“Viper,” I heard Poe growl. “Where is she? What have you done to her now?” Poe cried, her voice rising in pitch. My bestie was about to lose it on Viper. Time for me to step in.
“I’m fine,” I shouted from behind the cracked door, jumping around trying to put on the new clothes as quickly as possible. “He didn’t do anything,” I added, pulling the tunic style top down and tugging up the leggings. No more pajamas for me. I had gotten big girl clothes…covered in cats. Seriously, the leggings had bright neon cats all over them. I smiled.Thank you, Iris.The door to the bathroom flung open and Poe’s beautiful face filled my view.
“Oz,” she cried, throwing her arms around me to hug me tight against her body. “I’ve missed you! I mean, I talked to you like every day, but it wasn’t the same and I kept telling Viper he needed to let me see you, but he wouldn’t listen and-”
“I’ve missed you, too,” my quiet whisper cut off her constant stream of thoughts. We clung to each other inside the small bathroom, afraid to let go.
Finally, she pulled back to examine my face, then scanned me from the top of my head to my feet.
I dropped my eyes, trying to escape her all-knowing gaze, but when I heard her sad sigh, I knew I had failed.
“Oz,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “What am I going to do with you? I’ve tried, you know,” she gave another deep sigh. “Tried to make you see that you can ask for help when you need it. That I’m not your fucking father and I won’t abandon you when things get tough.”
Coldness settled in my core, a tiny gasp leaving my lips. How the hell did she know about my father? Jerking out of her grasp, I stumbled backward, my heart pounding inside my chest.
“I’m a reporter Oz,” she said softly, “I had to know who had hurt you.”
Betrayal sharp and swift cut through me. Shaking my head, I felt the walls close in around me. All this time she had known. She had dug into my past, discovering my secrets, and she had never said a fucking word! Even when I had been in Viper’s head, I hadn’t violated his privacy, refusing to probe his processors to learn his secrets. All the things that haunted him, all the moments in time he wished he could undo, all the demons who still took up rent inside his mind.
I lifted a shaky finger, pointing at the door. “Get out,” I whispered, my voice cracking.
Poe shook her head frantically. “No, you don’t mean it. Please,” she pleaded, her kind eyes begging me not to send her away, but I squeezed mine shut so I didn’t have to see her.
I had never wanted her to know, never wanted to see pity in her eyes for the girl not even her father had wanted.
Whose mother died giving birth to, leaving me alone to grow up with a monster. He was the first of many. God, I couldn’t bring myself to ask if she knew more. To ask if she had uncovered all the deep, dark, secrets I hadn’t even allowed myself to remember.
A gentle touch to my shoulder made my eyes pop back open. Tears were pouring down Poe’s face, but I climbed inside my hurt and steeled my heart against them.
“Don’t do this, Oz. I don’t think any less of yo-”
I threw up my hand. “Stop. Just stop! If I had wanted you to know I would have told you!”
The bathroom started to spin, a terrible pounding beginning in my head, but I kept going. “You had no right to my secrets, to my past! I left it all behind, buried it deep. But you had to go and dig it up and now I can’t put it back in the fucking dirt where it belongs!”
Something warm landed on my upper lip as the pounding in my head magnified.
“Oz, you’re bleeding.”
I gripped the sides of my skull. “Get out,” I shouted again right before blackness rose, dragging me under.