Page 26 of Homecoming

She is actually here. I can fucking see her.

I thought it was a dream or some sort of fucked up joke. Not that I really believed that the parents would do that to us. We were devastated after she left, and I think that had a lasting effect on the parents; I don’t think that they would be willing to go through that again.

I can’t stop staring at her.

She’s beautiful. She looks like she easily personifies the Dragonfly nickname that we always called her, strong and beautiful. For some reason though, I get the feeling that she’s fragile, not fragile as in she could break at any moment, Ever has always been too strong for that but fragile like a bomb. Like she could explode if the conditions were right.

She has been through a lot; we know that, and I think that it has probably changed her. I just hope that whatever she has been through, however she is coping with what has recently happened, I just hope that we can help her.

Cash

My heart is pounding so hard that it feels like it is going to beat straight out of my chest. I can’t believe that she is actually here. I put my hand into my pocket and pinch myself hard. When the pain rolls through me, I almost laugh out loud in complete relief; it’s real.

I’m not dreaming; if I can feel pain, then it’s real. She is actually fucking here.

Our Ever.

Chapter Sixteen

Riot

For some reason that I can’t explain, I feel an immense wave of relief pass over me as soon as my eyes land on Ever. It’s like for all the time that she has been gone, I have been on edge, and now that she is home, somehow, on an intuitive level, I know that everything is going to be okay now, and I can finally breathe properly.

It scares the fuck out of me.

Trick

Ever. It’s really her.

I always know what to say and do. But I am lost.

She is finally Home.

Luc

Ican tell the moment that I see her that it’s Ever; she always had this air about her; she looked all innocent until you said the wrong thing to one of us, and then she would go off like a firecracker. It was absolutely stunning to watch then, and I bet it would be fucking breathtaking to watch now.

I find myself hoping that she still defends us like she used to; even if she doesn’t, my heart feels like it’s going to burst with happiness.

My Firecracker.

Jensen

“We should probably go and talk to her rather than just staring at her like a bunch of weirdos,” Cash points out.

We don’t need to be told again, and we all move down the hallway toward her; I have to constantly remind myself not to run; that would probably freak her out.

Somehow, I am the lucky fucker that manages to get to her first. She is just bending down to grab her backpack, her back still to us, and I momentarily get distracted by her perfect ass.

What do I say? This is a monumental moment. Keeping it simple will probably work best. Otherwise, I’m going to spew a load of shit that she just doesn’t need to know, and then we are back to freaking her out again.

Reaching out, I touch her shoulder and say, “Hey . . .”

Trick

My eyes widen in shock as my feet stay glued to the spot, and I watch Ever grab Jensen’s hand on her shoulder, and with very little effort at all, she flips him over. He lands with a hard thump on the floor, Ever follows him down, her knee landing on his sternum and pinning him in place as she holds two knives at his throat in such a way that she could easily slit it. If I’m not mistaken and I force myself to take a step back and look at this from someone who is not emotionally involved, then I would almost be tempted to say that she had done that before. The neck slicing, not the flipping, she has obviously done that before. That was clearly muscle memory.

That would be crazy, though.

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