Too Close | Rosalie Hale

Prologue

"You're kidding me, right?" Lex laughed in disbelief. She looked for a sign, any sign, that Paul was joking. A twitch, a smile, anything. She was expecting him to burst into laughter any second now.

His words ran through her head on an endless loop. 

I think we should break up... I think we should break up... I think we should break up...

It had caught her so off guard. A week ago, they had been so happy. Paul had introduced her to his dad, and they had spent hours together at the beach nearly everyday. Sure, they fought sometimes— both of them were quick to anger— but they always worked it out.

Lex wasn't sure that she would go so far as to call what they had 'love.' They had only been dating for five months. Who fell in love in five months? 

She brought her focus back to Paul. He wasn't laughing.

Paul's face could have been made of stone.  He didn't say anything as his steely eyes bore into her, his face not offering her even an ounce of sympathy. 

Paul was really dumping her. 

"You're not kidding," Lex concluded. Her smile faded.

She tore her eyes away from his, and ran a hand through her hair. Was he seriously doing this now? Today?

Her body trembled slightly as her mind took in the situation. She could feel anger building within her, threatening to erupt in the form of an outburst. Lex took a deep breath.

"It's my fucking birthday," she seethed. "What kind of person dumps someone on their birthday? You seriously couldn't have waited until tomorrow to do this?"

She swallowed thickly as she held back her tears. Lex wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. 

Paul didn't say anything, but a flicker of remorse flashed across his face. It was so quick, that Lex almost believed that she had imagined it.

"You're a fucking asshole, Paul. You know that?" Lex practically growled as her anger took hold of her mind. "Are you at least going to tell me why?"

"We both knew that this relationship wouldn't last," he said as if it was obvious. 

And maybe it was obvious, or at least it should have been. They were in high school, and they had completely different plans for the future. Lex wanted to attend university in New York, and eventually become an investigative journalist for a major news entity. Paul wasn't sure what he wanted to do, all he knew was that he was going to stay in La Push to do it. They weren't going to work out in the long run.

But they were only Juniors in high school. They had time to figure that all out later.

Or at least they would have had time for all of that, if Paul hadn't just dumped her.

Lex groaned internally as she remembered that they had plans for tonight. What was she supposed to do now? Stay home and mope? She hadn't planned anything else for her birthday celebration, and it was too last minute to figure something else out. Not that she felt much like celebrating anymore. 

She could feel the anger building, and threatening to erupt at any moment. 

"And what about the concert? Do you know how expensive our tickets were?" Lex fumed. 

She had saved for two months in order to afford their tickets. She had tutored students, she had baby sat, she had taken every odd-job that had been offered to her in order to make enough money for the concert. She had bought a new outfit for the occasion. She had fucking shaved her legs— she hated shaving her legs.