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Twenty Two

I was momentarily paralyzed when I stepped out of the car and found Veronica sitting on the steps of the entrance to our building.

As soon as she saw me, she rose and climbed one step down, leaving me to pause in front of her, still in shock. Fallon looked between us, and without any question, she told me she would see me inside and headed in without me, leaving me to awkwardly stand outside with the woman I didn't want to talk to.

Just great.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded, watching her walk down the last steps to finally reach me. My brows snapped together. "Does he know you're here?" I looked around the street, thinking he was going to jump right in and scare me, but he wasn't. It was just me and her.

Veronica kept her distance, but her eyes were wild with fire. "You leave him alone," she stated firmly, unmoving and watching, like a deadly cat waiting to pounce on me and take a chunk of my skin.

I didn't have to ask who 'him' was because I knew who she was talking about, and my blood boiled with this bullshit. "Excuse me?"

She closed the distance between us, almost up in my face. The veins in her forehead bulged as she seethed. "Leave him the hell alone. Stay out of his goddamn mind!" The rise and fall of her chest, the swirling anger in her eyes, and the angry tone she was using had me rolling my eyes.

"Yeah, you're crazy," was all I could retort as I sidestepped her to get inside. "Good night, Veronica." I didn't have the energy to deal with her right now. I had already dealt with Rogue earlier, and I didn't want her cornering me like he did. What right did they have to mess with my mind? I was tired. Peace of mind was all that I wanted tonight. Just for tonight.

As I swept past her, Veronica grabbed my arm and hurled me back with a strength I didn't know she had. She started to drag me with her and she doesn't leave my hand when she kept walking forward, and I saw a car coming down the road, but she didn't stop.

White light flashed us, but her hand was still tightly around my arm. She wouldn't let go. The car was only a distance away from us now, and Veronica pushed me forward without having no regard for my life, or maybe that was her intention.

The white headlights blinded me now. We stood on its path. Directly on its path. "What the fuck are you doing?" I screamed, but she wouldn't budge or get off the road. The car honked. It saw us, but it didn't slow down or stop. It honked and honked for us to move. Veronica didn't obey. She kept staring at the headlights, standing where we would eventually get run over.

Then, just as we were about to get hit, she yanked us back and safely on the side road. I think my heart had stopped breathing for a second. As soon as I realized I wasn't dead, I rounded on her, pressing my hands to her chest as I pushed her back.

"Are you crazy?" I yelled, my hair flying wildly just as the way my heart was racing. "Were you going to kill me? What the hell, Veronica?" I still couldn't believe or wrapped my head around the fact that she almost got us killed.

"Did you feel that? Your life flashing before your eyes?" Veronica's gaze was wild and agonized, furious, and angry. Then she scoffed, sounding like a laugh. "But there's nothing to worry about. Even if you die, you won't feel anything." Her face scrunched up into a terrifying face, stuck between fear and agony. She clenched her fists and rubbed them down her arms, slowly, as if she was trying to keep herself calm.

Veronica's hands began to tremble, as did the rest of her body. She hated me at this moment. She was angry, and I felt it drip in every word of hers. "But Rogue's been dying for years. I'm the only one who breathes life into him every time he dies. I'm the one who keeps him sane, but how dare you disrupt that peace?" She growled at me, and I took a punch in the heart.