Page 68 of The Road to Ruined

"Joke's on you—I don't care. I'm not taking it off, and I'm not washing it."

"Looks like someone shit all over you, but okay."

"Yeah, someone did."

He laughs as he walks back to the couch and his newspaper. How strange it is—fucking him naked, seeing him laugh. Eating a sandwich he made and watching him walk barefoot across the floors.

Bone Saw's scars with Sebastian's tattoos.

He sits wide-legged, slouched in the corner of the couch, his thumb pressed against his lower lip while he reads. Sebastian used to do that, too—when he flipped through files at the hospital. I thought it was sexy.

But, of course, he is Sebastian.

"Will you take me home?" I ask after finishing my food.

"Sure," he says. "If that's what you want. Have you thought any more about joining The Order?"

"I haven't really had time to think about it," I tell him.

"Hmm…I see. Well…let me grab a shirt. I'll get your stuff, and we can go."

He came downstairs wearing a black t-shirt with those same black pants, a pair of Nikes, and some sunglasses, dragging my pink suitcase behind him, and I just stared at him in the car, like he was a fucking alien.

Just like I didn't expect that, I didn't expect him to pull up in my driveway, either. My sister's car is parked in front of the house, and I hear music from the backyard. They're probably grilling out; that might make it easier for me to slip upstairs undetected.

"You sure you want to be here?" Sebastian asks. "You could disappear today if you wanted."

I shake my head. "That's not how I'd want to do it," I tell him.

"How would you want to do it, then?"

"If I did it, I'd want to make it look like I was dead. I'd want to give them some kind of closure…because I know how it feels when they just leave you, and you don't know if it was a mistake or not—you don't know if they're okay, and you don't understandwhy. I'd want them to have something to mourn so they can move on."

"We could do that easily."

"And I'd want to go to my sister's wedding first. I think maybe that would give me closure, too. Oh…shit."

"What?" he asks, but then follows my eyes.

I reach for the handle and jump out of the car just as my mom steps down from the front porch.

"Teagan, my god! Where have you been? What happened to your face?" she asks.

"Um—"

"Hiking accident," Sebastian says, stepping out of the car. He walks to the back of the vehicle and pops the trunk, wheeling my pink suitcase over to me.

"Um, yeah. I kind of rolled down a mountain," I tell her. "It sucked."

"I'm Sebastian," he says, extending his hand to my mother. "Sebastian Torres."

My eyes are probably bulging out of my head when she takes his hand and shakes it.

"I'm Jennifer," my mom says. She glances back at the car before looking Sebastian up and down and her demeanor changes entirely. "Would you like to come inside? Teagan's sister and her fiancé are here, and we just threw some steaks on the grill. There's plenty of food."

"No, he can't," I answer for him. "We just ate, actually, so—"

"Actually, that'd be great," Sebastian says, lacing his fingers with mine. "I have to work the night shift tonight, so an extra meal won't hurt."

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