Page 83 of The Casualty of Us
Ollie’s voice has my eyes flying open as a crash sounds through the small space.
“Ol–Ollie,” Hayes chokes out, scrambling to sit up as my brother takes a step toward him with his face turning thunderous. “Ollie, wait—”
“Did you have her locked in—”
“Ollie, she was—”
I see Ollie’s fingers curl into a fist as Hayes stands up, and the trajectory they’re both on has me jerking my limbs into action. Springing up onto my feet with a burst of adrenaline and throwing myself between the two of them a split second before they crash together.
“No!” I gasp, hand landing on the doorjamb with a loud slap and my eyes finding a matching pair. “No,” I immediately fill my lungs to warn him, “He’s mine.”
Ollie’s mouth falls open, eyes filling with hurt, and I swallow down the guilt that springs up with it.
“He’s mine,” I repeat, frowning as the presence at my back goes still, drawing my attention to the way he’s almost touching me and making me clarify. “Mine to condemn. Mine to forgive.”
The hurt in Ollie’s eyes goes hard, blanketing his face, and I hate it, but—
“But he’s mine, Ollie,” I warn him softly. “Not another bruise.”
It’s the only solid thing I know coming out of there.
His jaw tics, eyes flicking behind me before quickly coming back. “What happened? Did you forgive him?”
“No, I—” I stop myself, questioning that very thing before settling on distracting all of us instead. “I had an episode. A bad one. Hayes helped.”
Everything about him softens in an instant. “What? What do you mean?” He moves closer to me with a hand immediately reaching for mine. “You haven’t had a bad one since…”
His face falls in thought, and I supply for him, “Summer,” clearing my throat as some of the awkwardness starts to set in. “Before we came here.”
“How did you get in?” Hayes’s voice at my back has me tensing with us standing in the light of day again. “I locked the doors.”
“Yeah, well.” Ollie’s gaze moves to him with a glare. “I was a little worried you had offed yourself when I knocked and there was no answer, so I jimmied it with a credit card.”
“I taught you that.” I scowl, my stomach flipping when a warm body presses into my back. “But I’m really hungry, so let’s go grab some food and I’ll fill you in.”
Ollie’s gaze narrows on Hayes behind me before coming back to mine with a blank stare. “What?”
“I’m hungry.” I roll my eyes with a squeeze of his hand, lying my ass off because right now, I need the two of them separated. “Can we please go get me some food?”
“Uh, sure.” He nods slowly, brows falling with confusion. “Do you want—”
“Perfect.” I let go of his hand, shoving his shoulder forcefully to help him turn around. “Let’s go.”
It’s not until he takes those first couple of steps away from us that I spin around and throw my arms around the neck of the person behind me, though. Allowing myself one more deepbreath before lifting up onto the very tips of my toes to whisper in his ear, “Don’t tell Ollie what I said, he’d freak out.” I drop back down, seeing the questions spring to life in his eyes but only answering with a quick, “Please.” Barely giving myself the span of breath before rushing out. “And I’m really happy you made it out of that car.”
I try to trap that cedar scent somewhere inside me where it’s safe and dark with stars that are still fighting to shine before turning around. Leaving him standing there with some questions that I know I don’t have the answers to yet. Crafting a story for Ollie that doesn’t involve creepy picture-taking kidnappers and instead just run-of-the-mill ones.
Waiting until I’m safely tucked away behind the closed door of my own dorm later that night to search up the services I’m going to be retaining in the LA area.
Because I meant what I said. He’s mine.
Which means no more bruises of any kind.
Chapter Twenty
OPHELIA - MAY 2013
I’m lyingin my bed awake on the last night of school, knowing that I’m too worked up to try and go to sleep. Too unsettled by the prospect of going home for an entire summer. Staring around a room that seems more like my safe space now than the place I came from and wondering what will have changed the next time I see its walls. Because it seems like everything and nothing has somehow changed in the time I’ve been here. Our whole little group having fallen back into some semblance of what we had at the start of the year after that day I spent in Hayes’s closet.
