Page 13 of Always There Bayou (The BR Bayou #3)

Ends Bayou.

We make it back to our apartment building in no time, and I notice Christie’s car almost immediately. I sigh deeply before looking over at Denny. They don’t say anything, but the slight smile they flash at me is reassuring. I take one last deep breath, and we exit the car.

When we reach my apartment, the door is ajar, and my eyes grow wide as we step through it.

My living room is a wreck. I take in the scene around me as my blood begins to boil.

Picture frames are smashed against the ground.

My furniture is pushed every which way. Lego sets that I’d spent hours on are knocked over, and my TV and gaming system are smashed.

“You played with the wrong bitch, Cory Tate, but imma show yo ass!” She barked back, throwing the cat at me.

I tried to catch it, but it slipped and fell to the ground into a million tiny pieces.

All I could see was red as I closed the space between us.

“What! You gon hit me?! Hit me! I dare you, bitch! I will sue your ass into the ground. Hit me!”

“Cory, she isn’t worth it.” Denny gently pulled me back, and I could feel the tears forming at the corner of my eyes from frustration. What had I done in my past life to deserve to be treated like this?

“You’re about to cry over some fucking figurine?” Christie questions, annoyed. “See, and you wonder why I cheated on your soft ass. You always try to make yourself seem all hard and macho, but you’re the complete opposite! How am I supposed to rely on you when you constantly act like a pussy?”

“Christie, you better chill the fuck out with all of that before I beat yo ass,” Denny snaps, but she scoffs before laughing.

“Ah, yeah, see, and here’s another reason why you and I didn’t work, Cory. This bitch right here. Y’all stay acting like y’all are besties, but I know y’all be fuckin’!”

“Get out of my house, Christie,” I say as calmly as I can. “I won’t press charges on you for vandalism if you just leave my shit now. I’m asking you nicely.”

“And you didn’t even deny it,” Christie chuckled dryly. She steps closer to me and pushes a finger into my chest. “Cory, you are a piece of shit, and you’re a terrible person. You deserve everything bad that comes your way, and I can’t wait to see you fall.”

“Christie, stop trying to make me into some type of bad guy when it’s you who cheated on me!

” I yell, fed up with the bullshit. “I loved you, and I took care of you. I was faithful to you, and I never hurt you. I thought that you were the one, yet you betrayed me. Don’t stand here and try to blame me because you fucked up a good thing.

” She doesn't say anything but glares at me.

“I refuse to let you continue to hurt me, Christie, so please…just leave me alone.”

Her face softens, and I can see the moment her guard starts to go down. She yanks her suitcase and walks over to the door, turning back to say one last thing.

“I did like you at first, Cory,” she admits.

“But then I realized that it would never matter how much I liked you because you’d never see me as endgame.

You’ll never see anyone as endgame as long as they’re around.

” She points to Denny but doesn’t break eye contact.

“ That’s why I cheated on you. I can’t compete with Denny, and you know that, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not.

Sorry for ruining your shit, but you broke my heart months ago.

You might not have cheated, but that’s just because you were never mine to begin with.

It felt like you’ve just been stringing me along this whole time. Want a little advice?”

“No.”

“If you ever want to date someone else, get rid of Denny first,” she says, ignoring me. “By continuing to have them around when you claim you don’t have feelings for them is just going to constantly give people false hope. ”

She doesn’t even let me get a word in before she steps out of the apartment, tossing my spare key toward where I stand and closing the door behind her.

I glance over at Denny, but they don’t say anything.

Instead, they preoccupy themself with picking up some of the broken picture frames.

I got to work cleaning up the massive mess of Lego bricks.

Over the next couple of hours, we worked on cleaning up my apartment and fixing the things that could be fixed. I had to trash my TV, but I decided to take my gaming system to see if it could be fixed. Neither of us said much while we were cleaning, and it gave me time to think about a lot of shit.

Denny didn’t know this, but this wasn’t the first time a woman had broken up with me because they thought I was in love with Denny.

It was an ongoing theme, but that was not something I was gonna admit to them.

Looking back on my past relationships, I could see that our closeness was suspicious, but up until recently, I genuinely didn’t have feelings for Denny.

Or at least I didn’t realize I did.

Either way, I felt sick to my stomach as Christie’s words sank into my brain.

With every passing moment, I realized that she was right.

There really was no one who could ever compare to Denny, and maybe I was stupid to think otherwise.

Maybe I was stupid to ignore my feelings for so long.

I probably could have avoided all of this.

I let out a deep sigh as I finally entered my bedroom.

Just like the living room, it was trashed, although not as severely.

My shoes were knocked over, and my clothes were ripped from the hangers and thrown all over the room.

She’d done a number on my place; however, I didn’t think it was justified.

She was the one who cheated on me, and because I was tired of the same old shit, I’d finally kicked her to the curb.

I felt like I’d done the right thing in this situation, yet I still ended up feeling like shit.

I don’t know why my heart hurts. Not only for the wasted time I’d spent in that relationship, but because I couldn’t even muster up the courage to admit my feelings to the one person I truly wanted to be with.

I sat down on the bed, my head spinning from all of the different emotions. My stomach flipped, and I was on the verge of letting the tears flow once again. The end of a relationship always hurts like hell, even if you know it was never meant to last.

I’ve never been the type to dwell too long on my emotions because I knew that I was prone to depressive episodes.

So, I tended to distract myself with basketball.

However, since the season was over, I couldn’t just chill at the practice center.

The next best thing would be to hit up the gym. I’d have to do that tomorrow.

“Cory?”

I look up to see Denny standing at the doorway, a concerned look etched across their face.

I quickly swiped at the tears that had fallen as my chest tightened.

I hated how vulnerable I became around them, and I hated that they had to see this mess that Christie had caused.

I hated that they had to experience her harsh words. I hated it all.

“I know you don’t want to hear this,” they say, breaking the silence. “But I’m glad she’s finally gone. I never liked the way she always treated you. It was…a toxic relationship, and you don’t deserve that.”

“Yeah…” I reply, lying back on the bed. I cover my eyes with my arm and take a deep breath. I could feel the tears threatening to fall again. I hated this shit so much. Why the fuck couldn’t I stop crying? “Fuck!”

“Cory?” they call out to me, but I don’t answer, afraid that my voice will come out shaky and they’ll realize I was crying. I feel their hands on my arm, gently pulling it back. I shake my head, sighing before turning over onto my side and away from them. “Cory, please just look at me.”

“Denny, can you just leave me alone for a while?” I ask, trying my best to keep my voice level. “I just…I want to sleep.”

“No, I can’t leave you alone,” they say, gripping my arm to pull me up. I huff loudly, shaking them away.

“Damn it, Denny, I asked you to leave me the fuck alone!” I yell and they jump back. I sit up, glaring at them. “I just need time to myself, okay? It’s already embarrassing that you had to witness all of that, and that I can’t even…”

I stopped myself from talking before I said too much.

My eyes connected with theirs, and my heart dropped at the hurt in them.

Instantly, I felt like shit, so I reached out to them, but they backed away from me.

I could feel myself internally panicking, and I opened my mouth to apologize, but nothing came out.

I was fucking everything up.

“Denny, I’m… ”

“I’m just gonna go,” they say, shaking their head. “You’re right. You need some time alone, and I’m not gonna get in the way of that. I think I’m gonna stay at my aunt and uncle’s house for a while. I need some time alone as well.”

And with that, they turn, exiting the room and then the apartment.

I felt my stomach turn as my world crashed around me.

I couldn’t do shit right. I’d never yelled at Denny before, so I can only imagine how hurt they were.

I wanted to run behind them and apologize, but my body wouldn’t cooperate.

Instead, I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes, trying to even out my breathing and lower my heart rate.

Within minutes, I was drifting off to sleep.

December 20th, 2024

It had been almost two weeks since Denny and I last talked, and by now, I was convinced that they hated me, but did I blame them?

No. They’ve always been nothing but nice and caring to me, yet I treated them the way that I did.

I missed my best friend, and I hadn’t been able to sleep peacefully since that night.