mouth curving into a slow smirk. "Your boyfriend seems pretty interested in you too."

Claude snorted. "What’s that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Vince said, but his smirk told a different story. "He was just snooping around, did you say any bad words? He looked pretty scared"

My chest did something strange, like my ribs had suddenly become too small.

Oliver had been watching me? The thought sent heat crawling through my body, even this small attention from him fed a hungry part within me I didn’t know I possessed.

The idea that he had been there, listening, watching, caring enough to spy on my conversation, made something dark and possessive unfurl in my stomach.

"I have more important things to do." I was already racing out of the court.

"Like what?" Heath called after me.

"It’s obviously because he wants to take his boyfriend home, you idiot." I heard Claude respond and I could hear them begin to argue.

"I’m not an idiot. I was just asking."

"You asked a stupid question," Claude replied matter-of-factly. "Therefore, idiot."

"That’s not how logic works."

"Since when do you know anything about logic?"

Their voices faded as I headed for the parking lot, my pulse hammering in my ears

When I reached the parking lot, my legs instantly halted. Everything stopped for me in this moment, not actually everything because I could feel the slow chill of ice flooding into my veins. A bitter feeling brewed in my chest as I followed the sight.

Oliver was climbing into William’s car, and they were already pulling away from the curb.

My vision went red around the edges. He was supposed to wait for me, I was meant to take him home!

My hands shook as I watched them disappear down the street, that bastard taking Oliver away from me when I needed to see him, needed to know what he’d heard, what he was thinking about everything.

"Kieran!" The annoying female voice called from behind me.

I turned slowly, but every muscle I possessed ached to break something, preferably the neck of that friend of Oliver’s.

Amanda took a step back when she saw my face.

"I’m so glad I caught you," she said, but her voice was shaky with panic. Good.

Because I didn’t have an extra second to spare on her. I badly needed a smoke.

"I wanted to invite you to Sarah’s party this weekend. I thought maybe we could talk things over, you know? Clear the air between us."

I gazed at her with barely concealed frustration. Wrong timing. Wrong person. Wrong everything.

"Clear the air?"

We had nothing to clear between us, because we never had anything.

"Well, I just thought... since you’ve been acting so strange lately, maybe we could do something fun" She smiled suggestively.

"Let me make something very clear to you." I stepped closer until she had to crane her neck to look at me, until I could see my own reflection in her widening eyes. "Whatever you think we had, whatever you think we’re going to have, you’re wrong. I don’t want to talk to you, I don’t want to see you, and I sure as hell don’t want to go to any party with you. Keep your distance from me!"

Her face crumpled like paper. "But Kieran, I thought..."

"You thought wrong. You seem to do that a lot."

"Is this about him?" Her voice cracked with tears that nearly had me crashing out.

Fuck.

I really needed to smoke right now, or I was going to lose my sanity. "Is this about Oliver? Because I can change, I can be better..."

Her words earned a humorless chuckle from me, "You’re going to transition into a boy? I’m gay. Now, even if you do that, it still won’t make me like you any better,"

I saw the shock and disbelief etched on her features, but I was already walking away, leaving her standing there like a broken doll.

I didn’t know how this sexuality shit worked, but I guessed the fact that I was deeply obsessed about a guy pretty much made me that.

Her shrill outraged screams followed me all the way to my car, as she told me to come up with a better lie than that. Her words blurred out the moment I slammed my door, all I could think about was Oliver in William’s car, driving away from me when every instinct I had was screaming at me to chase after them.

After him.

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