Page 7 of Spark

“Yes?” I said, raising my eyebrows and looking at him expectedly.

He sighed deeply and relaxed his shoulders. “What are you doing, Jaden?” he asked me gently.

I furrowed my brows. “What are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“No, asshole, I don’t.”

Sid sighed again and rolled his eyes, like that would make this conversation any easier for him.

“You’ve been acting like some spoiled child ever since Darren left the island. Don’t think I haven’t been monitoring your behavior. I’ve been watching very closely,” he said.

It was my turn to roll my eyes. “What do you care?”

“I care because, believe it or not, I do want you to get better, Jaden.”

I scoffed at him. “Sure, you do.” I snickered, folding my arms across my chest and leaning back.

“And I’m not the only one who cares, Jaden. Darren cares very much for yo—”

“Fuck. Him,” I said sharply, cutting him off. I couldn’t give a fuck less about whether he thought Darren cared about me. The only thing Darren cared about was controlling me.

Sid rubbed his face in frustration. “I know you’re angry, and I know you’re depressed, but is this any way to handle it?”

“And how do you suggest I handle it, doc? The same way Darren suggests? He’ll die first,” I spat.

Sid cleared his throat before squaring his shoulders as if he was ready to give me some bullshit heart-to-heart speech.

“There is no changing your situation—”

“Wrong,” I dejected.

“But that doesn’t mean you can’t still thrive in it.”

I straight up glared at him. Thrive? Was he serious?

“I’m not allowed to thrive. In fact, I’m not even allowed to be having this conversation with you. Does Darren even know you’re here?”

“No, this conversation is just between you and me.”

“It won’t stay that way for long,” I replied. Darren always found out about everything.

“Something I’m sure he’ll understand if it doesn’t.”

I snorted. “Yeah, okay,” I said, turning my head to look out the window.

“Jaden, this is no way for you to live your life, and toying with your guards is just a childish way of distracting yourself from the real problem. You need to focus and get better. You need to get healthy again. Stronger again. We can help you.”

“No one can help me,” I muttered, my eyes lingering on the water that danced in the dark, almost reminding me of a certain pair of eyes I loathed.

“You’re not alone in this, Jaden. You have help—”

“Sid,” I said cutting him off sharply. “I am more alone now than I ever was before. Please don’t insult me by telling me otherwise because I won’t believe you.”

“Jaden, come on—”

“Just go,” I clipped, turning my head back to the window to hide the tear that slipped through.

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