I glanced at Nix, wondering if he’d offer to let me stay here. He had before. But this time, he said nothing. Clearly drawing a line between us.
Him and Harleigh on one side.
And me on the other.
“Okay then.” I got up, steeling myself.
He went and got his keys, leaving me with Harleigh once more.
“Will you be okay?” she asked.
“I’ll be fine.” I gave her a weak smile. She gave me a small nod but didn’t offer any words of encouragement. I guess we’d surpassed that point in our relationship.
“Ready?” Nix asked, cutting the tension in half.
“Yeah.” I glanced around the place before heading for the door.
Wondering if they knew how lucky they were. They had both had such a hard life, surviving things no teenagers should ever have to. But they had each other. Always and forever.
And that was a rare thing indeed.
A thing most of us would never get to experience.
Especially me.
Zane
The vibrationof my cell phone pulled me from the restless sleep I’d fallen into. Fumbling over to the side, I managed to grab it off the nightstand and bring it to my ear.
“Yeah?”
“We need to talk.”
“Nix? The fuck?” A brass band was playing in my head, my mouth like cotton balls.
After stopping by the store to grab a bottle of the cheapest liquor I could, I’d stumbled back to the trailer, checked in on Grams, and drank it down until I was numb.
Until everything—including Celeste,especiallyCeleste—disappeared.
I’d fucked up.
Story of my life, making one bad decision after another. But I’d needed her so fucking badly. Because I knew she would make it all go away, and she had.
The second I’d pushed inside her, the world had gone quiet.
And then after, she’d looked up at me with stars in her bewitching blue eyes and it had hit me all at once.
It was real.
Whatever she thought she felt for me, whatever was developing between us, it was fucking real.
“I’m outside.”
Something in his voice had me sitting up and pulling a t-shirt off the floor. “Yeah, give me five.”
The second I stepped out of the trailer and saw his grim expression, I knew.
“Is she okay?” I asked, a strange unfamiliar sensation tugging in my chest.