Chapter 251 - The Thing You Hid
The bathroom door opened.
Roxie looked up from Zac’s phone as he stepped into the room wearing gray sweatpants, rubbing a towel through his wet hair. His eyes went toward the television before shifting to her, and the towel stopped moving.
Roxie looked back at Holly’s messages. "You said you went home last night."
"Why are you on my phone?"
"Did you go home?"
Zac lowered the towel. "Give me the phone."
"Did you?"
His eyes dropped toward her hand.
Roxie locked the screen but kept the phone. "You said you and Mia watch Huntrix."
"We usually do."
"That isn’t what I asked."
Zac threw the towel toward the hamper. It hit the side and dropped onto the floor. "Can you give me my phone?"
Roxie gripped it harder. "Did you go home or not?"
His jaw tightened. "You already know. Do you still want me to say it?"
Roxie stared at him. The answer was right there, but he still would not fucking say it.
"So you really are kicked out?"
Zac sighed and looked away. "Why do you have my phone? Are you really this insecure?"
Heat rushed into Roxie’s face. "You fucking liar. Where the fuck did you go last night? Holly’s?"
His expression darkened. "That was below the belt."
"Really?" Roxie stood and walked toward him. "Because if you didn’t go home and you really are kicked out like your fucking Holly said, then where did you go? You sure as hell didn’t stay here."
"She’s not my anything."
"How would I know?" Roxie lifted both hands before remembering his phone was still in one of them. "I have a fucking lying boyfriend."
"Calm the fuck down."
The heat spread down her neck.
He lied to her face, disappeared for the night, and now she was supposed to calm down.
"What, am I too crazy for you now?"
Zac turned and walked toward the kitchen.
That made the heat in Roxie’s neck crawl straight into her face. She followed him. "Don’t you fucking dare walk away while I’m talking to you. Where were you last night? Were you with Holly? Dylan? Some random girl? Anyone except your fucking girlfriend?"
Zac opened a cabinet, took out a glass, and filled it with water without answering.
Roxie watched him drink.
That pissed her off even more. He stood there swallowing water while her mind jumped through every place he could have gone and every person who might know something she did not.
"Answer me."
Zac took another drink.
Roxie’s hand moved before the thought finished forming. She smacked the glass from his hand.
It hit the tile and shattered.
Roxie flinched at the sound.
Water spread across the floor between them. Zac looked at the broken pieces, then slowly raised his eyes to her.
An apology almost came out.
Then Roxie saw how hard his face had become, and the apology died in her throat. He had lied. She was standing there begging her own boyfriend to tell her where he had spent the night, and somehow she was the one being looked at like she had lost her mind.
"I slept in the Tesla outside Mason’s house," Zac said. "Is that a good enough answer, or do you need every fucking minute of my life too?"
Roxie stared at him. "You slept in the Tesla?"
"Yes."
"Outside Mason’s house?"
"Yes."
For a moment, she could only look at him.
The bungalow had been here all night. Her bed had been here. The couch had been here. Zac knew he could use any of them.
They had already settled this. Last night she had actually done what she said she would do. She let him kiss her goodbye and walk out without asking when he would come back.
She had trusted what he told her.
He slept in her fucking car.
Zac gave a bitter laugh. "See? I tell you the truth and you still look at me like I’m lying."
"Oh, God." Roxie stepped back. "I’m sorry. Am I supposed to suddenly believe everything that comes out of your mouth?"
Zac shook his head and crouched to pick up the broken glass.
Watching him focus on the floor made Roxie feel like he had already checked out of the conversation.
"You’re seriously telling me you chose to sleep in the Tesla when you could’ve stayed here?"
"Yes."
The answer hurt more than she expected.
Her mind went somewhere ugly immediately. Maybe being alone in a car really had been better than being beside her. Maybe he had wanted to get away from the bungalow because getting away from the bungalow meant getting away from her.
Roxie hated how quickly her brain could turn one word into all of that.
"Why?"
Zac kept collecting pieces of glass. "I wanted to be alone."
Roxie swallowed.
At least that was an answer.
It hurt, but it was real.
"You could’ve told me that."
"And then we’d be doing exactly this."
"No." Roxie’s voice rose. "We’re doing this because you fucking lied. Don’t you dare turn my reaction into the reason you did it."
Zac dropped the glass onto the counter and straightened. "I wanted to leave without answering twenty questions."
Roxie stared at him. "I let you leave last night. I didn’t follow you outside. I didn’t ask when you were coming back. I didn’t ask you to stay. I believed you."
"I know."
"Then why was it so hard to tell me where you were actually going?"
"I didn’t know where I was going."
"Then say that."
Zac rubbed his hand over his face. "I didn’t want you worrying."
Roxie almost laughed.
"Worrying? God forbid your girlfriend worries about you."
"I can handle it."
"Oh, sure. You’re handling it great. You got kicked out, you’re jumping between couches, and now you’re sleeping in someone’s yard?"
"I slept in a car one time."
"And I had no fucking idea!"
Her own voice echoed through the kitchen.
Zac looked away.
Roxie stared at the side of his face, and something else finally clicked into place.
Mason knew where Zac had been because Zac parked outside his house.
Dylan knew Zac had nowhere else to stay because Zac had been sleeping on his couch.
How many people had already watched this happen while Roxie was still being told he was going home?
"Does Dylan know you slept in the Tesla?"
"No."
"Does Mason know you’re kicked out?"
Zac wiped his wet hand against his sweatpants and said nothing.
That was enough.
Roxie gave a sharp laugh. "Does Kendall know too?"
He finally looked at her. "What does Kendall have to do with this?"
"She knew you were still staying at Dylan’s before I did."
"That doesn’t mean she knows everything."
"Apparently she doesn’t have to know everything. She just has to know more than your girlfriend."
"Roxie."
"Who else?"
"Nobody."
"Mason knows enough to let you sleep outside his house. Dylan knows enough to give you his couch. Kendall knew you weren’t going home."
Zac’s jaw tightened. "What exactly do you want from me?"
Roxie stared at him.
The question hurt because she thought the answer should have been obvious.
"I want to stop being the last fucking person to know what’s happening to you."
Zac went quiet.
Roxie felt the pressure building behind her eyes and blinked hard. She refused to cry now. She was already angry enough without giving him another reason to think she could not handle anything.
"I’m your girlfriend, Zac. I sleep beside you. You drive my car. Half your shit is in my bedroom. How the fuck am I still finding out from other people that you don’t even have a home to go back to?"
"I just didn’t want you to worry."
His voice was quieter now.
Roxie looked at him in disbelief.
He kept saying worry like he had somehow spared her from it.
She had worried anyway. She had simply worried while believing whatever version he gave her.
"That makes no sense. If something happens to you, I’m going to worry. That’s what happens when you give a shit about someone."
"You already have enough going on."
"There." Roxie pointed at him. "That right there."
"What?"
"You deciding what I can handle."
"I was trying to make things easier for you."
"Who asked you to?"
Zac’s mouth opened, then closed.
Roxie kept going. "You decide I have enough problems, so you hide yours. You decide I’m going to react badly, so you give me some other story. Then when I find out, you act like this proves you were right."
"That isn’t what I’m doing."
"Then what are you doing?"
"I’m dealing with my own shit."
"Fine. Deal with it. That doesn’t mean you get to make me believe something that isn’t true."
Zac looked exhausted, but Roxie was tired too. Tired of trying to pull answers out of him. Tired of wondering which parts of his life she actually knew and which ones everyone else had already heard first.
His eyes dropped toward the phone still in her hand.
"You still went through my phone."
Roxie looked down at it.
That stopped her.
He was right. Roxie walked to the counter and put the phone down in front of him.
"I shouldn’t have done that."
Zac looked at her.
"I mean it. I shouldn’t have gone through your phone."
His expression softened slightly, but Roxie was nowhere near finished.
She stepped back from the counter. "That doesn’t erase what I read."
"I never said it did."
"Good. Because I can admit when I crossed a line without pretending you didn’t cross one too."
Zac looked down at his phone.
Roxie waited.
She wanted him to argue. She wanted him to say she was wrong about something, because his silence was beginning to feel worse than the shouting.
Instead, he stayed quiet.
Roxie wrapped her arms around herself.
"If you wanted to be alone last night, you could’ve told me. Maybe I would’ve gotten pissed. Maybe I would’ve asked you to stay. I don’t know what I would’ve done."
Zac finally looked at her.
He said nothing.
This time, Roxie did not chase another answer out of him.
She just stood there looking at the boy who kept asking her to trust him while deciding for himself which truths she was allowed to have.