It could have been from lugging my recovered belongings up the stairs of the Hockey House, but my legs were like lead after the phone call I had with the local Humane Society. I had explained the entire situation with them and why Oliver had been returned by my scummy ex boyfriend who was doing everything in his power to punish me for leaving him. After a tearful conversation with the man running the front desk, I had spent the last twenty minutes on hold only to be told by two different supervisors that, according to their policy, they were unable to return Oliver to me. They wouldn't give me any more information, citing rules I didn't care to hear.

It was yet another punch to the gut.

I swallowed down the emotion that threatened to spill over again, wiping at my cheeks before leaving the safety of the stairs. I couldn't afford to break down now. Not after the lengths I went through to get away from Miles. I would find a way to adopt Oliver again, I simply needed time to figure it out. After I cleared my head. It had been a long day, and I needed nothing more than to sink into a couch and watch some mindless TV.

I was on my way to do just that when I found Maverick sitting at the table. There was an ice pack pressed against his bruised knuckles. The sight of him, slouched in his chair with his head slightly bowed as he scrolled on his phone, filled me with a complicated mix of gratitude and guilt.

Instead of taking an immediate left and finding solace in the once-empty living room, my slippers scraped across the kitchen tiles.

"Hey," I breathed.

A bundle of nerves knotted up in my stomach. Would he blame me for having injured himself? For having to defend me against Miles?

The idea that he was most likely upset with me was crushed the moment he glanced up at me. Those dark brown eyes held a flicker of amusement that often wasn't directed towards me. But what was even more surprising was the soft grin he gave me. It was if he were regarding a friend and not a girl he'd been trying to get rid of for the past few days.

"Hey," he replied, regarding the redness in my cheeks. "You okay?"

I tried to disguise the shaky breath with a laugh as I lowered myself into the seat across from him. "I tried calling the shelter about Oliver," I explained, staring down at my fingers. "Apparently they can't return him to me because according to them, I abandoned him. Which, I guess in a way, I did."

I rolled my lips into my mouth before releasing another breath to stop my eyes from stinging. When I glanced back up, Maverick was staring at me. There was a lapse in the smile he gave me earlier.

This was probably the last thing he wanted to hear about. I had already invaded his space, had him come and help move my stuff out of my ex's place and, on top of all that, he ended up getting hurt in the process.

I cleared my throat as I eyed the irritated patch of skin beneath the ice pack. "I'm sorry about your hand."

Maverick raised a thick eyebrow as if I had said something ridiculous. "What are you sorry about?"

"You shouldn't have been put into a position where you felt like you needed to protect me."

"That wasn't on you. That was on him." His voice was firm, leaving no room for arguments.

I bit my lip, guilt still gnawing at me as I cast my gaze down towards the table again. "I mean...I should have handled things differently. Maybe if I hadn't—"

"Celeste, stop," Maverick cut in, leaning forward a little. "None of this was your fault."

I swallowed, running a hand through my hair as we made eye contact again. His gaze held mine. It was lacking the usual sharpness. Dark chocolate melting into semi-sweet. When I didn't respond he continued.

"You had every right to be upset with how he was speaking to you. Hell, I'd be more worried if you weren't."

I blinked. Maverick, the one guy who had been trying to run me out of the Hockey House, was trying to comfort me?

"I just... I don't know. I guess I just feel like if I didn't let him get under my skin, things wouldn't have escalated the way they did."

"Look, I'm not a cat person," Maverick said, and I swear I saw the tiniest hint of a genuine smile. "But you had every right to be upset."

His words were so simple, but they did the one thing I needed the most in that moment. Validate me. I hadn't realized how much I'd needed someone to just... understand. To not tell me to calm down or get over it or any of the things I'd heard too many times before.

I brought my hands down to my lap, the tiniest amount of weight lifting off my shoulders. "Oliver...he meant a lot to me," I began. "I thought he meant a lot to Miles. But, when the two of us started dating it didn't take long to lose contact with all the friends I had made freshman year. The only people I hung around with were Miles and his friends, like Sean. And eventually that all slowed to a stop too. So...soon it was just me and Oliver."

Maverick listened, his eyes steady on mine. Being the centre of his attention was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time. I didn't know much about him just yet, but there was no part of me that didn't think he was popular with the ladies. The sharp jawline. The dark features. The straight nose. Maverick was classically handsome. Everything I thought Miles once was, but now paled in comparison. The kind of face Hollywood would kill for.

It unnerved me in a way that unlocked a bout of verbal diarrhea.

"Oliver was there when things got really lonely. When it felt like I didn't have anyone else, you know? He'd curl up next to me while I studied or when Miles was out late or when we'd have those stupid arguments that went nowhere. It made everything feel a little more bearable."

I wiped at my eyes, frustrated that I was tearing up again. "It just feels like another thing he took away from me. Like, he couldn't just let me have that one good thing."

"He sounds like a real piece of work."

"That's what I still can't wrap my head around. In the beginning, everything was...perfect. He was picking me up after class, buying me ice cream when he knew I was getting close to my period. He said all the right things––made me feel like I was the center of his world. And then it switched.

"It wasn't overnight...it was slow. So slow I didn't even notice the changes. Everything started becoming about him—what he wanted, what he needed. The kind gestures stopped. I just thought he was stressed from classes and would hate myself for being so selfish. Then that changed too. It got to the point where my opinions, my feelings, they didn't matter unless they fit into his plans. I was something he kept around for his enjoyment.

"I thought I could make it work. Overlook the insults and the ever-shrinking fuse he had with me. That if I just stayed by his side, things would get better. They would go back to how they once were. But they didn't. He'd make these promises—about spending time together, about listening more—but it was all just words. And every time I tried to bring it up, he'd turn it around on me, like I was the problem.That I was too needy or too emotional."

I let out a shaky breath, realizing how much I had divulged in this one sided conversation that Maverick wanted nothing to do with. Miles' voice slithered its way back into my mind. Perhaps Miles was right. Maybe I was the one who needed to change.

"Sorry." I tried to cover my discomfort with a breath of laughter. "That was more than you signed up for."

Instead of agreeing and stalking away, Maverick shook his head. "Seeing as you left him, I don't think I have to tell you this, but you deserve better than that, Celeste. You're going to be okay without him. Hell, you're already better off."

The sincerity in his eyes told me he wasn't just saying this so that I didn't end up crying again. He meant it. And he was right. In a few short days, they had shown me I was better off in a house full of strangers than I ever was living with Miles.

"Thank you," I whispered. "For sticking up for me."

He shrugged, shifting the ice pack on a different area of his hand. "For one of my housemates? Anytime."

_ _ _ _ _

author's note:

We finally got a little heart to heart! Maverick might not be such a horrible guy after all.

On a fun little side note, I GET MARRIED TOMORROW! How wild is that? So while you're reading this chapter I'm probably freaking the fuck out and hoping everything goes as planned.

One of the many issues of being type A.

Happy reading!