Page 96 of The Casualty of Us
No one understood how necessary it was.
So I went a little over the edge.
I tore the note out of Jack’s hand despite the fact we’d just met about an hour prior. Grabbed the lighter off the fireplace and ran my ass straight for the front yard. Kicking Ollie dead in the thigh when he made a grab for me along the way and finally, finally making it to the front porch to light that fucking note on fire for all the world to see.
It seems stalkers made me a little savage. Weird.
But if I didn’t get to read it, no one did, and once that was understood…they stopped coming. Making everyone furious but me right.
Because it meant he’d been watching.
He wants to play with me, and as sick as it fucking is, I understand it.
The rules here.
I gasp as we come around the loop for the fifth time, legs having gone from burning to numb sometime around the fourth pass but still functional enough for me to keep going. Knowing I need at least another thirty minutes out here for it to be effective. But when the break in the sidewalk comes around the next corner and a head of messy black hair across the street catches my eyes…my gaze whips to the side out of instinct, eyes searching for—
There.
I spot the guy in his mid-thirties just as he picks up the little boy running his way, and my stomach plummets with the realization that it’s not him. Heart trying to find its regular rhythm again at the letdown even while I’m still pushing it. I go to turn my head back, determined to ignore it, when a crack in the sidewalk snags on the tip of my sneaker and sends me crashing to the ground.
Fuck.
I blink at where my hands are suddenly laying against the pavement, saving me from what definitely would’ve been a bad look but still stinging enough to have me gasping out loud this time. “Fuck.”
A hand on my shoulder has me whipping my head around to see Talan staring at me with concern, and he lifts his other hand to his ear, motioning for me to take out my earbuds. I nod vaguely at him while pushing myself back onto my ass to comply, knees making their complaint over my fall known and spotting a few cuts on my hands when I lift them. Definitely choosing to ignore the Doubtful Souls song coming on as I pop my earbuds out and shove them down into my pocket quickly.
“You good?”
Talan holds out a hand with the question, and I swallow down my pride enough to take it, letting him haul me up whilesighing heavily. “Yeah.” I scan my eyes around the park to double-check. “Just thought I saw something.”
But he’s on the other side of the world right now.
Talan immediately lets go of my hand, and I look back in time to see him going into soldier mode with his hand moving to the small of his back.
“Nothing like that.” I roll my eyes, noticing he isn’t even sweating and immediately wanting to repeat the motion at that. “Just a friend.”
“A friend?” His gaze jerks back to mine, brown eyes immediately suspicious. “You’ve never mentioned a friend.”
“I do have friends, Talan.” I snort, the spasms starting up in my calves forcing me to start walking again and knowing that if I don’t cool off right now, then I’m going to regret it when I’m right back here tomorrow.
“I’m shocked.” Talan slides into step next to me with the mocking words, and I glare at him. “That you would think anyone worthy enough, that is.”
I narrow my eyes at him while coming up on the Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial and grumbling, “I’m still deciding if he is.”
Knowing that I’m lying to him.
“He?” His whole face fills with delight at the pronoun. “Wait, it’s gotta be one of the kids we cleared from your school then.”
“You’re fired.”
“Ha.” He laughs loudly. “You can’t fire me.”
And fuck if I can’t. Apparently that falls under the unrealistic expectation column despite what my father said.
Bastards. Lying bastards at that.
“We’re not having this conversation.”
