Page 152 of The Young & the Sinner

Olivia

I was meetingMason for lunch today.

My first semester passed by in a blink of an eye, and I was finally on winter break. It meant I had more time freed up to do with as I wished, and I wanted to see Mason.

Ever since he confessed to me that night, I couldn’t help but look at Max differently.

He had always seemed so responsible, so upstanding. I never even knew he was hiding such a dark secret. But that didn’t change my opinion of him. I still loved Max, and I loved him more for being the one to protect Mason.

It made me thankful to have him in my life, knowing he would always protect me just as fiercely.

I pulled up outside the office, and a coffee cart nearby caught my eye. Mason said he liked the coffee there. I supposed I should give it a try, though I wasn’t a big coffee drinker like Lizzie.

Just as I opened the door, a cold breeze came through, and I shivered a little, pulling my jacket in closer to me. Our first snowfall came last week. And it was as if that opened the floodgates because we had three more days of snow since, and the snow never really went away, instead laying frozen on the ground in a black-and-white mess around the streets, creating icy patches everywhere.

I moved out the car and closed the door. Just as I locked the car, my phone rang.

I pulled it out from my pocket and as soon as I saw who was calling, I wanted to throw the phone away.

My dad.

I had his number saved on my phone as Michael. I couldn’t bring myself to call him Dad. Not anymore. And since that first phone call I received from him, he called me once every week. I always sent his calls to voicemails, and he always left one. I had deleted every single one without listening.

I hadn’t told anyone about it, not Max or Lizzie, and not even Mason.

But perhaps I should.

If I told Max, I knew he could get my dad to leave me alone. And I think that was one of the reasons why I hadn’t told Max, yet. I didn’t know if I wanted my dad to leave me alone or not.

I shook my head and put the phone back in my purse. Everything was so messed up right now, but I doubted I would solve it standing out here in the cold.

I started to move to the coffee cart when out of nowhere I was hit on the shoulder by a mess of blonde hair and black clothes.

I almost fell from the impact, and when I looked over to see who had hit me, I found a girl running away.

It was below twenty degrees out, and this girl was dressed in nothing more than a thin black shirt and what appeared to be men’s black sweats, way too big for her.

And I didn’t know why, but I gave chase.

“Hey, wait up!”

The girl moved faster. For such a tiny thing, she moved pretty damn fast.

But I was faster.

I caught up to her on the next block.

She glared at me when I placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t touch me!”

I raised both hands up. Despite her mean tone, I could tell she was scared of me. And I didn’t know what to make of that. I was the most nonthreatening person out there, and my earlier assumption was wrong, the girl wasn’t really tiny. She had at least three inches on me, though I probably weighed more than she did. Hell, Lizzie probably weighed more than she did, pre-pregnancy.

My heart hurt as I took her in. She was around my age, and I think she was homeless.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She scoffed. “I wasn’t scared.” She looked me up and down, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. “What do you want.”

“Huh? Oh, you probably think it’s weird that I chased you down the street.” I offered a smile, but it felt more like a grimace in my face.

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