The Pretend Boyfriend novel Chapter 76

Brian stared at the ceiling while Adie fell asleep in his arms, his mind in turmoil.

Warwick came in the next morning, looking like a cat which had been through someone else's cream.

"I take it you got laid," Brian remarked. He pulled a strand of golden hair off Warwick's jacket. "Oooh, and what do we have here? Fur of a golden retriever?"

"God, her pussy was so tight," Warwick breathed.

"Spare me the details. I don't want to puke my hash browns." Brian was never one who liked to talk cock. He was into fucking, not talking about it.

"OK, you can lay the April Fools' joke now on little cousin." Warwick handed Brian five hundred dollars.

Brian was hesitant. "I think she's in rather deep."

Warwick snorted. "Don't kid yourself. You're not that hot."

"It's not about being hot, although I'm practically at Dante's Inferno Circle Nine," Brian grumbled.

"Why the long face? It isn't as if you haven't dumped trash before."

"Hey, watch what you say. She isn't trash."

Warwick threw back his head and laughed. "I do believe someone's got a rash of lurrvvvve."

"I do not. Shut up."

Warwick whooped. They were on the Green, and students were milling around, studying on the grass or just making small talk.

"Hey, everyone!" he yelled. "Brian Morton has got the hots for this loser of a girl, and - "

"Shut up!" Brian pulled him down. "Do you want me to punch you in the face? What's Goldlilocks going to say about that shiner on your pretty mug then?"

"Then you're not breaking it off with her." Warwick's cheeks dimpled.

"How can I break off something that wasn't in existence in the first place?" Brian had transited back to his 'I don't believe in love, I believe in fucking' mode. It was easier to be this way than to admit he felt something for somebody. No, it wasn't love. He wasn't idiotic enough to ever fall in love with someone - at least, that was what he told himself. But he certainly wore a copious amount of guilt for what he was about to do.

He should have done it that first night.

Shit.

"We need to stop seeing each other," he said flatly.

"Wh-what?"

"I've moved on. I've had you ... and now I'm moving on. To someone else."

The look on her face was one of a deer caught in the headlights. He didn't expect this. He had expected her to swear at him. Then her face changed, and she looked as if she was dying.

His guts clenched. That was why he never allowed himself to get to know them before and after he had fucked them. It led to inevitably painful scenarios like this. He didn't know how to cope with something like this, especially since he had the emotional maturity of a twelve-year-old.

So he went for the only offensive he knew: to push them off the cliff. Give them no chance whatsoever to recover.

He said, "Look, I only slept with you because Warwick asked me to, and he only asked me to because he wanted to get into your cousin's pants. It's an April Fools' hoax, nothing else. You think a guy like me would ever want to be with a girl like you otherwise?"

She visibly flinched as if he had dealt her with a blow, and he winced at his own cruelty.

He added, "So it's over. It was a fuck. You lost your virginity, and you should be thanking your stars it was to me."

He walked off, his heart thudding loudly in his ears. He did not dare look back because he didn't want to see what he knew he would see - all the angst and anger and hurt played out on her face. He kept walking, and he did not hear any footsteps pad after him.