❝You're somewhat known in our circles. We call you the Ruiners.❞
Two girls--
They've had other names. Other lives. They have been mortal enemies and reluctant allies. Friends. Rivals. Accomplices. Lovers.
--and a vengeful soul bent on their destruc...
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"I just had the most wonderful dream...one day, very long from now...we'll be together...do you believe me, my heart? Do you believe me?" I spoke weakly, pain in every word.
Her anguished voice responded from the folding screen she'd hidden herself behind. "I...do..."
∞
I didn't even make it to the bathroom to wash the tears from my eyes, a deep ache in my chest overtaking me.
One friend was dead...yet all I could do was imagine being separated from the other.
I barely noticed Sebri's worried glances and avoided them whenever I did.
All the assumptions I'd had about Sean would remain just that, assumptions, forever unanswered. There were truths I'd never know.
As much as that haunted me, somehow Sebri was the one I agonized over, tormented sometimes just by the sight of her. There was no peace to be found in her eyes, once my safe haven.
Yet I still accepted her hand. Without fail. I bore it, gritted my teeth, screamed inside, just as I had always known I would when the alternative was hurting her.
It would hurt her to know I couldn't stand her at the moment (lately, at all). It wasn't even our constant proximity—the mere thought of her prickled, burned. I couldn't look at her or say her name. But I desperately wanted to keep her from finding out.
Impossible when she was glued to my side.
I needed to do something. Jolt something out or back into place.
I overheard Colin mention going to check out some club his brother now owned and blurted, "Can you get me in?"
There was a long, uncomfortable pause.
Finally, Colin smiled.
∞
My surroundings smeared together in a haze of lights and sound.
We weren't even there yet.
"See this one? She's riveted. Probably wondering what we're gonna do with her friend."
"Friends! Ha. Haven't you seen how they look at each other?"
I pressed my fingertips to my temple, dragging them down the side of my face.
Colin spoke with the boy in the passenger seat while he drove. I'd climbed into Sebri's lap to make room for a couple of his friends in the back.
I found myself focusing on the wrinkling skin of Sebri's forehead as she wondered what the hell was going on with me. I didn't know—almost...wasn't totally in control.
I hid my face in her neck, smelling coffee beans and baked apples and spices. It was all wrong, all unfamiliar, all different. As if they were memories of scents rather than tethered to the current moment.
