Page 26 of Pirate Girls

He doesn’t trust me now?

“And you’re on your own,” he tells me. “I’m not going to hold your hand here.”

I swallow hard, clenching my sheet in my hands as I watch him rise and head for my bedroom door.

I don’t believe this. What the hell did I do? I…

But I stop.

No.

I don’t care about this anymore. If they don’t want to explain why they both pulled away from me, I’m not giving it my attention.

“I missed you,” is all I say.

It’s all I want him to know before we’re never alone together again.

But he just stops at the door and laughs. Turning his mean eyes on me, he asks, “Why?”

I go still.

He doesn’t give me time to reply. Swinging open the door, he’s gone quickly, his footfalls fading down the stairs until I hear the front door slam shut.

It takes a moment to steady myself. I’ll stay away from him. Fine. No problem.

He better not think I came here to be with him as a motive in the first place. I came here to be on my own anyway.

Checking the time, I see it’s just after six. I whip off the sheet and climb out of bed, dialing Aro as I head into the bathroom. Before I start the shower, though, I check the shelf for clean towels.

There are two. Brilliant. I think I saw a washer and dryer just off the kitchen, in the mudroom by the back door. I’ll have to go to school today in the same clothes I came in, but I can wash them tonight.

The line picks up. “Are you okay?” Aro says, almost sounding like an accusation.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

I hear her sigh, muttering, “Seriously…”

I reach into the shower, turning on the water and running my hand under the ice-cold spray. After a few moments, the water doesn’t get warm, so I leave it running and walk back to the bedroom. I betterhave hot water.

“Why couldn’t I get a call out last night?” I ask her.

“They probably put out a signal jammer.”

I exhale a laugh, closing the window. “Christ. They’re…a lot, aren’t they?”

But she chastises me instead. “Dylan, you shouldn’t have gone there.”

“And I’m tired of everyone telling me what I should and shouldn’t do,” I reply. “Can you just be the one person I don’t have to hear it from?”

“Listen to me—”

“I’m fine.”

“Maybe today—”

“If they were going to hurt me, they would’ve done it last night,” I retort.

“Dylan—”

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