Page 127 of You Were Always Mine
“No one can know. No one can know. No one can know.”
I splash water on my face, cold enough to sting, smearing makeup into black rivers. I grip the edges of the sink until my knuckles bleach white, rocking forward and back like maybe motion can keep me sane. But the buzzing won’t stop. The towel mound shifts with every vibration, as if the phone itself is alive, pulsing like a heartbeat I can’t shut out.
My throat burns, my chest caves, and the spiral only pulls tighter.
Scarlett’s voice is inside my head, cruel and small:You asked for this. You wanted attention. You’re the problem. You’re the reason.
I bite down hard enough to taste blood, the copper sting mixing with the salt of my tears.
And still—buzz.
The bathroom is too small to hold it all. My shame. His words. My secret.
I think I might explode.
The buzzing won’t stop. Every time I press my palms over my ears, it finds a way back in, humming against the tile like a wasp trapped in a jar. My phone glows from where I shoved it under the sink, light strobing out in quick, merciless pulses. I tell myself not to—don’t look, don’t look—but my knees slide across the cold floor anyway, fingers fumbling.
I drag the phone onto my lap with trembling hands. My thumb hesitates, then swipes.
Tyler: You thought you could ignore me?
Tyler: After what we did? After what you let me do?
Tyler: You wanted it. Don’t pretend you didn’t.
My stomach twists so violently I think I might be sick right there on the tiles. I can still feel the slick fingerprints on her thighs, except now they burn like brands I can’t scrub away.
Another message blinks in before she can catch her breath.
Tyler: Does he know? Your perfect Kai? Should I tell him? Should I tell your whole family what a filthy little liar you are?
My lungs seize. I can taste iron at the back of my throat as my eyes blur over, fat tears spilling down my cheeks.
“No,” I whisper, voice catching on the edge of a sob. “No, please—don’t.”
My reflection in the cabinet mirror is a horror show: mascara streaks like bruises under my eyes, lips bitten raw, hair tangled and damp with sweat. I look ruined, used, exactly the way Tyler wants me to believe I am.
My thumb hovers over the screen, but I can’t reply. My chest heaves, breaths coming jagged, almost manic. I press the phone flat to the floor as though that will silence it.
My whole body shakes. I thought we were friends. The words escape in a whisper, like a prayer, like a curse.
But the screen lights up again, cruel and bright in the dark.
Tyler: Answer me, sweetheart.
The phone buzzes again where I left it face-down on thebathroom tiles, a low angry vibration that seems to crawl under my skin. My fingers tremble as I flip it over, already knowing it will be him. Already knowing it will be worse.
Scarlett, if you don’t fucking answer me, I’m going to tell Mummy and Daddy what you and your dear brother have been up to.
The words scream up at me, black and sharp, and for a moment I forget to breathe. My heart doesn’t just lurch—it plummets, crashing through the pit of my stomach. The room tilts, the candle-scented air from downstairs suddenly suffocating, like I can smell smoke where there is none.
The blood drains from my face, leaving me cold and clammy. My reflection in the mirror is a stranger—eyes ringed in smudged black, skin blotchy from crying, lips bitten raw. I press my palm against the cool porcelain sink to steady myself, but my knees still buckle, dragging me down to the floor again.
My throat burns with the taste of bile as I picture my parents’ faces—my mother’s horror, my father’s rage—and Kai. Kai, with his hands bloodied, Kai with that vow he made in the dark: never leave me, Scar. Don’t fucking do it. You don’t want to see what happens.
And Tyler is daring me to find out.
My hands shake so violently I can’t type back, can’t even think of what I would say if I could. I want to scream, but the sound lodges in my throat, trapped and desperate, a cry that will never leave these walls.
