The girl has got fire—I’llgive her that. She’s a fighter, just like my brothers. Definitely not like me, though. I’m the loser. The druggie. The one that causes trouble. And I own that title because it’s all I can do. It’s been that way since the day I came home from being taken all those years ago.
Tonight, though, I broke my rule of not giving a shit about anything or anyone.
But there’s more to me helping Hadley than I’m letting on. It’s this strange feeling that I know her from someplace. Someplace dark. Someplace where I’ve been broken. And it’s a feeling I’ve had since I met her.
See, that’s the thing. My brothers know a lot about me, but they don’t know everything. They don’t know about those months they thought I ran away from home when really, I didn’t I run away.
I was young. Too young. And it happened right after Blaise’s mom passed away.
I was grabbed, taken, and locked in a basement.
Torment.
Broken.
Shattered.
It’s why I get high.
So I can forget and not feel the pain of everything that happened.
But then Hadley showed up, and something inside me me sparked to life.
A memory.
It’s why I hated her.
Because I can feel it.
She’s connect to my past.
Those months that I spent locked away in the basement of a man who’s name I still don’t know, I wasn’t alone. Other kids were there. We were all used and sold. I barely remember any of them, most of them remaining quiet while we were down there. But there was one girl in that I got to know, that gave me comfort, that spoke through the silence and darkness like a fucking angel.
“It’s going to be okay, Alex,” she said as I started to cry.
Everything ached all the time. And it was so cold down here. So dark.
“You don’t know that,” I told her in a tone that was sharp and brutual.
I was ashamed she knew I was crying.
Then I felt her pinkie touch mine. So soft. So warm.
“Yes, it is,” she had said. “We’ll get out of here.”
And she was right. We did escape. But she also lied. Because nothing was okay after that. And nothing will be okay ever again. I never will be okay again.
Except…
Here I am , helping Hadley, who’s voice sounds so much like the girl from my memories. I’m still not sure if it’s her, though, since she doesn’t seem to remember me. That might be for the better, that she can’t remember anything.
“Thank you,” Hadley says as I put my phone away, getting ready to leave to meet my brother.
I shrug. “Whatever. I have nothing better to do.”
She rolls her eyes. “Well, regardless, even if you’re doing this out of bordem, thanks anyway.” She wraps her arms around herself, looking so broken and defeated.
And the fucking craziest thing happens. I step forward and hitch my pinkie with her’s.