Page 21 of Did They Break You

I never really thought I was a bad person. I didn’t hate people or hurt them. I looked out for my brother, had a good relationship with my dad.

But that night, Remi broke everything into pieces.

And turns out,we’ve all got monsters inside of us.

When the threeof us are walking in the dark to the park, Storm offers me a cigarette and I take it, even as Maya complains about the smoke. But my hands are shaky again, like they were in the aftermath of the charges.

If you know what’s best for you, baby, you won’t be here.

Remi didn’t go to many parties back at West, even though I looked for her at every one.

But that bright orange hair and tongue piercing, combined with thatI don’t give a fuckattitude she had before I knocked into her, I don’t know her anymore.

I think about her skin under my fingers, the fact she wasn’t wearing a bra.

That night, I remember wanting hers off, but I was too drunk and it was too hard to rip it off and…fuck.

I bite my cheek hard enough to taste blood, and I remember that, too.

The taste of hers.

CHAPTER

FIVE

REMI

Paranoia stealsthe joy from everything.

I glance at the clock on the center touchscreen of Cortland’s blacked-out truck. It looks like a spaceship and it’s so big in here, I feel like a kid in the black leather seat.

It’s only ten at night and the darkness outside of the tinted windows gives us an illusion of privacy. And in reality, we’re pretty secluded. He parked at the far end of Hyde Park in Ellicottville, where the mountains can be seen jutting up into the night sky beneath the full moon overhead.

My heart flutters as I glance at the pale sphere through his windshield.

But even still, with the night, the stillness, the mid-July air drifting in through the cracked windows, the hair on the back of my neck stands on end because…he could be here.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Cort asks me, his thumb trailing over the back of my hand, ours entwined together over the giant center console.

Another flutter of my heart. Butterflies in my stomach.

For a second, I can’t even look at him.

How did I get here?

I inhale, catching a heady combination of the leather interior of the truck and Cortland’s woodsy scent. Like cedar. Or fall.

Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t hide my smile.

I turn to look at him, his face lit by the dash lights, making the piercing in his lower lip gleam and his charcoal eyes nearly silver. He smiles too, and I see a dimple flash in his cheek as his plush lips curve upward.

He’s the epitome of boy-next-door with a hot as hell edge.

He tilts his head and my heart thrums too fast in my chest as I realize I didn’t answer his question, because I’m too busy staring at his lips.

Embarrassed, my eyes drift up to his.

“I know you’re quiet, Remi, but I can see it in your eyes.”

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