Page 81 of When It Reins
Mitch showed me all of this on my first visit to his house, immediately trusting that I wouldn’t abuse the information.
He also always said that I was welcome anytime.
I hope he still means that.
I rub my forehead. My hair is tossed up into a ponytail, my face clean of makeup, as tears will randomly come and go without my permission. I am a mess.
There were times in my life when I felt that I was never going to recover from things. When I was little, Ophelia slammed my guitar in a door. I have no idea how she did it, but I had been devastated and wouldn’t talk to her for a week.
When I was thirteen, my neighbor asked me to his middle school dance. My mom had said no, and I was again hurt. To the point I locked myself in my room and cried and wrote really horribly depressing songs about it.
I was fifteen when my parents died, and that was the saddest I’d ever been. I became more than sad. I became a shell, much like my older sister, Tori, who caved so far into herself she never got back out again.
I slump down onto the couch and hold my head in my hands. I miss my sisters. I see Thea and Annmarie all the time, but my other two sisters are never around, and I miss them terribly.
Listening for a moment, I enjoy the quiet solitude of Mitch’s cabin. I let myself think about someday moving here before yesterday happened, and I enjoyed the thought of being somewhere far into the mountains where no one could bother us.
Mitch loves his solitude, and I would never try to take that from him.
But what I’m learning is Mitch also loves me, and he would probably do just about anything to prove that.
I groan and think about how I treated him again. I am so mad at myself, so disappointed that I couldn’t hold my emotions in long enough to talk with him and work it out.
Logic has been battling me all day, and I know Mitch is probably thinking some of the same things as I am, just maybe not in my favor. He has every right to be hurt, to be mad, and thinking back on it, he probably didn’t think twice about watching out for me when the club asked because he already does it.
Always has.
My phone startles me when it rings in my hand, and I flip it over to see who’s calling. Tori.
I blink and smile as I answer the video call, “Tori, how’d you know I was just thinking about you?
“I must be some sort of magical mind reader.” I laugh at her answer and try to figure out where she is from the background.
“Okay, I’m lost. Where are you?” There is a brick wall behind her and a window that overlooks some city, but since I’ve never been anywhere, I have no idea what city it is.
“London, at the moment.”
I lift my brows in surprise. “London? That’s not exactly backpacking country.”
She shrugs a slender shoulder, and I smile at her naturally highlighted hair. It is light brown but has a ton of sun-kissed highlights, likely due to her many, many hours outside. “Need to get some money saved up for a moment.”
“So you’re staying in one place for a while?”
“For now.” She sighs and falls back against a pillow. “So…Thea called. Said you were going through some stuff. Care to talk?”
“I—” Just then, I hear a window shatter and a click before some sort of hissing sound reaches me. “What the hell?” I stand from the couch and rush toward the kitchen where the window is shattered, and there is some sort of can on the ground.
“Juniper? What’s happening?”
I hold the phone in one hand, inspecting the can for a second before my eyes widen at what this could mean. I turn and rush from the kitchen, Tori’s frantic voice trying to get information, but before I can get out the front door, a boom echoes through the house, throwing me off of my feet.
38
mitch
My chest startsto ache as I drive home.
Something isn’t right. I just don’t know what it is.
