Page 7 of The King's Maiden
Like the sun peeking through the clouds on an overcast day.
I withdrew from the sudden intensity of it, taking the card and shoving it into my pocket.
“I’m fine,” I croaked.
Without a second glance, I tore out of the store like a ghost chased me. Chomping at my heels like the memory pressing in on my thoughts. Squeezing my throat like?—
I climbed into the back of the blacked-out SUV and slammed the door. Panting heavily, I forced the thoughts from my mind.
The freshman pledge tasked with driving me caught my eyes in the rearview mirror before hastily looking away.
But I saw the concern in his expression, and I couldn’t stand it.
“Let’s go,” I barked, turning to face the window.
I caught a glimpse of messy brown hair corralled into a bun, hands clutching a bag of medicine, and a heart-shaped face with dark eyes shining in the sun right as we pulled away.
Eyes filled with relief because of what I’d done.
I couldn’t stand that, either.
Chapter Two
QUINN
“Iwant to die.”
I kicked the apartment door shut behind me, hauling my stuff into the kitchen. Grabbing a seat at the table, I folded my arms and plopped my head down. My bag hit the ground with athunk,spilling its contents onto the floor. I lifted my head and watched as my pencils slowly rolled away.
“Fuck my life,” I groaned.
“Why, hello to you, too.” Gia cocked a wooden spoon in my direction, greeting me from the stove. “Looks like someone’s working toward their Fine Arts degree indramatoday.”
“You weren’t there, Gia. It was…” My cheeks heated with shame just thinking about it. “I’ve never been so mortified.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Worse than that time you got dia?—”
“No!” I said quickly. “You know nothing’s worse than that. And you swore you’d never bring that up again.”
She shrugged, turning back to the noodles in the pot. “Well, I feel better about your big entrance knowing you still have some perspective. Now, do you want to talk about it?”
Did I want to talk about how my ex-boyfriend plied me with tequila and convinced me to let him stick his finger in my butt?
Or how that ill-fated anniversary date at a Mexican restaurant started the slow crawl toward the end of our relationship?
Or how our breakup led to the worst night of my life? A life I then packed up and moved to a sleepy mountain town in North Carolina just so I could die of shame at the local pharmacy?
“No, thank you. Not ever, ever,everagain.” I grimaced, running my hand through my hair. My bracelet snagged on a few strands and yanked them out. Snapping my hand away, I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt over my head. “I’ll just die here, thanks.”
I tugged on the hoodie’s strings and cinched it up, hiding my face before dropping my head back onto the table.
But I couldn’t hide in my ex-boyfriend’s stolen hoodie forever. Fat load of good it did me anyway, since my best friend knew all my secrets.
Gia had been with me through it all. Virtually, ever since we met at dance camp when we were eleven, and physically since I’d transferred to her school last year to avoid being completely alone.
We shared an apartment off-campus and a vault’s worth of each other’s darkest secrets and most-embarrassing moments.
“I take it this recent trauma involved a hot guy?”
