Breygan's POV

The morning was brighter than I had expected it to be. The sun damn near blinding me behind my eyelids. My body was sore, my muscles stuck in the awkward position they were in. The fire had gone out sometime in the middle of the night leaving just the warm embers sparkling in the bottom of the pit.

It took me a moment to figure out my surroundings. The beer that had coursed through my system now left a pounding headache in its wake. A groan echoes from beside me, startling me slighting until I realize it's just Aria.

"What they kicked you out to last night?" My throat was dry, probably from sleeping next to the fire all night. I don't remember when everyone went inside, but not too long after Maple had snapped at me were they all gone.

"No," She mumbled, pulling the blanket around herself. "I didn't want you to have to sleep out here alone."

Why would she do something like that for me? I was awful to her, and she still chose to be there. I didn't want her to do that. The more she did stuff like this, the more she made me look and feel like the asshole everyone believed me to be. I wasn't an asshole, though.

"Why would you do that?" The words came out harsher than I had expected.

"Because I care about you. Don't be so stupid." Her response would have made me chuckle if my head wasn't pounding so aggressively. I'd need to get some Tylenol soon. I dragged myself from the couch. We were lucky it hadn't rained on us last night. I stretched the best I could, trying to relax any of the muscles in my body, but they were too tight to respond.

"I'm going inside," I mumbled, not sure why I felt the need to tell her, anyway. The back patio door was unlocked. Thank god they didn't try to keep us out here last night.

"Don't you dare think it was for you for one second." A voice startles me from the kitchen, the sound bouncing around my head like a shotgun blast.

"The door, it was only unlocked for Aria. She refused to come inside after you had fallen asleep. It wasn't unlocked for you." Staton was sitting at the dining table drinking a large cup of coffee. Shaking my head, I flipped him the bird, fumbling with the doorknob to my bedroom. I'd have some Tylenol on the side table. When I tried the doorknob again, it wouldn't turn.

"That door is also locked. Tony spent the night, and they didn't want to sleep on the couch. They took over your bedroom."

"That's fucking bullshit!" I shouted, reminding myself how bad my headache was. "God damn, I'm going out then." I grabbed a jacket, not caring whose it was, and my keys before heading out the patio door again.

"I'm going into town if you want to come with me." Aria looked at me as if she was freezing and could use the distraction from her cold fingers. Not sure how coming with me would help her with that, but she seemed obsessed with hanging out with me, so maybe it'd at least make her smile for a moment. She jumped up from the couch, following me down the sidewalk and to the truck.

"Where are we going?" She questions, her voice soft as if her head was also throbbing. I wanted to thank her for that.

"The store, Julia and Tony stole our fucking room, and I need some Tylenol." Aria didn't stutter for a moment at my words. She was used to it by now I'm sure.

"They didn't steal it, I told them they could have it for the night. You had pissed everyone off so much anyways that I wasn't sure if you'd even be allowed back in the house."

The anger was filling my throat again. Why would she have allowed them in our room? I could have used a nice rest in my own bed. Anything would have been better than that shitty couch last night. I bit my tongue though, something I should learn to do more often. I didn't want to deal with this right now. All I could handle at this moment was getting myself some meds for the pounding headache.

"Why did you sleep outside with me?" I couldn't help but ask, through the pain my thoughts were swirling.

"Where else did I have to go?" She shrugged, still holding the blanket around herself. Her hair was a mess. It looked nothing like it normally would. For the first time in a while she looked quite unattractive.

"You were still welcome inside. Staton made that quite apparent when I went in the house." My jaw was stiff, making the words hard to get out. My neck would barely turn, forcing me to use my whole body to watch for cars. I felt miserable.

"I know, he told me multiple times last night to come in and warm up." She never looked at me. Her eyes were pointed towards the floorboards of the truck. The humming of the engine was the only sound between the two of us.

So Staton tried to take care of her last night?

The thought of him acting like he cared, and like he was some white knight in shining armor sent a wave of fury through my body. So much so I could feel the anger tingle through my fingertips as they tapped the steering wheel.

"I wish those assholes would stay out of my business." I growled, pulling into a parking spot at the gas station. I put the truck in neutral before grabbing the parking brake. Checking first to make sure it actually worked this time. "You stay here."

Aria didn't move, her head rests against the window. Suddenly my whole body softened. I wanted to hug her, I wanted to hold her close to me and tell her that everything was going to be okay. I didn't know if that would ever be true, but I wanted to convince her that it would be. I knew I was responsible for all of this pain. I hated myself every single time I caused it.

I slammed the door behind me, wincing at the sound. That's the one thing old vehicles were the worst for...hangovers. The metal echoed, ringing out a loud sharp sound to signify the latch worked properly.

The gas station wasn't too busy, just the regular morning coffee crowd on the way to work. I could never figure out why someone would want to stop at a gas station every single morning. Just make your own damn coffee at home and get to work.

The thought of the workers humored me, as here I was, fighting with my friends over the fact that I hadn't gotten a job yet. I didn't care what they thought of me, I was just trying to live my life and If they didn't like the way I was doing that, then so be it. I wasn't going to change for anyone.

I grabbed the pills, and a few random snacks before placing them on the counter. The lady behind the cash register, scanned each item, sliding them across the counter. Holding her hand out for the money, I pulled my card out of my wallet. Let's see if my dad's money would still get me something.

She took the card and slid it through the readers, pausing for a moment before the successful beep sounded. That was a victory for the day. Turns out I wouldn't need to get a job after all. My dad was still paying for everything.

Once I was back in the truck I felt like I had a better outlook on things. Quickly opening the water I had purchased and the box of Tylenol, I took the sweet little relief.

"Now what do you want to do?" I leaned against the door, still trying to make eye contact with Aria.

"Go home." She grumbled, her head still resting against the glass.

"Like Washington home?" I couldn't help but agree with her if that's what she meant. I wasn't sure why we were still down here playing house. Obviously this was what was best for Staton and Maple, but this was never the right decision for me. Maybe Aria would make do out here, maybe she'd find a better guy to hang out with, her cousin Julia seems to be doing just fine with that piece of shit Tony.

"No, like, back to where my friends are." She finally moved her head just enough to look at me through her matted hair. "I want to shower, I want to clean myself up and stretch out my muscles, I want the fighting to stop, I want you to make up your damn mind on how you feel about me so I'm not always over here questioning if I'm good enough, no scratch that, questioning why I'm not good enough. You've made it clear that I'm not."

"We aren't going back there, at least not this morning."

"Take me back there now. Or let me out and I'll Uber my way or fucking walk for all I care." I glanced at her feet. She was in two dollar flip flops the girl had purchased because they didn't want to get sand on their nicer ones. Those would never last the few mile hike back to the house.

I was disgusted with the fact that I was even thinking about letting her walk back to the house. Why did I always act like this? The thought of driving back there made me physically sick, but the thought of letting her walk back there alone and potentially get into some trouble only slightly bothered me.

But it bothered me enough that I backed the truck out of the parking space and started off in the direction of the beach house.

Maybe I would just drop her off and go do my ‌own thing for the rest of the day. They had their own care, so they didn't need me to walk around and suck their asses anymore. If they needed to go somewhere, they could.

"Breygan, can I ask you something without you freaking out on me?" Aria seemed stressed when the words fell out of her mouth.

"Shoot."

"Why do you treat me the way you treat me? You tell me you love me every once in a while, but then you treat me like complete shit. You wait just long enough that you think I'm about to walk away to drop another love bomb on me. Why can't you just figure out which way you want it? You can't have both.

I wasn't sure what the honest answer to her question was. I did care for her. But It seemed like I cared for myself even more. I didn't see it, as I acted that poorly. I couldn't figure out why everyone was freaking out about me getting angry here and there.

"I don't know what you want from me, Aria." My words weren't a lie. I knew kind of what she wanted from me, but her idea of how we would work out seemed to change all the time.

"Breygan, I want a marriage, a house, a baby, you know, the white picket fence, the dog in the backyard, I want the perfect life with the man of my dreams, someone that loves me and can't wait to come home with me." She paused for a moment, and I could see the tears rolling down her face. "If you aren't willing to give me that, or you don't want any part of that, then we need to go our separate ways. I can't keep doing this. Especially without a stronger support system out here. You've put a wedge between me and my friends every single time I've tried to defend you."

"I...uh," But she was right, I couldn't keep doing this to her.