Page 16 of Borden 3

Chapter Six

Emma

Past

Theo spent the night with me in the alleyway. He had dropped down on the ground to rest his back against the brick wall. He was so close, his bare shoulder brushed against my black hoodie. The rain didn’t pick up. It was a gentle mist that felt welcoming on my flushed skin.

When was the last time someone actually spoke to me with such concentration?

Granny tries to speak to you.

But Granny was old and judgmental and I didn’t want to think about her.

I wanted someone like me. Someone my age. Someone that fit into me like a puzzle piece. A girl could really get lost in a fantasy like that: she could map out an entire future from just one conversation with a boy.

But with Theo…

I couldn’t do that.

I didn’t understand his motives.

“Where did you come out of?” I asked him, curiously.

“From the shadows,” he answered, a secretive smile on his lips.

“I’m serious.”

“I am, too.”

I looked up and down the alleyway. I was in the corner. I had wrapped my arms around my knee, pressing my face against them. I must have sensed him—there was no other logical explanation than that—when I had looked up and there he was, in the centre of the alleyway like he’d never been anywhere else.

“You were walking past,” I said. “That’s the only explanation.”

“Did you hear me?” he questioned, peering down at me.

I couldn’t figure him out. He seemed so in control of his emotions.

“I didn’t,” I admitted. “But I had my face pressed against my knees.”

“I suppose your ears were covered by your knees then.” Now his voice was dry, and I couldn’t help the shy smile that spread across my lips.

“Well, no.”

“What if I told you I know this city so well, I can come out of any corner and you’d be none the wiser?”

“I would want to know how you do it.”

He smiled, and my chest swelled as he locked eyes with me. “I can’t tell you a secret that big. I could get into trouble letting a pretty girl know something like that.”

I bit the inside of my cheek to stop the smile from forming at his compliment. Instead, I focused on his light admission. “In trouble with who?”

“With the people who taught me how to do it.”

I rolled my eyes. “That much is obvious.”

“It was a different city. They only taught me how.” He looked away, his gaze trapped on his bloody fingers. He clasped them as he took a moment to respond. “Some people fall into trouble. I sort of got born into it. Except…my ma wasn’t the most careful. She tried, but…they got to her, and then I ran.”

Who got to her, I wanted to ask, but I knew he had intentionally left that out. Instead, I asked, “Did they catch you?”

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