Page 16 of Broken Skulls

My brows pull together in a scowl. “I don’t know. Away.”

He laughs, revealing almost perfect teeth. There’s only one front tooth with a flaw, a small chip at the corner.

I drop my gaze, focusing on his dusty black boots. “I want to go back to the dark.”

“Do you really?”

“I do.”

“You going to hide there forever?”

“If you’ll let me.”

He sighs, shaking me lightly between his arms. “Look at me.”

When I raise my eyes to him, he stares at me, to the point I become uncomfortable and look away ashamed. He looked at me so intently I’m sure he saw my soul.

“I’ll take you back, and we’ll try again tomorrow.”

“It’s not going to work, you know? You can’t fix me.”

He spins me around to face the horizon. “I’m not trying to fix you. Now shut up and look at the beauty before you.”

He’s not lying. Everything is truly beautiful here. Wherever here is. Maybe that’s part of the beauty. I don’t know where I’m at. No one knows where I’m at … and no one cares.

He cared.

The wind picks up, whipping my long hair in my face. JD gently gathers it in his hand, carefully wrapping it around his fist. It’s a small act of kindness, something I haven’t felt in a long time.

A deep breath fills my lungs, and I allow myself a moment to relax against him.

He’s quiet as he lets me take everything in. I think I missed the wind the most. The wind is a reminder that just because you can’t see something, it doesn’t mean it can’t exist. I swallow hard, pulling away from him.

“I’m ready to go.”

He doesn’t argue. He simply nods and helps me back on his bike. Except this time, he doesn’t blindfold me.

Chapter Nine

JD

She’s quiet as I walk with her down the steps. Once we’re back in the little room I built for myself, she finally speaks.

“The friend you spoke of. Is she Kelsie’s mother?”

I sit down beside her on the bed. “She is.”

“Do you think she would do anything for her daughter?”

I nod, wondering where she is going with this.

She stares at the open door. “I don’t know how to continue on after everything that’s happened.”

“You don’t have to continue. You start over.”

“Again, you make it sound so easy.”

“Think back to when you were happy. If there was a time when you were truly happy. Start there. Or just completely start over. Forget all that shit in your past. The way I look at it, you have a clean slate.”

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