Page 16 of Indigo

Thankfully, she’s a tiny thing, so she doesn’t get too far before I catch up. I take her arm in mine but release her immediately when she hisses from the contact and tries to jerk away from my grasp.

“Shit. Sorry.” I cringe, realising I grabbed her in the same spot Michael did earlier and it must have hurt her.

She stops, nods, accepting my apology, but doesn’t turn her head, just stares at her car.

“Blue, I just want to take you home,” I whisper, hoping she can hear the sincerity in my voice.

“My car is right there. It’s fine. I’m a big girl. I can make it home. This was a favour to my mum. I get it. Thank you for sitting with me while I got my shit together. I’m sure you’ve got places to be.”

I groan. “I didn’t meantake youhometo your apartment. I meanthome. Let me help.” I shift so that my chest presses against her back. “Can’t leave you here, Blue. Please don’t ask me to.” With a sigh, I add, “Lana may have told me about the dinner tonight, but she isn’t why I’m here. She didn’t ask me to come.”

Silence is all I’m met with, and her entire body tenses as I hold my breath and wait for her to respond.

When she finally turns to face me, I take a step back so that she can look up and meet my eyes. “You’re serious, aren’t you?” She looks mystified, as if she can’t believe I’d even suggest the idea. I see a flash of pain cross her face, as if she’s replaying a memory in her mind. Crossing her arms, putting a barrier between her and me, she asks, “Why the hell would you want that?

“You know why.”

Hunching her shoulders, she moves further away from me, and I feel the distance between us. “You told me to come here, Pax. I laid all my shit bare for you four years ago and you said no. I don’t need rescuing, if that’s what this is.” She gestures between us, uncrossing her arms. “I’m doing just fine on my own and if I choose to go home, it’ll be because I want to, not because your hero complex is telling you not to leave me here.”

“Blue,” I say, reaching for her.

“No,” she snaps, pointing at me, her hand trembling.

I fucking hate the look on her face and the hesitancy in her eyes when she turns them on me.

I run my hands through my hair, tugging at the roots, and something in me just snaps. “I couldn’t ask you to stay, don’t you get that? Couldn’t come with you. What did you want me to do? I was dealing with some heavy shit. You don’t even know the half of it, Blue. Jesus, if you did… I don’t know. Maybe I should have fucking handled it better, explained everything, but all I saw when you told me you wanted me, that you loved me, was the girl I’d spent my life protecting, the girl I’d spent my life adoring, telling me she’d give up all her hopes and dreams for me.Me, of all fucking people.” I sigh and look up to the sky, lacing my hands behind my head for a moment.

A small shove of my chest makes me look down as Indie growls, actually growls at me, and turns to leave again.

“Spare me the ‘I did it for your own good’ speech,” she calls over her shoulder, anger radiating from her as she reaches for the door handle of her car.

As the headlights flash, showing that she’s unlocked it, I call out, “Don’t you dare get in that car, Indigo.”

She doesn’t stop, and by the time I reach her, she’s slid herself into the driver’s seat and closed the door.

“Blue,” I warn as she starts the engine and puts the car in drive.

She turns and looks at me through the window, and I almost fall to my knees from the look on her face. “Don’t,” she snaps, her voice muffled by the glass separating us. I can see the tears brimming in her eyes, the way her bottom lip trembles as she pulls it into her mouth with her teeth, trying to contain her emotions. “Just don’t.”

“Fuck,” I whisper to myself as her car creeps forward.

She shouldn’t be driving upset. I shouldn’t have fucking upset her. This isn’t how this was all meant to go.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper to the empty parking lot, feeling the words down to my core. “I never meant to hurt you.”

-5-

INDIGO

I'M CERTAIN OF TWOthings right now.

One, that Mum sent Pax to check in on me, and that’s the only reason the man bothered to show his face after four damn years, and two, the person incessantly knocking on my front door while I pace back and forth in front of my dark grey couch is the man in question.

After leaving him hanging for a few more minutes, I open the door. I don’t bother greeting him, I just move to the side and let him pass, looking all kinds of pissed off and determined, and wait for the lecture to begin.

“Nice place,” he murmurs as he runs his hand along my white dining room table.

“Thanks,” I reply, not really taking it as much of a compliment, considering all the furniture in this place is my father’s, and not even close to my taste.

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