Sleepy. I'm sleepy. Single upload this time around people. Next chapter is not ready.
Chapter 24
Corinna’s POV
Flynn gave me and Jesse a ride back and I couldn’t help but squirm a little uncomfortably during the whole drive to our house. It wasn’t just the tension that seemed to be clinging to the air between Flynn and me but there was also a tension between Flynn and Jesse that didn’t make any sense. Had they fought?
“Well,” I mumbled when we finally pulled into our driveway. “Thanks for the ride.”
I didn’t even look at Flynn as Jesse and I climbed out. I needed some time to regroup, to get my feet back under me after that kiss. I’d accidentally glanced at his hands a couple times during the drive and I’d felt my insides begin to melt towards him to the point where I’d actually started leaning in his direction.
Because I’d looked at his hands.
I was losing it.
A raindrop landed on my nose when I was almost at the door.
“Just think about it, Flynn.”
I froze at the sound of Jesse’s voice and turned around to see the two of them, standing in front of the truck, Jesse’s arms crossed over his chest and Flynn’s hands balled into fists at his sides.
“I’ve thought about it.”
Jesse sighed and shook his head. “Fine. Just forget I said anything then,” Jesse grumbled, stalking towards me. He brushed by me and gripped the doorknob but instead of going inside, he turned to look at me, his expression hidden in shadow and before I could ask him what was wrong, he was inside.
“Flynn─” I cut off when I realized Flynn was already in his truck, his eyes on mine as he started it up and slammed it into reverse.
I blinked when he jerked his head to look over his shoulder, breaking eye contact and driving away just as another raindrop landed on my cheek.
The house was quiet when I stepped inside and slowly made my way up the stairs, trying to make sense of the day I’d just had but the mix of emotions tumbling through me was giving me a headache. I slipped into my pjs and crawled into bed, jamming my headphones over my ears and cranking the volume on the rainforest sounds that dominated my playlist.
In the past, this was where I’d found peace, usually with a chair lodged against my doorknob but at least it drowned out the sound of the constant party going on through the rest of the house.
Regular music was too harsh, too real, too filled with the same sounds that occupied my everyday life. What I wanted was peace, an escape, so I listened to nature and pretended I was somewhere else.
Only now...
Nature wasn’t doing the trick.
Flynn had ruined it for me. Even before that kiss, the feeling of his arms wrapped around me had given me more calm, more peace than any recording could ever do. Now the recording was merely a mild distraction from the silence of my room.
I ripped the headphones off and slammed them against the mattress, furious with myself for letting it get this far. I’d always known I was leaving, always. Now, how was I supposed to live with the memory of what I might have had if things hadn’t gotten so screwed up four years ago, if things had gone a little differently this time around?
Flynn’s lips on mine had blown away every notion I had of walking away from this unscathed.
I needed him when I wasn’t in a position to need anything.
Sunday.
My heart skipped a beat at the thought of Sunday and what I would be walking into.
But another thought chased some of the panic away. It was only Tuesday.
Before I could think it through, I was dressed in a pair of torn jeans, a plain black t-shirt, and a hoodie. Silently, I crept down the stairs and out of the house, keeping my footsteps light even on the driveway because my heart was pounding too hard for me to relax. When I was a block away, I broke into a jog as the rain started to come down harder and lightning split the sky. By then time I was at Flynn’s house, I’d been practically sprinting so I was out of breath and unsure of my next move.
Soaked to the bone and shaking from my run, I realized one thing.
I’m an idiot.
I was being selfish, wanting to hold him to me for the next few days so I could at least have something to push me through the rest of my life.
But what about Flynn? His life hadn’t been so easy either and here I was, ready to use him because he made me feel better? He wasn’t a fucking CD, he was a person.
“Fuck,” I muttered, trying to run a hand through my hair but my fingers got tangled in the wet mass it had become.
I turned around and started walking down his driveway, back to my house where at least I knew where I stood. Donald hated me, I’d pushed Sandra away and though my brothers loved me, they’d be fine when I left.
Flynn had been part of that kiss too and if he’d felt a fraction of what I had, he wouldn’t forget it easily.
I couldn’t do that to him, string him along only to disappear. He meant more than that. So much more.
“Cory.”
I jumped at the sound of his voice, spinning around to see him walking towards me, his expression hesitant. “What are you doing here?”
“I-I’m sorry,” I muttered, taking a step back.
“Is everything okay?”
My heart clenched at his words and I spun on my heel, ready to run away from him. He was so fucking great. Hadn’t he been mad at me? He’d driven away pretty quickly earlier and now here I was on his driveway like some crazy stalker and instead of shooing me off his property, he was concerned for my welfare.
“Wait,” he said, his hand gripping my wrist lightly, his touch immediately halting my movements and making my brain stutter to a stop. That elusive peace I’d been looking for earlier, the one I’d at one time been able to find in the nature CDs I hoarded, settled around my heart from one simple touch of his fingers. “Come inside for a bit,” he said softly, giving my wrist a gentle tug until I was facing him and when he jerked his head towards the house, I found my feet following him until we were inside and the door was shut behind us.
He took off his shoes and waited while I followed suit before he shifted his grip on my wrist until our hands were laced together. With another tug and a look I couldn’t read, he pulled me towards the stairs. I followed him into his room, my eyes scanning the bare walls and plain double bed, thinking that it looked like a hotel room. Impersonal, temporary.
“Where’s your dad?” I whispered, feeling out of place.
“He sleeps in the basement.” His lips tightened and his gaze shifted to the side when he said, “He passed out when he finished all the beer in the house.”
I squeezed his hand, not knowing what else to do. How many times had my mother done essentially the same thing except she preferred wine or vodka to beer?
He gave me a half smile and shrugged. “Take your sweater off, I’ll get you some dry clothes,” he said, letting go of my hand to open his dresser.
When he looked over his shoulder at me and a slow grin split his face, I realized I was still standing there, immobile as I stared at the muscles shifting in his back.
I blinked and turned around, facing the closed door as I gripped the hem of my sweater.
What the hell am I doing?
I winced and gave myself a mental shake, trying to focus past the beating of my heart and the way my hand tingled with the need to be encircled in his again.
“Actually,” I muttered, my eyes on the door, telling myself this was the right thing even as my heart sank. “I should go. I was just out for a little run and I happened to be near your house when I got a cramp. It’s all better now.”
His arm snaked around my waist, tugging me back against his chest as he spoke in my ear.“You didn’t go for a run in jeans, Cory.”
My eyes widened and goose bumps trailed down my arms at the feeling of his words vibrating from his chest, through me.
“Take off your sweater.”
“Okay,” I whispered as he moved away from me again and with shaking hands, I gripped the hem of my sweater and tugged it over my head.
It was Flynn’s quick inhalation of breath that made me realize my damp t-shirt had stuck to the material of my sweater and now I was standing in Flynn’s room in nothing but a bra and jeans.
And he could see my scars.
I stopped breathing as I tried to separate my sweater from my t-shirt to cover them up.
“C’mon,” I muttered, my lips bloodless and my skin on fire because I could feel his eyes on me, on each one of my ugly scars.
“Cory,” he said, his voice low, restrained.
I shook my head, unwilling to turn around, unwilling to see the disgust in his eyes. God, I was an idiot. I should’ve never come here, should’ve never thought for even one second that this was okay. So what if I wanted to see him? That didn’t mean he wanted to see me and now he was seeing way too much of me and it was all my fault.
I made an odd, panicked sound when I still couldn’t get my t-shirt separated from my sweater and then Flynn’s hand was on mine, halting my movements as he handed me a dry, soft shirt. “Here,” he said quietly, his voice still low, still restrained as if he were holding back and I couldn’t meet his eyes to see exactly what it was that he was trying to hide from me.
I closed my hands around the shirt and squeezed my eyes shut, breathing hard, wishing for an escape that wasn’t coming.
I’d never wanted to run from anything as much as I wanted to run from Flynn at that moment.
Instead, I sucked in a deep breath, straightened my shoulders and looked him in the eye. “Thanks,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady as I pulled his shirt over my head, letting the material slide over my skin, covering up what should never have been uncovered.
He wouldn’t look away from me. His eyes were burning into mine, the light green colour alight with emotions that I didn’t want to delve into just in case...just in case things had changed now that he’d seen me.
“Bikini season isn’t my favourite time of year,” I said, a half-hearted grin spreading across my lips.
“Cory─”
“It’s not that bad though. I’ll never get skin cancer this way and the pale look is really in lately.” I shrugged and turned away from him, taking a step towards the door, towards escape. “I know they look bad but─”
Flynn’s hand wrapped around my arm, cutting me off as my back landed firmly against the wall, right next to the door. His free hand slammed against the wall behind me, his eyes were so dark they were nearly black and his face was a mask of fury.
“Don’t say anything for a minute,” he ground out, his eyes drifting closed as he took a deep breath, his body shuddering as he obviously tried to regain control. After a minute of silence, he opened his eyes again and this time, they weren’t quite as dark, weren’t quite as furious. “Who did that to you?”
“I fell,” I responded immediately and his expression darkened again.
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
“Cory─”
“I did fall, okay?” I snapped, turning my head to the side so I didn’t have to look into his knowing green eyes.
“But there’s more to it than that.”
I let out a short laugh, thinking that I should feel trapped, that I should feel cornered with his arm and body caging me in but instead I felt safe.
And worst of all I wanted to unload on him.
“Yeah,” I said softly, leaning more heavily against the wall, turning my head until I was looking him in the eye once more. “There’s more to it.”
His forehead wrinkled and his lips thinned as he raised his hand to brush his fingers over my jaw. “Tell me,” he whispered hoarsely.
“No.”
“Tell me,” he repeated stubbornly.
“Just drop it, okay?”
“No.”
Annoyed, I raised my hands to his chest and shoved until he stepped aside. I paced along the foot of his bed, my body filled with a restless energy and a sense of dread that was implanted in me with the scars. That night wasn’t one I liked to think about because it was the night where the world settled into place, where the last of my own rose coloured glasses disappeared and suddenly everything was too bright, too harsh but there was no going back.
“All right,” I said, tugging a few strands of hair out as I tried to run my fingers through it. “So my mom and her boyfriend, Joey had a fight.” I gave a short laugh and darted a quick glance over to Flynn. “They fought a lot actually but this time, he was really pissed, I don’t even know why he was so angry and I guess Barb couldn’t figure it out either so of course, she was desperate to make it right.” Desperate. That was a good word to describe how she’d been, her eyes frantic and darting around our shitty house that was falling apart at the seams. She wasn’t looking at the interior decorating though. No, her eyes had drifted to the empty pill bottles on the table and the wine glass that had been shattered in Joey’s hustle to get out the door.
“Anyway, they’d been going out for about a year at this point. I was fifteen and I pretty much kept to myself. But one of Joey’s friends was there that night and he kept...looking at me,” I said quietly, remembering the way his eyes had lingered on my legs and my barely there chest. The way he’d grin at me like he knew a secret that I didn’t. “I didn’t want to be alone with him so when Barb got up to chase after Joey, I grabbed her arm, tried to stop her, to explain to her that I couldn’t stay there, not with him.” I briefly registered that I’d stopped pacing, that I was just standing there, staring at the carpet on his floor, my hands loose at my sides and my shoulders slumped forward as I remembered. “She turned to me like she didn’t even know me. Like I was some fucking robber trying to grab her purse or something. I was talking to her but it was like she didn’t hear me and then her hands were on my shoulders and she shoved me as hard as she could.” My lips quirked up in the corners. “I would’ve been okay. I stumbled a bit but I would’ve stayed standing if there hadn’t been a wine bottle on the floor. I stepped on it and I fell right into the glass coffee table.” My eyes squeezed shut as I remembered the way my mother had screamed, the way she’d come over to me and I thought for a second that I saw something like concern in her eyes. Then Joey walked in and her attention shifted back to him. “Her boyfriend came back in the house and they both looked down at me. I...I asked them for help.” I gave a short laugh and shook my head. “How pathetic I must have looked, bloody, covered in glass, crying. I reached my hand out and then Joey swore and left the room again, yelling at my mom that the two of us were too much fucking trouble. She glanced back at me and I swear to god, she was angry at me! Then she went after him.”
I shrugged and kept my eyes on the carpet. “You know what the funny part is? The really hilarious part of that whole situation? That creepy guy who I couldn’t stand to be in the same room with, he’s the one who brought me to the hospital.” Forcing my gaze upward, I finally looked Flynn in the eye. “He left me there, right in front of the ER on a bench, my blood dripping through the cracks in the wood. I don’t know how long I was alone for but it felt like forever. I just kept thinking that she should’ve been there. That she should’ve been worried about me, that she should’ve been holding my hand or crying but she was chasing after Joey instead.” I shook my head and shrugged, a smile briefly landing on my lips before fleeing again. “That was when I finally realized I was alone. That my mother wasn’t my mother and I wasn’t her daughter we were just two people tied together by circumstances and at that point, I was in too deep to leave.”
Except I hadn’t been.
No, at that point, I hadn’t even known what ‘in too deep’ was.
It wouldn’t be long before I found out, though.
“That was the last time I asked her for help,” I said quietly, remembering the way she’d asked me for help the day we’d visited her at the prison, the way her forehead had wrinkled in confusion when I alluded to that night.
She’d forgotten it so easily.
I had scars all over my back to remind me. I would never forget.
He didn’t say anything. Just stared at me, his light green eyes shadowed and his lips pressed into a thin line.
When he still didn’t speak, I started to feel uneasy. “Well,” I said, making my voice light and hitching my shoulder up in a half shrug. “It’s getting late so I’m going to head out.”
“Wait,” he said, his voice strangled, his eyes shifting to focus on a point on his wall nowhere near me. “Just wait a second.”
“It’s fine, Flynn. I’m okay. I shouldn’t have come here and I shouldn’t have unloaded on you like that. I’m sorry. You weren’t supposed to see...” I trailed off, my cheeks wanting to flame with embarrassment that he had seen my scars, that he knew more than anyone about me.
“Dammit Cor, Just wait,” he said through gritted teeth as I took a step towards the door.
“It’s fine,” I said casually, brushing past him. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m just...tired right now. I didn’t mean to say any of th─”
His hand wrapped around my forearm and suddenly I was in his arms, my face pressed against his broad chest, his heart racing beneath my ear. He let out a shuddery breath that made my hair flutter. “Stop saying it’s fine,” he said, his voice low, rumbling from his chest. “It’s not fine. Not even fucking close.” He let out another ragged breath. “Just stay still for a minute. I’m about two seconds away from walking out of this room, tracking your mother down and getting myself thrown in jail so just...stay. Just for now.”
I blinked, pulling my cheek back from his chest as his arms tightened around me. After a second, I relaxed, resting against him once more, feeling like I’d missed something here.
He was shaking, his muscles vibrating with unspent tension and even though he was taking deep, calming breaths, he didn’t seem to be calming down. He was angry. Beyond angry.
For me.
He wanted to go after my mother for hurting me.
My heart twisted hard in my chest and my arms came up to wrap around his waist, squeezing him, trying to get closer to him, to suck this feeling inside of me so I could remember it later when I was back to living with people who didn’t give a shit about me, who couldn’t care less if I was sad or sick or tired.
I was in trouble here. I kept telling my arms around Flynn to release, to let him go so I could walk away but they just kept getting tighter instead. I only had a few days left but all I could think about was how good this felt, how amazing it was to have someone care enough to get angry for you, to want to protect you and I wanted that.
I wanted it for more than a few days, I wanted it forever.
And it was going to tear me in two when I had to walk away.
Forcing a blank expression onto my face, I pulled back and looked somewhere over his left shoulder as I said, “It’s getting late. I should go.”
Before my hands could fall from his waist, he gripped my injured wrist gently, his fingers feather light and warm as they traced my slightly swollen skin that was now slightly bruised from Joey’s intense grip on me earlier. I gasped when his lips pressed gently against the pulse that was now hammering in my veins. “I’ll drive you,” he said softly, some of the anger gone from his expression but some of it was still there, just below the surface.
“I can walk.”
“I’m sure you could but it’s dark and I’m driving you.”
“Flynn─”
His eyes lit with that barely restrained fury and he reached out to plant both of his hands on my cheeks. “Don’t argue with me right now, Cor. I’m barely holding on as it is and after what you said to me, I need to know you’re safe when you get home.” His eyes drifted closed and he sucked in a long breath before letting it out again.
I’m not scared of him.
The thought drifted across my mind languidly but it ripped something wide open inside of me. His eyes had been filled with anger when he’d reached towards me with both hands and I hadn’t flinched. My body, my mind, hadn’t even considered him a remote threat.
I was lost.
“Let’s go then,” I said, my hands going to his and pulling them away from my cheeks.
One of his hands shifted along one of mine, lacing them together before taking a step towards the door. He didn’t reach for the doorknob so I turned to look at him and saw a muscle in his jaw ticking, his eyes still dark with anger.
“I want you to stay here tonight,” he said after a moment, his eyes still on the door. “I won’t try anything I just want you to be next to me while you sleep.” He turned his body to face me and his free hand was fisted at his side while the hand holding mine remained gentle. Something about that made my throat tight.
Before I realized what I was doing, my head was bobbing up and down and I had agreed to spend the night with Tyler Flynn.
My heart rate picked up speed as we moved towards the double bed and I had to remind myself that we’d stayed together before, at Gran’s house but somehow this was different.
Maybe it had something to do with that earth shattering kiss earlier.
Yeah, maybe.
“I can sleep on the floor,” he said softly, looking a bit uncertain.
“No,” I said, crawling into the bed and tugging Flynn’s hand to follow me. If I was going to stay with him, I wanted him next to me. I wanted to be able to pretend, just for one night, that I belonged there even if it was all a lie.
We lay down facing each other. My hand, still wrapped in one of Flynn’s was held close to his chest while my free hand lay palm up on the bed between us. His free hand was under my head, his forearm my pillow and I found, even though it was hard, it was the comfiest pillow I’d ever used.
His eyes were still shadowed though, still filled with anger on my behalf but there was something else there too, something soft and warm and as we continued to look at each other, it grew until the anger was gone.
He opened his mouth to say something but I shushed him, cut him off before he could make a sound.
“No more talking,” I whispered, shifting closer to him, tangling our legs together. “I’m tired.”
He let out a long, slow breath before saying, “Okay.” Using his arm that was beneath my head, he shifted further onto his back, pulling me even closer until I was pressed up against him, my head now resting on his broad chest and both of his arms were wrapped securely around me.
We didn’t say anything else after that. I just listened to his heart as it slowed beneath my ear, his breathing became more even and spaced out and I could tell that he was asleep.
My eyes were heavy but I kept forcing them open, wanting to take in as much of this as I could because I knew I couldn’t have this again.
I’d come here tonight on an impulse and if he hadn’t stopped me, I would’ve left.
A part of me longed to drag this out until Sunday, to stay as close to him as possible, to pretend he was mine, but I couldn’t.
I couldn’t use him like that, not when I was so familiar with being used myself.
I don’t remember falling asleep but I did and I woke up just before dawn feeling rested and happy before the world invaded and crushed my happiness.
This was over. No more Flynn, no more tutoring, no more pretending. I’d put it off for long enough, ignoring the voice inside my head that was begging me to put space between us. I couldn’t do it anymore.
Slowly, carefully, I raised my head from his chest and untangled our legs making sure his breathing was still even as I shifted from him, slipping his arm from around my waist until it was lying on the bed and I was free.
God, I didn’t want to be free.
Ruthlessly, I squashed the part of me that longed to wrap myself back up in him, to never let him go, to ignore the real world and pretend that I was what he needed rather than the exact opposite.
I wouldn’t cling to him like that. I’d already asked way too much of him, had already taken more than I had any right to.
My eyes stung as I manoeuvred myself off the bed and stood next to it, looking down at his face, relaxed in sleep, trying to commit it to my memory.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered so quietly that I could barely hear it. My throat closed and my eyes began to water. “I won’t be the girl who ruins your life, Tyler.”
I felt like I was moving through mud as I turned away from him, my feet heavy, my arm a dead weight as I lifted my hand to the doorknob and turned.
I pushed through it and left, walking silently down the stairs and out of the house.
Don’t cry.
I swallowed hard several times, trying to get my throat to open again, trying to get my eyes to stop stinging...
Trying to keep my heart from breaking.
Flynn’s POV
She was gone.
I woke up alone in my bed feeling disoriented as I reached out, looking for her.
She wasn’t there.
I lurched into a sitting position, scrubbing a hand over my face as my eyes dragged around my room but she wasn’t anywhere.
She’d left.
I got dressed quickly, an odd sense of panic welling up in my chest. I shouldn’t have fallen asleep, I should’ve stayed up and made sure she knew...
What? That I loved her? That I’d never let anything happen to her again? That I’d drop everything just to make her happy?
Yeah, for starters.
Instead, I’d let her slip through my fingers while I’d been sleeping peacefully.
Idiot.
Minutes after I’d woken up, I was out of my house and driving to Cory’s place, needing to see her, to reassure myself that last night had actually happened.
My hands tightened on the steering wheel as an image of her bare back flashed across my mind, her scars standing out starkly against her smooth skin.
No, I hadn’t imagined that. I hadn’t imagined the rage that had boiled through me to the point where I thought I might lose it. I’d never been that angry before.
I pulled into the Evan’s driveway and killed the engine, jumping out of my truck and trying to act calm as I made my way to the house. I didn’t knock because I didn’t have to.
This is your house too, Flynn, Donald had always said to me, his eyes warm, his expression open.
He should’ve been looking at Cory like that. He should’ve protected her from those scars. Instead, he’d sent her away, let her wade into that shit and forgot about her.
“Hello?” I called, rounding the corner into the dining room.
Sandra was sitting at the table next to Jake eating breakfast. Donald was standing in the kitchen area, leaning against the counter and reading the paper as his eggs fried.
“’Morning,” Donald said, sending me a quick smile before looking back down at his paper.
“Hey honey,” Sandra said, her expression soft and I could easily read the affection in her eyes.
“Flynn!” Jake shouted, jumping up from his chair and launching himself at me. I swung him up in my arms, loving him even as an ugly feeling of guilt curled in my belly. It shouldn’t be like this. This whole scene should’ve been hers, not mine. Instead, she got cold looks and thinly veiled contempt.
I hugged Jake a little tighter, thankful that he at least, loved her unconditionally.
“Where’s Cory?” I asked.
Donald gave me a sharp look and Sandra frowned slightly. “She went to school early,” Sandra said.
My stomach clenched and I set Jake down, intent on finding her, on talking about this because I had a bad feeling that she planned on burying everything that happened between us.
“I’m going to find her,” I said, straightening and giving a distracted nod to my surrogate parents.
“Flynn,” Donald said, his tone hard and I knew I wouldn’t like what he was about to say but I stopped anyway, my back to them, my eye on the front door. “Let’s talk.”
“Later,” I replied stiffly.
“Just give us a minute,” Sandra said, her voice softer than Donald’s, making me pause.
“You obviously care about Corinna,” Donald said as I listened to the sound of his footsteps drawing closer to me. “That’s fine. We’re just concerned that you’re losing sight of your priorities.”
“What priorities?” I snapped, my hands balling into fists as I spun around to face them. Donald was standing behind Sandra’s chair, united in their fight against Cory.
How could they be so blind?
“School, Flynn,” Sandra said gently. “You’ve always been so driven and you’re so smart. You got into every school you applied for with scholarships. We’re worried that your feelings for Corinna are making you lose sight of your goals.”
A cold feeling settled in my chest as I looked at the two of them. “Did you say any of this to Cory?”
Donald frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Did you tell her that she’s spending too much time with me? That I’m getting in the way of her goals?”
He shook his head. “Of course not.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not the same, Flynn. She doesn’t have a scholarship like you do.”
“She could.”
Donald’s mouth tightened. “She’s not ambitious like that. She isn’t aiming for college or her future, she’s just here to graduate, nothing more.”
I made a frustrated sound in the back of my throat, my eyes drifting to Jake who was looking down at the table, trying to make himself invisible. “You don’t know the first thing about her, Donald. You’ve wasted so much time being mad at her for hurting your feelings four years ago, that you don’t even know who your own daughter is.” I ground my teeth together, trying to calm down but I was shaking with anger. “She needed you, Donald and you let her go.” I let out a short humourless laugh, reminding me of all the times I’d heard Cory do the same. It was a helpless sound, a sound of resignation and acceptance and I wondered how much bullshit Cory had come to terms with in the past. “And you’re going to do it again. She’s going to walk away from here and you’re going to leave all her pictures packed up in a box somewhere, pretending that she never existed and you know what? It’s your loss. You’ll never know how great she is, how much love she has inside of her, how smart she is because you’re too blinded by your anger at her.” I took a step forward, my eyes locked on Donald’s. “One day, you’re going to realize how incredible she is and it’s going to kill you to know that you didn’t have anything to do with that. That she turned out that way despite you.”
“Flynn,” Sandra said, her voice shocked.
“Talk’s over,” I said, my voice low and angry.
I turned around and left them without looking back, too angry to do anything else.
I jumped into my truck, slamming the door hard behind me before turning the key and shoving it into drive. I sped the whole way to school, my foot inching down further and further on the gas pedal. Somehow, it felt vital that I get to Cory now.
Residual anger from my confrontation with Sandra and Donald was still coursing through my veins as I parked at the school’s empty lot and got out striding purposefully towards the front doors.
It didn’t take long to find her. She was just closing her locker door when I rounded the corner and spotted her.
Her eyes snapped to mine and immediately, the turmoil that had been sifting through me calmed. My heart picked up a faster rhythm, one reserved for her and my footsteps were quick, full of purpose as I walked down the deserted hallway towards her.
Her expression was carefully blank, her eyes devoid of emotion and her lips tilted up into their usual smirk when I stopped in front of her. “You’re early,” she said easily.
I took a step closer to her, crowding her until she was forced to retreat. When her back was flush against the lockers, I placed my hands on their cool metal surfaces just behind her head and crouched slightly so I could look her in the eye. My lips tilted when I noticed her expression wasn’t quite as blank anymore.
“Are you trying to block me out again?” I asked, my voice low.
She blinked and didn’t say anything for a moment. With a slight shrug of her shoulders, she said, “That was the plan.”
“Don’t,” I whispered, taking one hand from the locker and letting it drift over her cheekbone, tucking a strand of her long, silky hair behind her ear. Her gold flecked eyes were wide and unsure as she looked up at me.
“I shouldn’t have gone over last night.”
“I’m glad you did.”
She shook her head. “You don’t get it.” Her expression hardened and her shoulders straightened, preparing to deliver a blow. “How many times do I have to tell you that I’m leaving? It hasn’t changed, Flynn. I’m out.”
My heart stopped at her simple words.
“Cory─”
“No,” she interrupted, “just listen for a second.” Some of her bravado seemed to slip and there was a flash of pain in her eyes before she got control and slipped her mask back on. “I was being selfish last night.” Her lips tilted up and her head tipped to the side. “I was being selfish last week, last month, since the moment I came here and you offered to help me with my homework.” She shrugged. “I took what you gave me until I depended on it, expected it and now shit’s getting out of control.”
I let out a frustrated breath and ran a hand through my hair, tugging on the strands in the hopes that the pain would kick start my brain and get it functioning enough to find the words I needed to convince her to stay. “I wanted to tutor you. I wanted to help you out, Cor. You weren’t being selfish for taking what was freely offered.”
“Free?” She made a derisive sound in the back of her throat, raising her hands to push on my chest until I was forced to take a step back. “Nothing’s free, Tyler.”
My name on her lips made my heart rate kick up even as a wave of anger pulsed through me. “You don’t owe me a goddamn thing, Cory. Nothing.”
Her eyes were flat as she gave my chest another push, one side of her mouth twisting upwards. “Maybe I don’t owe you anything but that doesn’t mean I won’t pay.”
“Stop it,” I snapped, reaching down to engulf her hands in mine, sick of her pushing me away.
“Let me go,” she said flatly, her voice and eyes, her entire being devoid of emotion as she stared down at where our skin was touching, where her hands were swamped in mine.
“No,” I said firmly, meaning it. I wasn’t letting her go. No way. Not after everything she’d told me, not after figuring out that she wasn’t the type of person everyone thought she was.
Not after seeing her scars.
Her eyes lifted to mine and something in her face changed when she noticed my expression. “You have to.”
“No,” I said, my tone softening as the strength in her arms faded and her hands curled into fists against my chest. “I don’t.”
Her forehead wrinkled and she gave her head a slight shake, obviously preparing to argue with me. Before she could open her mouth, I dipped my head and pressed my lips to hers, igniting a fire in my blood that had my brain scrambling for a second. I pulled back and blinked, a smile curving my mouth when I noticed the flush on her cheeks and the slightly dazed look in her eyes.
I blinked again and remembered that I’d had a point to prove. “I won’t give up on you, Cor.”
The dazed look in her eyes disappeared, replaced by a flash of panic and then her usual blank stare. “Yes you will,” she said softly. The way she was looking at me, killed something inside of me. It was like she wasn’t there, like she was just an empty shell, that the girl I love had retreated and wasn’t coming back. “You’ll give up because I’m not giving you a choice. I’ll leave and you’ll go to college. Maybe you’ll think about me from time to time, wonder how I’m doing because that’s who you are. You’ll probably worry about me for a while but that’ll fade. Eventually, you’ll forget that I was a part of your life. You’ll move on, find a girl who gets good grades without your help, who isn’t messed up on the inside and sees what a great person you are.”
My hands curled into fists at my sides, her words making me so angry that I saw red. “Who are you trying to convince here, Cory? I know what I want and I’ve gotten used to having you in my life. I like having you in it and don’t ever tell me that I’ll just forget about you ever again.”
She shrugged. “You did it before.”
My hands slammed on the lockers behind her, the sound echoing down the empty hallway, making her eyes widen. “No, I didn’t,” I said, my voice so low it sounded like a growl. “I didn’t for one single second forget about you, Cory.”
Her blank expression faltered, letting a glimmer of the girl beneath show through. She was hurting. There was a deep pain in her eyes that she was trying so hard to hide from me, from the whole world and I just wanted to tuck her next to me and take her away from everything, to protect her forever.
She let her head drop against the locker behind her, her eyes drifting closed, her teeth clenched together as her body started to shake. “Doesn’t matter,” she whispered.
“You don’t believe that.”
She flinched and shook her head, lifting her eyelids slowly, keeping her expression shaded. After a long pause, she said softly, “Fine. It matters. It matters that you thought about me and it matters that you care enough not to give up but it doesn’t change anything.” She ducked out from beneath my arms and started to walk away from me with stiff strides. “You don’t have to tutor me anymore,” she tossed over her shoulder as if it were an afterthought, as if she could throw me out of her life so easily.
That was it.
I was through taking things slow with her, through being careful because I wasn’t sure what had happened the past four years, because I wanted to make sure I got this right. I wasn’t going to stand by and watch as she walked out of my life.
So, with three, long, angry strides, I gripped her forearm and backed her against the wall, lanced my fingers into her hair and tilted her head as I slanted my lips across hers and kissed her.
My lips brushed against her closed ones, the friction of our skin together driving me crazy. I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, I could just feel and the feelings were out of this world.
I forgot that I was angry as I slanted my mouth more and darted my tongue out to trace the seam of her lips. When she opened for me, my breath hitched and my arm wound around her waist even tighter, needing her closer more than I needed air.
She made a sound in the back of her throat and kissed me back, her hunger matching mine and I lost it. The world tilted on its axis and fell away as my hands found their way to the hem of her shirt, drifting under the material there until my fingers were on her skin and a shudder ripped through me at the sensation.
More.
My hands slid more fully under her shirt, wrapping around her sides and stretching across her back, pulling her body closer to mine.
More.
I released her lips and trailed hungry kisses across her jaw and down her neck, pausing at the pulse point that was jumping just as rapidly as my mine. My lips stretched into a satisfied smile as I kissed her there, feeling the way her body shuddered and her hands tensed on my chest.
“You can’t tell me you don’t feel this, too,” I whispered against her skin. My breathing was so ragged that the words were hardly distinguishable.
I pulled back slightly and smiled down at her flushed face. She looked dazed and pleased and so sexy that I was about to throw her over my shoulder caveman style and take her out of there.
School. You’re in school right now.
Right, I needed to concentrate before people started to come in. I needed to make sure she understood that her and I, we weren’t temporary.
Grabbing her hand, I flattened it against my chest, resting her palm directly over my racing heart as I twined my fingers around her wrist, feeling the matching pulse there.
“You can’t just walk away from this, Cory,” I whispered, reaching up with my free hand to brush a strand of her hair behind her ear.
My lips tilted into a crooked smile as I got lost in the view for a moment. Her golden brown eyes were lit with passion and her lips were swollen. Her hair was messy and skin was flushed and she’d never looked more beautiful. I wanted to tuck her away somewhere so no one else could even have the chance to realize how incredible she was but at the same time, I wanted to walk next to her with my arm wrapped around her shoulders, her cheeks flushed just like this and know that she was mine just as surely as I was hers.
Slowly, her expression shifted, her eyes going from glazed to...sad. She tilted her cheek into my palm and her hand on my heart fisted once more. “You’re wrong, Flynn. I can walk away from this.” Her expression hardened and her shoulders stiffened. “I will walk away.” She pulled her hand from my hold and shoved it into the pocket of her jeans. Her other hand was on mine at her cheek until slowly, she pulled it back, taking my hand with it, making me lose the contact with her that I so desperately craved. We were barely an inch apart but it might as well have been a continent.
Distance.
One by one, she squashed the emotions in her expression and planted her mask firmly on her face. “Cory,” I groaned, frustration gnawing at me from the inside out.
She shook her head and dropped her eyes to the ground as she shifted around me. I reached out as if to grab her arm but she stiffened before I touched her, making me freeze. “Don’t,” she whispered and something in her voice stopped me. It was like she was standing on the edge of something and if I touched her just one more time, she’d go over.
Then she was gone, walking down the hallway with unhurried steps, her hair swaying and her shoulders loose as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
When she was out of sight, I slammed my fist into a nearby locker, leaving a dent that would probably make it hard for the person to close it properly for the rest of the semester.
“Fuck,” I muttered, shaking my hand out, my knuckles stinging.
I ran a hand through my hair barely registering that students were starting to filter in, that people were calling out greetings to me but I just stood there, my stomach twisting with panic because I’d seen her walk away from me.
And she planned on doing it again.
Corinna’s POV
I felt like I had a hangover.
Was it possible to get a hangover from a kiss?
And god what a kiss.
As soon as his lips had touched mine, I’d been a goner. Every bit of resolve, every hint of strength that I had inside of me had melted into a puddle at his feet and in seconds, I’d been plastered up against him, taking what he offered, greedy for more.
He was dangerous.
I flinched as my heart rate spiked when a truck drove by me, my mind immediately assuming it was Flynn, my traitorous body immediately thrilled at the prospect.
When the truck bypassed me without slowing, I tried to ignore the disappointment that hit me like a semi but it was impossible.
It was probably a good thing that I was leaving in a few days because if I had to stay here for another month, I know I’d do something stupid.
Like fall completely in love with Tyler Flynn.
My heart thumped hard in my chest at the thought.
“I’m leaving,” I whispered, my eyes on the sidewalk in front of me, trying to keep my breathing even as a thought attempted to worm its way into my consciousness, a thought that I needed to ignore because it would crush me.
Already...
I shook my head, not allowing the words to form, not even inside of me. No way.
I just needed to avoid him for the next few days then I’d be gone and he could move on and I...
I could spend the rest of my life remembering the way it felt to have his arms wrapped around me.
I snorted and rubbed a hand over my face, wryly wondering if I was going to start spouting poetry sometime soon. What happened to me? Where was the girl with the sarcastic remarks and the bitchy comments? Where was the girl who stood up to her mother’s drug dealing boyfriend and his drug taking buddies?
She was busy mooning over a guy she could never have.
Never.
My heart stuttered and went cold as the truth ran over me. Flynn and I...we would never be anything more than childhood acquaintances with a brief moment of high school tutoring between us. Never.
The disappointment settled in me hard, like a rock falling to the bottom of my stomach but it was a welcome feeling. Familiar.
Hopes and dreams, desires and warmth, those were concepts that made me uncomfortable.
Disappointment...
That, I could handle.
I was nearly home. It had taken me forty minutes to walk from the school to my house because I’d taken a long, circuitous route in order to avoid any possible run ins with Flynn who was most likely pissed off that I’d given him the slip. I’d left through a side door as soon as the final bell rang and avoided the parking lot like the plague in order to keep some distance between us.
Because without distance, my willpower seemed to spontaneously combust around him.
Every time I told him I was leaving, every time I pushed him away, I got a little weaker. I kept forgetting who I was around him, kept getting caught up in everything that was Flynn and forgetting that I didn’t fit here, that I never would and the only thing that seemed to remind me of that was being away from him.
Being with him made me feel like maybe he was right, that maybe I should believe him when he called me incredible and amazing and that maybe I wasn’t quite as bad as everyone made me out to be.
I brushed my fingers over the scars at my wrist, reminding myself of all the things I needed to remember. The smell of burning skin and cigarettes was still fresh in my mind. The vision of Joey’s grinning face, of the way his eyes had lit, the feeling of his full attention and the ice that had settled down my spine at having it, it was all there, just below the surface, burnt on my skin just as surely as the scars were.
I won’t give up on you, Cor.
I shook my head, wishing I could erase Flynn’s words from my memory because it would only make it harder when he did give up.
I rounded the corner to my house and my stupid heart leapt at the sight of Flynn’s truck parked in the driveway.
It only took a moment and a quick glance for any heart leaping to stop though because right next to Flynn’s truck was a beat up old car I recognized.
It belonged to Tracy, Dave’s mom, Barb’s best friend, and the woman responsible for bringing Joey into our lives.
And next to Tracy’s car was Sandra’s, the white paint chip free, not a single dent on it and unlike Tracy’s, it was free of any dirt.
What the hell was going on?
I picked up my pace and speed walked the rest of the way to the front door, my heart kicking hard in my chest, my stomach roiling with a sense of dread that was seeping into my pores. To say I had a bad feeling about this was an understatement.
My hand shook as I gripped the doorknob and pushed, tripping slightly over a pair of shoes that had been left haphazardly in the foyer.
“Cory?” Sandra’s voice called from the kitchen area, sounding strained. “Is that you?”
I swallowed past the dread and managed to make my voice calm when I said, “Yeah, what’s up?”
“Can you come here for a moment?”
I could see the doorway to the dining room from where I was but the only view I had was of the wall. Once I took a couple more steps, I’d be able to see chair backs and then the table and I’d know what was going on. No matter what reason Tracy had for coming here, it couldn’t be good and I hated the fact that she was talking to Sandra, sitting in her house and waiting for me.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. I’d worked for so long to keep these two worlds separate from each other. Why now, when everything was coming to an end, did they have to collide?
“Sure,” I mumbled, a belated response to Sandra’s question, knowing that I couldn’t just run away from this.
I rounded the corner, keeping my expression blank as my eyes slid over Sandra, her arms wrapped around Jake who was staring across the table at the person I still couldn’t see.
Flynn was sitting next to Sandra, his hands on his lap and balled into fists, his posture was stiff and the muscle in his jaw was ticking indicating that he was furious about something.
If Tracy was there, I could imagine his fury had something to do with her.
They both looked at me and I gave them a broad, fake smile before stepping into the dining room fully and spotting the one person I hadn’t seen.
Oh. Not Tracy after all.
It was my mother.
And judging from the way her eyes were bloodshot and the way she was swaying in her seat, she was drunk or on drugs or a combination of the two.
Great. Just like old times.