Page 10 of Possess Me! (I Want You To)

Lucky me.

I squinted down at it suspiciously then casually peeked around the gate looking for my unlikely savior. Someone had obviously left these behind. Or…maybe they’d overheard my complaining and took mercy on me in my painfully un-caffeinated state. Kinda stalker-y? But hey, at least I had drinkable coffee.

Ultimately I didn’t give a fuck how the sweetener had come to be in my possession. Only that it was, and I was going to enjoy the hell out of it. Because coffee. Duh. I dumped everything in, startled when a new guy sat down a few chairs over while I swirled my cup to mix it. Aha! Mystery solved. I raised my cup toward him in thanks, figuring he must’ve been my good Samaritan. His brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed in annoyance before he rose from his seat, and headed to another row, far, far away from me.

Okay.

Maybe he wasn’t coffee Jesus.

Shrugging the awkwardness off even though my eyes were stinging, I finished my coffee in peace. Lately it seemed a stiff breeze was all it took to make me cry, but I refused to ugly sob surrounded by jet-lagged civilians. No. I’d save that for home.

Because there was nothing better to do I checked my bank account while I waited, fiddling nervously with the strings on my hoodie as I absorbed the too-cold air conditioning and tried not to think about how utterly fucked I was. For a guy that had been sitting pretty with nearly a million cash just a year ago I was feeling pretty abysmal.

Three thousand dollars.

That was it.

All that was left.

Aaaaand like an idiot I’d just traded my last painting to a random dude at a club because I’d been feeling sad. So, yeah. Go me. Yay. Excellent decision making skills. Ten out of ten.

Realistically I could paint something new but…ever since I’d realized the extent of Hunter’s betrayal I’d been unable to muster up the will to create anything. My creative river had run dry. Not to mention the fact that lately it seemed no one was interested in buying abstract art. I’d been a trend, only I hadn’t known it till everyone else had decided I was no longer relevant.

With clammy hands I shoved my phone into my pocket. The empty airport somehow managed to feel oppressive. I was suddenly glad I’d decided to go home ahead of Violet. The idea of staying here a few more weeks was far too overwhelming for my fragile mind to comprehend. I wasn’t used to being so brittle. Like anything—no matter how small—was enough to cause me to shatter.

I missed home.

I’d gotten used to San Diego and its crowds. Elmwood reminded me too much of the tiny town I’d grown up in Oregon and thinking about that only made me sick to my stomach.

Speaking of things that made me want to throw up—I needed to call my mom back. She’d been leaving me messages all week about something her and Paul didn’t want to text me about. But fuck—As much as I loved her I didn’t have the spoons for that conversation, not when I knew the second I spoke to her I was bound to break the fuck down and confess everything.

I was letting them down. All of them.

Mom, Paul, Betty, Adam.

Especially Adam.

Tall, gangly, grouchy as hell—and young. So fucking young. Too young to stop looking at his big brother with stars in his eyes. Too young to realize I wasn’t who he thought I was, and the confidence I’d always projected was a fat fucking lie.

I couldn’t…admit what I’d done.

What I’d let him do.

Maybe part of me was still in denial, or maybe I was still trying not to cry in the middle of the airport.

Trust no one. That’s what Violet had told me after I’d explained what happened. A little too late though, all things considered. Since then, I had taken that advice to heart. Aside from Violet of course. She was the exception, as always. Though even where she was concerned there were some things I was still skeptical about.

It wasn’t often I spent the weekend with witches after all.

That’s what she claimed they were, anyway.

After the painful ride home with my phone sitting like a lead weight in my pocket, the plane finally descended into sunny San Diego. Inhaling the scent of salt and sunscreen wafting through the air, the flip in my belly finally settled. Home at last.

Chewing my lip raw, I waited for my Uber to arrive. It’d be sixty bucks to ride to our dinky little apartment, which was a shit ton, but…I didn’t really have a choice at this point. My piece of shit car was still sitting abandoned on the street outside my apartment downtown.

Hitting the confirm to pay button killed a part of my soul.

I pulled down the brim of my baseball cap, wishing for a moment I could disappear inside its shadows, just as coppery blood burst on my tongue and I released my abused lip with a wince.

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