Pure - The Broken Society

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"You leave Ramona outta this, you hear me? She made a choice to leave, and I wouldn't be surprised if that bitch is dead!" I shout in his face, adrenaline mixed with Moonshine coursing through my veins as my vision begins to blur. In an instant, my mind digs up the memory of her, the memories I've tried so hard to suppress. Her blue eyes, dirty blonde hair, her small figure...it all comes rushing back to the mention of her poisonous name. I'm brought out of it though, by the tone of Gage's infuriated voice.

"And they made a choice too, to escape that life and live here. You can't just go around hating them because your girl decided to up and leave your ass," at that I can't hold myself back from my knuckles connecting with his sculpted jaw.

He reels back, his hand reaching for his jaw, but he shows no evidence of pain as he stands from his chair, everyone in the bar stops and stares at us. Conjoined "Oooh"'s sounding full circle.

"I told you, leave her out of this," I pivot on my heel, taking one last drink from my glass as I stare Gage down with hateful eyes. I stumble towards the exit as both him and Malcolm throw daggers at my back with their eyes, watching me disappear out the door.

It's pathetic, man, you've gotta pull your head out of your ass soon before something great passes you by!" I hear Gage shout after me, but I only lift both of my hands and flash two middle fingers.

My head begins to pound as I make my way out into the middle of the chasm, the moonlight dimmed from clouds covering the rays. I raise a calloused had to my temple, rubbing at it faintly.

"What the hell are you doing?" I hear her shout from behind me, as she comes up beside me and halts me in my path.

"What're you talking about?" I question.

"I told you to wait and to not talk about the rebellion, Tate, bloody simple directions are they not?! Now the whole population knows!" Raelynn shouts at me, though her words come in and out as fragments as my ears begin to ring.

"I saw the opportunity so I took it," I blatantly state, pushing her aside to resume my walk.

"Well I hope you're happy, now you've got everyone riled up about some big rebellion, and on top of that, Ezra's gunning for you! I won't be surprised to find you locked up tomorrow."

"For what? Speaking my mind? That is allowed here you know, I know you come from a different background but things here are different," Raelynn's hand connects with my healing cheek, a loud slap audible for yards.

"Don't talk down to me boy, I may have come from a different background, but I have more experience with the law than you, and this is exactly why I told you to wait," she says, her chocolate brown eyes glaring at me.

I stare at them for a while, realizing that she got her eyes from her mother, the irises and spirit within them the exact same.

"Whatever, waiting to do something doesn't do any good." I say, rolling my eyes and breaking off my gaze.

"What happened to your hand?" Raelynn questions, changing the subject suddenly. She takes hold of my knuckles, examining the now cracked open and bleeding skin.

"Gage, he wouldn't shut the hell up about-"

"Ramona?" She finishes.

I nod, annoyance inundating me.

"That's why I say to never love again...It's obvious that that girl destroyed you, you don't need to go through that again. Love is just a waste of time, it only leaves you broken in the end," she pauses, as if to say more, but she contemplates.

"I'm aware," I assert.

"And...if you even so much as think about getting close with my daughter, there's a whole different hell waiting for you," she threatens darkly, to which I'm appalled.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I'm not stupid, I know about you threatening her, and following her, staring her down everywhere she goes. Oh, and how can I forget, you helping her escape and cutting out her tracker!" She venomously snares.

"How do you know about that?"

She reaches for my neck where a chain with a single gold pendant hangs.

"This," she says, pointing to a small hole in the pendant she had given me six years ago when I was thirteen and alone. "There's a microphone hidden inside it, so that I could watch you," she says.

I stare at her bewildered, "What the hell? You've been spying on me this entire time?" I shout, anger seeping into my tone. Goddamn now I know where she gets it from.

"I needed to know if I could trust you with this plan," she says, referring to the rebellion in which she has talked to me about and planned every little detail over the last four and a half years...maybe longer.

"That is ridiculous!" I say, taking hold of the chain and pendant from her grasp, throwing it to the ground and smashing it in front of her, to which she sighs in disappointment.

"Oh well," she says, "I guess I'll have to find another puppet," she begins to walk away, but a lingering question repeats at the back of my mind.

"Hey, wait a minute! Why do you care so much about Madelynn? You said it yourself that you don't want anything to do with her anymore."

"You're right, but she's still my daughter and I'm still her mother...I'm just protecting her from the sort of fiery trash like you who can't control their emotions," she smiles devilishly, to which sends a monstrous chill of enmity down to my core. "Have a good night, Tate, enjoy your court hearing tomorrow!" And with that, she gallops away, her small figure shrinking in the distance.

The last thing on my mind are those eyes, the same chocolate brown eyes that stared back up at me the first night I met her.