Page 31 (1/2)

"You don’t want to talk about anything!" She followedto happen?"

Happen? She ht see me for who I really was That’s what could happen

"What I do with my free time is my business Trust me or not"

"Trust?" She scrunched up her eyes and looked at o But if you try trusting ain"

Friends? We would never be just friends again

Push her down or push her away, I told myself

"I think we’ve moved beyond friends, Tate," I sneered with a sour same, then fine We can have a sleepover, but there will be fking involved"

She inhaled a sharp breath, and her shoulders straightened Her eyes stared at ain

Why did I keep doing this shit? I could’ve just let her down easily and walked away

But no In the ht

But either way, I still saw the sarab her and kiss her eyes, her nose, and her lips like it would erase every horrible thing I’ve ever said and done

"Tate…" I started rounding the car, but she sto into my stomach

I latched onto it and watched helplessly as she ran across our yards and into her house

No

Staring after her--at the now darkened porch and closed front door--it was a minute or two before I felt the paper in my hand

As I looked down,painfully in my chest

It was a picture

Of me

When I was fourteen

I was bruised and bloodied from the visit with my father, and Tate had found it at the bottom of a box underneath ht

I’d caught her snooping

And I’d just pushed her away for not telling her what she already knew

Chapter 29

I barreled out of the driveway and drove hard Down the street and to the edge of tohere the lights didn’t reach

Driving helped clear ain because of Tate I wasn’t running I was detaching

She wouldn’t understand, and she would sure as shit see me differently Why didn’t she see that it wasn’t iuess, but she kept prying into shit that wasn’t her business

I strangled the shit out of the steering wheel, willing o back She’d want to know it all, and the shahed the shame I felt for what I’d done to her

Didn’t she see that sos were better left buried?

"Go Help your brother," , and I look back at hi on? I ask estures me on with the bottle in his hand

The wooden stairs creek with each step I take, and the sht below offersfro chillier the more I descend

Where’s Jax?

I look back at my father, where he stands in the kitchen at the top of the stairs, and feelsucked into a black hole

I’d never be seen again

But he

I don’t want to go My bare feet are freezing, and splinters of wood from the stairs poke them

But then I stop, and my heart jumps into my throat

I see Jax

I see them

And then I see the blood

I parked le Point had tays in A drive-in front entrance and a rear one for walkers and bikers But the back entrance offered a parking lot to leave your car and walk through It was this gate I chose

The one closest to the pond

How I got here escaped me, but when I drove, I zoned out Sooner or later, I always ended up where I wanted to be

Soe to fiddle with my car Other times, I ended up at Madoc’s house to party And a few tiht? The park? The fishpond?

The hairs ona line up my throat I wanted to be here about as much as I wanted to see ate in the ht And down over the rocks to the pond I hadn’t seen in years

The pond was man-made, and the area was accented with sandstone rocks whichit, and the steps leading down to it A path made of the same stone led away from the pond, into the woods where you could walk to a lookout over the river

It was private, quaint, and special to Tate and , and just for hanging out on late nights e’d snuck out of our houses

The last time I was here was the last time I cried

"Tate? Come here, honey," Mr Brandt calls her, and my heart jackhammers in my chest I can’t wait to see her To hold her

And tell her what I should’ve told her before That I love her