Page 95 of Sunflower Persona
“Good.” He gives me an all-too-knowing look and finishes off his drink as well. “Now, let’s not keep the ladies waiting. Jen gushed all night about showing you these baby pictures.”
When I follow him back out into the living room, I leave the gloom behind me. It tries to give chase, but its shadowy tendrils melt into harmless vapor as they try to wrap themselves around me. I’m done letting it control me. For the first time in a long time, I can look toward my future and see a life worth living.The road won’t be easy, but I’m going to give Yellow the life she deserves.
***
Peace like I’ve never known seeps into my very bones as I slowly return to consciousness. Sunlight streams into the room from the cracks in the blinds, catching on the glittering particles of dust dancing in the air. Bird songs are the only sound, and they add to the peace. It’s a much better wake-up call than car alarms or screaming neighbors. Familiar sweet citrus invades my senses—a scent that most definitely shouldn’t be here. Neither should the bundle of heat tucked against me in the too-small bed.
“What are you doing in here?” I ask my sleepy girlfriend.
“I missed you,” she says as she snuggles closer to my side.
“You’re going to get us in trouble,” I chastise, even as I wrap my arms around her and pull her to fully lie on my chest.
“We aren’t doing anything trouble worthy. I just wanted to cuddle.”
“Then cuddle away, baby girl.”
She wraps herself around me like a koala and lets out a content sigh as I trace patterns on her back.
“I wish we didn’t have to go back,” she says after a few minutes.
“Why?”
“Because I want to stay like this forever. Once we leave, you get busy with work again and I’ll be thrown back into the middle of the semester, and I won’t get to see you as much. I really liked having you to myself these past few days.”
I did too, and after talking with her dad, I can see a future where I wake up with her by my side every day. I’m just going to have to work for it. Starting with getting my GED.
“The sooner we get back to Athens, the more time we will have together at my place.”
I tuck my face into the crook of her neck and pepper languid kisses along her throat. In an instant, she melts into me, arching to give me more access.
“We can do more as soon as we are home.”
She will be lucky if I ever let her leave once we get there. There’s no reason she needs to stay in the dorms if she doesn’t want to. She spends half her time at my place anyway.
“Fine. But breakfast first. My dad is making waffles.”
“Please tell me he is a better cook than your mom.”
“You will just have to see,” she taunts as she climbs off me and slips out of the room.
Thankfully, he is.
Breakfast with her family is an affair filled with sugar and joy, and somehow, after a few short days, I fit. I hope when she meets my ma, Kori will feel this way too. With winter break on the horizon, I need to find out if she wants to make the trip up to Boston with me. It’s a big step, but I’m ready for it all.
Her mom tears up while we say our goodbyes, reminding us to come see them more often than once a semester, and then we are off. It might be nothing more than another drive for Yellow, but for me, I’m driving toward our future.
Chapter 30
Gage
Halfway back to Athens, things go to shit.
Brandy shakes around us as the engine’s rattling intensifies. She rallies for a few moments longer before a loudbangrocks the whole vehicle. The steering wheel jerks in my grasp, and I yank my hand away from Kori’s thigh to regain control before we veer off the road completely. My girl lets out a startled shriek, but I can’t comfort her—not now.
As the engine sputters its final breaths, smoke pours out from under the hood.
No. No. No.
