Save Me

To Make My Point Dear

Chapter Two

Peter parked his car in the underground garage. He sat there for a moment, after turning the car off, Angus and Julia Stone still playing softly from the speakers.

He closed his eyes and heard her voice as if she was sitting next to him in the passenger seat.

“I like this song.”

He opened his eyes and looked over. The seat remained empty even though he could picture her there perfectly, dressed in her school uniform like the day they actually had this conversation.

“You don’t mind if I sing, do you? ‘If you love me/With all of your heart/If you love me/I’ll make you a star/In my universe’ Come on, Peter. Sing with me.”

“I don’t know the song,” he whispered now, reflecting what he said before.

It was the truth. He’d never heard the song until she plugged in her iPod on their way to school one day. But now, after he downloaded it and several of the band’s other songs, he was in love with it. Maybe it was because he could still hear her singing it or if the particular song reminded him of her. He didn’t really know.

The passenger side door opened and his best friend, Brenden Handler, slid into the seat. He closed the door and sighed, staring ahead at the dashboard.

“You were gone a while.”

Peter nodded and rested his head back. “We were right.”

“Which one was it?”

“Cold Creek.”

The car remained quiet and the next song came on.

“How was she?” His friend rolled his head and looked at him. “Was it as bad as we thought?”

“Worse.”

Peter pulled out the keys and got out, the song cutting off mid word. His long coat brushed against his legs as he closed the door and turned the alarm on. The City was cold, wet, and dirty. It made his skin crawl. Everything in him wanted to go back to Sanford but he needed to get her out of there first. Then they could go home together. Bren followed him to the elevator and they rode up in silence.

Gwen was waiting, leaning against the frame of the doorway. The elevator didn’t empty automatically into the apartment that spanned the two top floors of the building. There was a small landing that lead to the front doors of the apartment. Both the building and the apartment had been in the family for generations and that’s where they spent most of their Christmases. This year wasn’t any different, except their mother, Krista Marks, was not invited.

She’d been adamant that Peter forget about Cass and move on. It took him shoving everything off his father’s desk and scaring the hell out of her to get the idea through to her that he wasn’t giving up. No one was going to convince him to.

“So?” Gwen asked.

Peter walked into the apartment, shedding his coat and handing it to the doorman, Clark, who’d been with the family for years.

He could feel his twin’s unease at his state but she didn’t say anything. Gwen usually knew when to goad him and when not to. Here lately, she’d left him alone. The only person who could even crack his detached demeanor was Bren. And that was purely because of selfish reasons. Bren knew more about Cass than even her father, thanks to the detox he’d gone through.

His father was in his study, the door open. More than likely Carter Marks knew the second Peter was in the building. His father didn’t invade his privacy but he knew when his son was around.