Page 84 of Run Away Home: Tempered

I jump up.

“Okay, I’m up. Let’s go.”

“What do you mean, not with me?” she asks.

“I want the bed to myself tonight. You can sleep in your own bed.”

“Why?”

“Maybe he wants to stretch out...or maybe you fart in your sleep. Ever think of that?” I ask Hayley.

“Enough, Danny,” Peter replies. “Let’s go.”

He walks down the stairs, opens the front door, and walks outside. Hayley and I both look at each other for a few seconds. I quickly follow behind Peter.

Peter

“I’M LEAVING!”

“You don’t have to yell, Danny. I can hear you,” I say as I walk into the living room.

“Okay, bye.”

“Have a good day. I love you.”

“Was it nice having your bed all to yourself again?” He holds tightly to the straps of his backpack and smiles. He’s really enjoying this.

“Wonderful.”

“Nice. Love you too. Bye!”

I watch him walk out the door, then I head back into my bedroom. I’ve collected all of Hayley’s things neatly in a plastic tub. I pick it up and make my way into her old room. She doesn’t have the door closed. I drop the tub on the floor. She’s sitting up on her bed with her back against the headboard.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she says. “What’s that?”

“It’s all your shit.”

“Why are you kicking me out of your room?”

“Because we’re done. That’s it.”

“Why?”

Like she doesn’t already know.

“Because! I was trying to work last night, and somehow Tristian managed to get my number out of your phone. He told me that he FUCKED YOU on Wednesday.”

Her eyes grow wider, and she raises her eyebrows. She brings her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them. She takes a deep breath and starts to cry, shoving her face into her legs.

“I didn’t mean to!” she says without removing her face from her thighs. “It was just supposed to be two friends getting high together...but it turned into—”

“What happened to quitting?”

“I can’t do it. I tried! I keep going back.”

“Just stay away from me for a little while, okay?” I turn around to walk away.

“It was a mistake!” she yells in between tears.

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