Page 16 of Intertwined Souls

He shakes his head, hesitating. “It’s a little foggy. I think it’ll come back after I get some better sleep. But…” He rubs his temples and then looks between us. “Did she talk about it?”

“About you? No. She just was really worried about you. We didn’t expect that,” Ry says, waving his hand in the direction of the door Harley ran out of.

“No, no, I mean David—that fucker. Whatever he did or said. Has she talked about it? Did you find out what happened? How long was she stuck with him?” he growls. “I couldn’t fucking stay conscious, no matter how hard I tried to.”

My eyes widen, and my mouth pops open while Ryker clenches his fists. “What did he do?” Ry asks slowly.

“I don’t know. That’s the problem.” Clenching his eyes shut, he mutters, “I need to sleep. My mind is fucking foggy as shit.”

I sigh, running a hand through my hair. “You guys were gone for about six hours.”

“Fuck. I think I was only awake for less than an hour,” Cade says sleepily.

“Try to sleep so you feel better. We can talk about this later,” I respond, giving Cade’s shoulder a soft squeeze.

They both nod, and Ry and I walk back over to the other beds, sitting down and giving Harley a few more minutes. Ryker threatens to go get her but then she walks back in, her eyes red but no more tears falling. She glances at Cade’s sleeping form and then at us.

“His mind is still foggy from everything. He just needs to rest more,” I explain, offering her a comforting smile. “Are you okay?”

Walking towards the bed, she nods and climbs back into the middle, wrapping herself in a blanket and shutting her eyes.

“Everything is fucked,” Ry grumbles from beside me.

“It’ll be okay,” I try to reassure him as I lay back down.

“Will it?” he snaps. “Because I don’t think this is the end of it. We have barely dipped our toes in the water. What if we drown before we get to the other side?”

“We won’t drown because we have each other. We are just still learning right now. But we will be stronger together. You were the first to see that, Ry; don’t lose that spark now. We will all need it more than ever.”

Chapter Five

Harley

Afamily BBQ. The words seem so out of place for me. It’s always been just my mom and me. We didn’t need anyone else. At least, I didn’t ever think we needed anyone else.

But having more people who care in your life is turning out not to be so bad. Although, I didn’t expect this to be where I ended up. Standing in the middle of my closet debating on wearing a dress. A dress.

I shake my head and run my hands down my face with a groan. What am I doing? You want to look pretty for the guys, I remind myself.

Exhaling a shaky breath, I leave the closet and pick up my phone from my dresser. Time to ask for help.

After dialing the number, it rings twice before Brielle answers. “Hey, sweetie.”

“Hi. Um, do you think you could come up to my room? I… Well, I kind of need help.” I grimace, glancing back at my closet again.

I hear other voices in the background and then Brielle chuckles softly. “Okay, I can come up. The other girls are with me. Do you want them to come or just me?”

“N—” I pinch my lips together and try to remind myself that getting to know the people I will be living around is good. It’s something I need to try to do. “They can come.” Fuck, why does saying that make my stomach twist into knots?

We end the call, and I quickly throw on a pair of sweats since the only thing I am wearing are panties and Grayson’s t-shirt that I might have stolen when he left it in here one day. A few minutes later, there is a knock on my door. Opening it, Brielle, Carly, Presley, and Raven come into my room, their eyes all immediately zoning in on my bed.

“Harley, what in the world happened?” Raven asks, biting her lip to hold back a laugh.

Fiddling with my hair to keep my hands busy, I chuckle humorlessly. “Well, this is going to sound ridiculous, but I–I want to dress up a little today. I want to look nice for the guys.”

I clear my throat, glancing down at my bed and the mess of clothes all over it. The few dresses Bri brought, probably every pair of jeans I own, tops, shoes… Basically my entire closet is on my bed right now.

“That’s not ridiculous, Harley,” Presley states softly, the others nodding in agreement. “So you don’t know what to wear?”

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