“Oh, please stop,” I said. “I’m going to throw up.”
“Excuse me?”
I looked at her. “You heard me. I don’t want to hear about your sex life.”
“Well then tell me about yours,” she said.
I laughed. “I don’t have one. I mean, at the moment.”
“Oh, right. You’re still on the revenge path. Like a snail…”
“Really?” I asked. “I’ll have you know, things are going exactly to plan.”
“Yeah? Is that why you’ve been in bed for, what, two days? Three days? How long has it been since you left the house?”
I drank more coffee and mentally flipped my mother the middle finger.
“You don’t want to talk about it,” she said. “Fine.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” I said. “I’m handling things.”
“And then what? What’s the big finale here, Winter? You just magically remember one day? Then what?”
“I haven’t figured it out yet,” I said. “As long as they suffer…”
“You really think they can suffer?”
“You’re the one who’s been all over this,” I said.
“I mean, from the outside, this is amazing. But I keep having these feelings, Winter. I think… I think I might be a decent mother.”
I laughed. “Now there’s the joke of the day. Thanks for that laugh. I really needed-”
The doorbell rang.
“Who the fuck is that?” my mother asked.
“How would I know?” I asked.
“Go answer the door.”
“Why me?”
“I’m not wearing a bra,” my mother said. She stepped back and pointed to her chest. “You see these things? I’ll give someone a heart attack. Or a hard on…”
I groaned and hurried out of the kitchen.
I’d rather deal with whatever was at the door than my mother talking like she was.
It wasn’t even the sex talk that bothered me. It was that what she said was true.
That she was getting it and I wasn’t.
Even though I knew I had Talon just one text away.
Trocs and Bumps didn’t fuck each other, but Talon could be an exception.
He took the edge off once… right?
I cringed at how much my mind sounded like my mother’s.
I opened the door and a tall, skinny man stood there with a large bouquet of flowers. And a box of chocolate.
“I’ll go get-”
“Winter?” the man asked.
“What’s that?”
“I’m looking for Winter… Winter Semen?”
My eyes went wide. “Excuse me?”
“Do I have the wrong house?”
“I’m Winter,” I said. “My last name is Seacrum. Not Semen.”
“Oh, my apologies,” the man said. “The order was placed that way. These are for you.”
I had to put my coffee mug down so I could hold the flowers and the chocolates.
The delivery man wished me a good day and left.
I stood with the door open and looked around for the tag to know who sent it.
“Who was… holy shit…”
My mother was now next to me.
I put my head back and sighed.
“Those are for you?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said. “I don’t know who se-”
“Here’s the card,” she said.
She grabbed it and opened the tiny envelope.
“Oh, wow,” she said. “This is… interesting.”
“What?” I asked.
“Winter… hope to see you soon. Things aren’t the same when you’re not around. Don’t forget about me… there’s a winky guy face thing. And then it says… oh… wow…”
“What?” I yelled.
“It’s from Noah,” my mother said.
“What?” I asked.
“Stop saying what,” she said to me.
I hurried to put the flowers and chocolates down.
I grabbed the card from her.
I read it myself.
It was from Noah. For real.
I swallowed hard.
This was part of a game, right? It had to have been. Sending me flowers and acting sweet to keep me close. To confuse me. To throw my mind and heart around a little.
I heard my mother laugh.
“What’s so funny to you?” I asked.
“Yeah, it looks like you really have things under control here, Winter,” she said.
She walked away, shaking her head.
Okay, fine, maybe things were a little hectic at the moment.
But the fact that I wasn’t around proved they were still skittish.
Easton had purposely walked by the beach house last night.
And now Noah sent flowers.
They were thinking of me. They knew the truth. They didn’t know I knew the truth too.
This was fine.
Just fine.
I reached down and grabbed the chocolates.
I would eat those for sure.
For good measure, I ripped up the card and let it fall to the floor in pieces.
Chapter 2
the middle of the truth
I walked the beach. Alone.
I felt bloated and gross after eating too many of the chocolates from Noah.
Maybe that was part of his plan too.
Who knew what anyone was planning, right?
There was just too much happening at once in my head.
Not in reality though.
For all I knew, everything could have been nice and quiet and in place around me.
Inside my head it was a storm.
I was anxious as anything.
There was no way I could hide in my room, the beach house or on the beach for the rest of my life.
That meant some big decisions needed to be made.
I could stay and keep going.
Or I could stay and admit I remembered.
I could play it off though… that I remembered everything except the accident.
I looked that up on my phone and that happened a lot to people. If they were in a terrible car accident or something, they’d come to and be just fine but have no recollection of the accident itself.
Why didn’t I just do that from the beginning?
“Because the accident wasn’t an accident at all,” I said.
I couldn’t do that.
But I could just leave.
Go back to the castle and make a new plan for my life.
Without a doubt I could call Dad and tell him what I wanted to do and he would support it.
Again… that wouldn’t finish what was started here.
I had this urge to stay.
Like I needed to stay.
It wouldn’t feel right to just leave. Like I was running from Noah, Easton, and Xavier. I liked them on their toes. I wanted to hurt them more. I wanted to make sure-
“Beep! Beep!” a voice yelled from behind me.
I jumped out of the way and turned.
Gia ran right by me like I wasn’t even there.
My instinct was to run after her.
My feet started moving but I stopped myself.
I gently reminded myself what happened the last time I tried to chase her down.
She was gone in seconds.
I had no idea how she could run that fast on the beach.
I opened my mouth to yell for her, but that was pointless.
She was gone.
And she had earbuds in her ears when she ran by me.
At the same time… what the fuck was the point of that?
To remind me that she could run fast? To remind me that she was still near me?
My heart climbed into my throat.
There was nothing I could do about Gia right now.
I turned and walked back to the beach house.
I climbed the steps of the deck and went inside.
There was a note from my mother.
She had gone out already.
And she wasn’t planning on coming back tonight.
It was nice of her to leave some money on the counter, but I still had plenty of money hidden under my bed.
I threw her note out and the doorbell rang again.
I let out a yell when I heard the noise.
All I could picture was Noah sending me more flowers.
But it wasn’t flowers. It had nothing to do with Noah at all.
It was Val.
Gia’s mom.
“Winter,” she said. “I was hoping to see you.”
“Me? Why?”
“I wanted to check up on you,” Val said. “Haven’t seen you…”
“Oh. Right. I’m fine. Just, you know, womanly issues.”
“I have a remedy for that,” Val said. “I wish I knew. I could have made you a drink. It tastes really bad but it’s worth it. Takes the cramps away instantly.”
“Oh, wow. Well, thanks anyway.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Val asked.
“I… well… how’s Gia?”
“Gia?” Val asked. “She’s out for her run.”
“Yeah. I saw her. This time I didn’t try to chase her. Learned my lesson.”
Val smiled. “She’s something else, isn’t she? And don’t mind her lately. She goes through her ups and downs. I’ve been helping her. Just give it time. She’ll come around.”
I nodded. “I hope so. I do miss her.”
Val sighed. “I’m sorry about that. Just be there for her.” Val took a deep breath. “Anyway. I just wanted to check on you. And, honestly, I hope you don’t give up on Gia. She means well. Don’t hate her.”
“I don’t hate her,” I said. “I haven’t been feeling good myself.”
“Okay. Good. I feel better now. If you ever need anything for cramps or headaches, I’ve got you covered. I love your mother but she doesn’t believe in my stuff. She’ll just take the pills and drugs and be happy. Which is fine. I just think there’s other ways around it.”
“Thank you. Again. Thanks.”
Val put her hands together and backed away.
I shut the door.
The last few days had been really weird.
Today was even weirder.
The weirdest part of the day was how lonely and quiet it was for me.
No calls. No texts.
No seeing my mother.
No other surprises from Noah or Easton.
No word from Xavier either.
Gia… Talon…
The list went on and on.
I sat outside and read a book for a little while.
I ate when I was hungry.
I drank when I was thirsty.
The hours moved by at a steady pace.
Like the waves of the ocean and time were linked up.
It was right about when I had that thought I realized I was slipping.
Seclusion was not my thing.
I caved and got myself a real drink and grabbed my phone to text Gia.
We really need to talk.
I sent the text and waited.
I finished my first drink and she never replied to me.
So I helped myself to a second one.
Then I sent her another text.
You have no idea what this all means to me. This isn’t a game, Gia.
That text was sent.
And Gia never replied to that one either.
I took that as all the answer I needed.
I worked my way into a third drink and when I got tired, I went to my room, drink in hand, talking to the walls, giggling, and crashing down to my bed.
When my eyes shut, they… shut…
I fell asleep, hard.
I could feel my body sleeping hard.
I could almost hear myself snoring.
I even dared myself to have that dream again, but it never came.
There was no dream.
The first time in days where I didn’t have that awful dream of being in the hallways of BFH.
It was a glorious sleep.
One that was interrupted by the buzzing of my phone on the nightstand.
I lifted my head and felt like someone punched me in the forehead.
The worst part was that it was just after eleven.
That meant my sleep schedule was going to be messed up for the rest of the night now.
“Shit,” I whispered.
I saw the text message and groaned.
It was from Talon.
Need to see you.
That was followed by another one.
On my way.
Then a third one was waiting too.
I’m here.
I jumped up at that text.
The room spun for a second as my fingers tried to find the phone screen.
I groaned.
And I heard a noise behind me.
I looked over my shoulder…
Talon was in my bedroom.
I stood and turned.
I threw my phone to the bed and looked down at myself to make sure I was properly dressed.
Luckily I had gotten tipsy enough that I kept all my clothes on when I crashed to the bed.
“What are you doing here?” I snapped.
“I sent you a text, darling,” Talon said.
“You sent three.”
“So?”
“All at once?”
“No. Check the time.”
I leaned forward and looked down at my phone.
Talon had sent the three texts at different times.
I must have been sleeping so hard the third one was the one that woke me up.
Which was good.
Last thing I needed was Talon in my room while I was sleeping.
You never knew what a Troc was capable of.
I shivered.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Haven’t heard from you,” he said. “Haven’t seen you either.”
“Aw, you miss me?”
“Something like that,” he said.
“I’m never going to fuck you, Talon.”
“I didn’t come here for that, Winter,” Talon said. “Plus, you look like hell right now. Were you drinking?”
“No.”
Talon pointed to the glass on the nightstand.
“That’s water,” I said.
I grabbed the glass and downed the vodka in it.
I wasn’t sure why I felt like I had to prove myself to him.
The vodka burned and I coughed.
Talon laughed.
“Yeah, I get it. I sometimes choke when I’m drinking water too.”
I lifted my middle finger at him.
He climbed onto my bed, on his knees.
He was so bad and inviting.
A bad boy dream. The worst kind of guy to get close to.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I told myself at least I wouldn’t get hurt by him.
I shook my head.
“What’s wrong, darling?” Talon asked.
“Again, what do you want?” I asked. “I’m tired. I don't feel good.”
“I want to know what we’re doing here,” he said. “We can’t give up now. We're just getting going.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m thinking. Okay?”
“Thinking? That takes time. We don’t have time. And if we do have time, then time is money…”
I nodded. “You came here for money. Scumbag.”
“Who? Me?”
Talon loved it.
He loved being called dirty and scummy.
That’s how Trocs acted.
They reveled in it.
“Why should I fucking pay you?” I asked. “You made me throw the rock at Xavier’s window. I could have done that myself.”
“But you didn’t,” Talon said. “You needed me there to get the courage to do it.”
“You…” I sighed. “What’s next then?”
“For?”
“Noa
h, Easton, and Xavier,” I said. “What’s next?”
“Well, we’re in their heads. They’re jumpy but not worried. Now we can make them worried.”
“How?”
“Money first, action later, darling,” Talon said.
“You tell me something first. I’m done with this.”
“Oh, so now you're going to stand up to me?” Talon asked.
“Yeah. Maybe I am. Fuck this.”
“Fuck this is right,” Talon said. “Why don't we go tell them everything? I’ll bring some of my guys. We’ll have a good Trocs against Bumps fight.”
“What would that prove?”
“Nothing. I just feel like fighting someone.”
“Then go jump someone and blame it on Noah again.”
“Okay,” Talon said. “Pay me and it’s done.”
“I was kidding,” I said. “You fucking Troc psycho.”
“Call me whatever you want, darling, I still want to get paid.”
“Paid for what?” I asked.
I was tired, sort of drunk, sort of hungover, and everything was confusing.
In other words, I was in the mood for a fight.
“Are we really going to do this again?”
“Yeah, we are,” I said. “Maybe I’m done with all of this bullshit. Who cares anymore?”
“You do,” Talon said.
He started to shuffle across the bed, on his knees, toward me.
This was my room. My bed. My house.
As he inched closer, I started to feel like I was the one in someone else’s house.
“You know how this ends up, Winter,” he whispered.
“And how’s that?” I asked.
Talon reached for my face.
The touch of his fingertips to my cheeks sent ripples through my body.
In some crazy way where I tried to justify everything, I told myself Talon wasn’t all that bad. He knew my secret. He kept it.
He took money to keep that secret, Winter…
Talon’s fingers touched the back of my head.
“We’re going to argue,” Talon whispered. “We’re going to love arguing too. You’re going to call me a Troc. I’m going to call you a Bump. You’re going to break down and give me the cash. Life goes on. Trust me, Winter, I know how this… goes…”
Talon stayed in place.
I was the one who was suddenly inching toward him.
I caught myself but still didn’t stop.
Just before our lips touched, I heard a noise outside my bedroom.
Damaged Love (Bay Falls High NEXT Book 2) Page 2