The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max) novel Chapter 12

“Hold on,” Lark was stunned at Ollie’s accusation. “That’s not fair.”

“No? Tell me the truth, Lark. Did you or did you not start pulling away from us in high school because you didn’t want to be associated with us?”

“Oh my god, Ollie, I was trying to get into university so I could become a lawyer and you kept getting me arrested with your s**t. If you would have wanted to do normal things like normal people, then I wouldn’t have backed off. Your idea of a fun time was breaking and entering or going to raves and underage drinking. If you wanted to go to the beach. I was down. If you wanted to go the beach at two in the morning to drink and f**k around with guys or girls, I wasn’t so keen. Sue me.”

“See. Too good for us.”

“No. It wasn’t because I was too good, Ollie. You were so busy desperately trying to get your parents’ attention by being a precocious asshole, you failed to see the danger you put me in all the time. It was a risk to me and my future. I needed to step back lest I get sucked down into the vortex of your anger and rage. You were angry, Ollie. You were f*****g angry all the time and I was forced to protect myself.”

Ollie gave a curt nod, “at least I know now where I stood. Max embarrassed you and I put you in danger. How did you even put up with us all those years?” she asked sarcastically. “Oh, wait, I know. You didn’t. You f****d off on us.”

“That’s not fair!”

“You keep blasting about what isn’t fair like you don’t have to be accountable for the fact you made us all feel we weren’t good enough!” Ollie shouted at her. “No f*****g wonder Max never told me he had a crush on you. I would have been ashamed to be in love with someone so f*****g stuck up.”

“Is this how you really feel?” Lark’s chest ached.

“I’m standing here wondering why he didn’t tell me, or he didn’t tell you and he probably thought we would have laughed at him.” Ollie defended her brother with her arms over her chest furiously staring at Lark, her eyes watering. “You laughed at every one of his mistakes. He didn’t make a ton of them but when he did, you were the first one to laugh.”

“Not true.”

“It is true. Stop behaving holier than thou. You weren’t perfect. Do you remember when he was in scouts and Dad was the scout master? Dad made him practice building a fire in the pit out back and you cackled at him every time it went out.” “We were seven!”

“When he failed his driver’s test the first time? You laughed in the cafeteria and told him it wasn’t a big deal because he could simply use one of Dad’s drivers for the rest of his life since he was too useless to drive on his own.” Ollie lifted an eyebrow, “you weren’t seven then.”

“It was the same f*****g day he told Mona if he got into my back seat, he’d have to get in the back with the dog too! I was pissed off and I lashed back out. So what?”

“Fine. What about the night we all went to dinner at the sushi restaurant, and he struggled to use the chopsticks and you gave him a fork and told him to stop trying.”

“Again, we were seven or eight, Ollie!”

“It speaks to pattern of behavior.” Ollie waved her hand at her. “Personally, I think it shows we were all shitty to each other. We were closer than siblings and we spent so much time together all the time we did things to torment and hurt each other without even trying.”

Lark narrowed her gaze at her oldest friend and shook her head, “sounds to me like you’re trying to justify your own crappy behavior. Gaslighting one-oh-one. You don’t like me coming at you or Max so you’re trying to make me out to be the bad guy.”

“None of us were the bad guy, Lark. You created an environment where the only way Max could interact with you was defensively. You were always on the offense.”