I looked over my shoulder at him with shock, anger, and worry. I’ve never been hit in my life, and to be hit by this piece of garbage who isn’t even my own father was appalling.
Without a second thought, I swung around and was ready to give him back a hit just as hard when he grabbed my wrist and swung me around, pressing me up against the counter. “Don’t you dare even think about doing something so stupid.” He then told me to clean up and not smart back on him again or else there will be evenbiggerconsequences.
His lingering hands and hot gaze were enough to send shivers down my spine not once, but twice.
Over the years, he never did touch me or do anything to me sexually. But his gazes and threats were enough to scare me shitless.
It was enough to scare me into my room for all through middle school, until I turned into enough of a soulless shell that all I could do was become hard.
So hard that no one would even attempt to fuck with me at school. Not one person. I got into enough scrappy fights that most people just decide to avoid me all together.
That was fine with me, because I wasn’t planning to be in this shit town a moment after I graduated.
Then Rose came along. And with Rose, came Easton. With Easton, came Logan.
Logan.
He was something that I never knew I was missing. I would hear the jokes between the boys over the years that Logan was in love with me. But why would he be in love with me and never say anything?
Who would ever be in love with someonelike me, anyway? Someone in dusty gray clothes that were too small because I couldn’t even afford to buy something from the Goodwill. I mean, it’s not like anyone really has money in the Grove. But I was the kind of poor that you turned away from. The kind that even the poor cringed at.
Once Logan started showing me interest, I only really went along with it because it’sfucking Logan.He’s one of theuntouchablein this town, and although I never thought we would be anythingmore, he would at least be a fun lay.
He became more.
When he told me he loved me, I didn’t believe him at first. I thought he was just trying to be a jackass. He’s fooled around countless times and left a stray of trashy whores in his wake. Why the hell would he fall in love with me?
Then suddenly, things changed. Rose and Easton started getting more serious, and Logan started hanging around me more. He gave me those lingering stares, the flirtatious smirks, and I just knew.
They've been right all along. Logan digs me. Hedoeslove me.
I never even gave myself a moment to entertain the idea of us together. The thought was enough for me to laugh at the person in the face and walk the other way. But when he started noticing me, I started noticing him.
And then Ireallynoticed him.
His blonde hair shined brighter. His eyes burned into the deepest parts of me. His touch lit me on fire. We fell into the deep end of love quicker than I can blink. It was like one day, I was floating through life, and the next second, I slammedintolife.
Lifewas wonderful.
I can tell the moment we got together that it was meant to be.Wewere meant to be. It might have been fast, or some might think we were too young, but at the end of the day, his soul spoke to my soul.
Our love was eternal.
Until it wasn't.
The boys headed off to Wisconsin to do somebusiness, that once again, I had no idea what that entailed. All I did know was that it was dangerous, andone hundredpercent illegal. So, I kept my mind out of it, rode him like it was our last night on earth and gave him a lingering kiss goodbye.
Little did I know, itwouldbe one of his last nights on earth.
Rose came over shortly after they left for Wisconsin, putting in this niggling doubt in me that our men are destructible. I brushed her aside because I had not even a slight thought in my mind that something would happen to them. Until that doubt started worming its way through me, so much that I was filled with doubt and insecurities that somethingwaswrong.
Something was wrong.
Everything is a blur from that moment. It's like time sped up through different moments and paused on others. I barely remember going to Easton's house. He was such a jackass, but all I wanted was to see Logan. The next thing I know, I see Collin, Logan's dad, hunched over a body that I know every nook, curve, and ridge of, and life stopped.
Life stopped for good.
Watching the other half of my soul, pale, lifeless and covered in blood is something I'll never forget. I'll never forget clinging to him for hours, squeezing, and hugging, and kissing him, pleading for just one sign in return.