I’d never admit it, not to his face, but I was relieved it was only him. For all the delicious tension that tended to settle between us, I didn't think he would try anything. On the first day, he'd said he'd only been joking and I’d believed him—I still believed him. It was an odd thought to have, or rather an unfamiliar one, but I felt...safe.
The butterflies began to rise inside my stomach and my mind went back to the boardroom once again. Whatever would happen between us needed to happen sooner rather than later. I couldn’t continue to be reduced to a puddle every time he drew near. It probably wasn’t good for my heart, or anything else inside me that went haywire whenever he was around.
"Keep it down or they'll hear us," he whispered.
My eyes remained fixed on him, catching the way his seemed to be drinking me in despite the poor lighting. An eternity passed with the two of us locked away in our own little world, the
"What?" I asked again, losing patience with this guessing game I'd somehow been forced into. Try as I did, I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary or worth driving your friends to the edge of insanity over. Our classmates were still making their way across the field and the coach was bringing in the rear. A scene so common shouldn't have had the power that it did to derail them. "This is a joke, right?" Hayley continued unhelpfully. Seeing my mounting frustration, Madelyn crouched by me and pointed to the opposite end of the field. When my eyes finally locked onto what I figured she must have been signalling, I felt I was still missing a big piece of whatever puzzle the others had b
"Don't play dumb," she warned, her eyes narrowing before they disappeared behind her pair of knees when she dipped. "What's your older sister's name?" "Lisa," I replied automatically, realising I would need to remember everything I said now to avoid true discovery. "Wrong, you don't have a sister. What city's your dad currently touring in?" The second question came too quickly. It gave me no time to come down from the statement that preceded it. Jonie wasn't guessing, she wasn't fishing for information. The girlknewsomething and the realisation of that created a pit
"Kai, talk to m—" "Hey, Kai do you have a partner?" a guy from my math class asked from across the table. He was oblivious to the tension that had begun to rise between us, unaware he'd walked into a minefield and was in danger of having one of us explode. In the end, it was Jayden. "Back off, man. Can't you see we're talking?" He was harsher than he needed to be for someone trying to force a conversation with someone who wasn't interested. "Relax, I was just asking a
"How long do I have?" "Huh?" "Look, we don't have to beat around the bush. You already know I don't have any money or anything else I could offer to keep you quiet so how long do I have before you blow my cover?" "Is that what you've been agonising over for the last week?" "Answer the question." "I haven't decided yet," she said after a moment of silence. "You're the most interesting
I didn't know what to say. Somewhere along the lines I'd gotten lost in my own thoughts and the results were plainly written on my face. In the moment, I was struggling to distinguish between Jayden and the boy I once thought I'd loved. They may as well had been the same person. Reality and delusional, which one did I believe? The more terrifying one, of course. "Kai? Kai. Listen, I dunno how anything I just said could've set you off, but it obviously did, so I'm sorry." My lips parted, ready to deny his assumptions and assure him I was fine, but he pressed on. "I dunno what kind of guys you ran into at your other schools—I'll have Jonie hand over those files later—but I prom
The rattling of my doorknob stopped me just shy of placing the earbuds in my ears and cranking up the volume. Quick as I could, I stashed the iPod back into its hiding place then reached for the French workbook that lay on my nightstand. If it was Mother, she was usually content to leave me to my schoolwork. Sometimes it was even enough to stay her hand when she was in an otherwise foul mood.It was Matt. He stuck his head in, giving only the shortest of cursory glances before his eyes landed on me. “Mom said you need to get the door.”It was all I could do to keep the look of incredulity from my face. Last I’d seen her, she was downstairs and in a better position to see who’d stopped by. The realisation left me considering that it may have been someone she was actively avoiding. In such a circumstance, she would never expose Matt to such unscrupulous individuals, but I was expendable. There was no harm in putting me on the front lines to clear
The three of us made our way to the table, Matt leading the charge as he often did. It must have been nice, having the confidence that whenever a meal was served it would be nourishing and have no lasting effects. There was never any fear when he sat, only anticipation for the warm meal so lovingly cooked he could almost taste our mother’s heart mixed in with the spices.Mom signalled my place at the table, the seat facing hers where she could look me in the eyes and watch me succumb to whatever trap she’d set. There was no point in protesting, no reason to raise an alarm. It was poisoned, I was nearly certain, but I’d still eat it. The alternative was offending her by refusing her food and that only ever made things worse. I would have to suffer through it with grace for the sake of our guest.I took the first bite.It didn’t taste bad; it never did. "Kai, are you alright?” Jayden asked, momentarily breaking from the
With all my energy focused on maintaining my composure, I chose to ignore his comments altogether. To think my family was anything shy of malevolent was a delusion I’d grown accustomed to. Mom was a good actress; it was how she avoided what would otherwise have been an insurmountable amount of child endangerment charges. Matt, while not so adept at playing different roles, was still baby-faced and excitable. It made it easier for people to forgive him, no matter the offense.I watched him pull his phone from his pocket, the latest model. Why wasn’t I surprised? It made sense he’d have only the best of everything with the way he carried himself."Shoot, can’t believe it’s that late already. Sorry, I