Anna closes and locks the door, then comes to sit next to me on the couch.
“Do you want to talk about it?” She asks me.
“No,” I respond then bury my head in her shoulder and snuggle back in with her.
“Okay, I’ll let you bury your head, literally, for now but eventually you’re going to have to work through this. The guys are all best friends and unless you’re ready to ignore Nic, Jay, Kiran and Jax too then you’re going to have to see Jeremy.”
She’s so smart, and right but I don’t want to be logical right now.
“I will, I’ll deal with it all soon, when it’s a little less raw, okay?” I ask.
She wraps her arm around me and pulls me in close.
“Okay, deal. Now back to reality TV.”
Seven
Aly
I feel absolutely, completely and utterly uncomfortable and I can’t figure out why. No matter what I do, it’s a sensation I can’t escape.
I’ve tried showering, exercising, moving positions and trying to distract myself but nothing works. On top of that, all I can think about is Jeremy and the guys. Mostly Jeremy and how he looked when I left, how he doesn’t want me.
It’s like a shooting pain in my heart every few minutes when I think of it.
He’s come by a couple more times, trying to talk with me but Anna keeps sending him away at my request. Apparently, he’s getting more and more insistent every time he comes. He’s also called and texted around a million times, all the guys have, but I ignored them until eventually I turned off my phone.
It’s too much, I wanted space to figure out and think things through, on my own. I do feel a little bad when they are clearly insistent that they need to talk with me. I wonder if there’s something more they need to tell me? They’re probably just worried I’m going to tell someone but I’m not naive, I know I can’t do that.
Anna has been an angel, the best, best friend a girl could ask for. Having to deal with these guys is a full time job right now and she’s taking over all of it. They’re all trying to convince her to let them talk to me but she’s respecting my wishes and holding strong. After this, I owe her, at the very least, a night out.
I know she wants to go hang out with her guy but she’s stayed here to be supportive. I’ve told her a million times to go but she’s made do with texting him instead. I don’t think I deserve a best friend like her.
Bailey has been incredibly anxious, clearly mirroring my own emotions. He’s an extremely empathetic dog and I need to be careful I’m not letting him feel too much. Anna has also been amazing by helping me take care of him. She keeps trying to calm him down with walks but apparently he just keeps pulling her back home.
I decide to take a nice long bath to relax, with all the works. A glass of wine, bubbles, candles and relaxing music. Sometimes a girl just needs an excellent bubble bath to make everything better. Once I get it all set up, I settle in and try to clear my mind but it just keeps coming back to Jeremy. It’s like I’m obsessed and I don’t understand why. Is it the mating bond? Could it be making me feel this way? It must be, because I never felt this obsessed with him before. I guess, I don’t actually know anything about it or how it’s effecting me. Is there any chance that’s why they are trying so hard to get a hold of me?
I shake the thoughts out of my brain, I am trying to relax right now. I can pick them back up again after my bath. I need a chance to clear my head and shake this feeling, not overthink things and make everything worse.
I start playing with the bubbles, making little piles and blowing them around. Hoping the activity will distract me. It works for a little but as the bubbles clear some, I see something darker under the water.
It catches my eye, but at first I just ignore it, assuming it’s a shadow. But when I see it again, I clear the bubbles more to see what it is. I’m shocked to see it’sonme.
I rinse the area, sitting up suddenly when I realize there’s something on my rib. It’s like a tattoo of some kind but I don’t have any tattoos. I’ve always wanted some but I know that even drunk, I’ve never followed through on that desire.
I jump out of the bath and rush over to the mirror, to get a closer look. I can see it more clearly in the mirror but at first I’m still not sure what it is. It reminds me of something I’ve seen on TV shows before, a pentagram? I quickly pull out my phone and google it. The images that pop up are eerily similar, so I guess it’s a pentagram inked into the skin over my ribs. I’m absolutely shocked, how did this get there? I continue my google search to see what it is or means. One website tells me it’s the mark of a demon, another tells me it’s how you summon a demon. So it’s related to a demon of some kind?
Then it hits me and I’m furious. This is from Jeremy! Does he know it’s here? Did he do it on purpose? Is it part of the mating bond or something else? The questions all race through my head and I realize there’s only one way I’m going to get answers to these questions. I need to ask the boys. Which means I need to face them and learn more about what’s going on.
I want to see their faces when I ask, especially Jeremy’s. I want to know what his reaction is when I ask him what this mark is. I’m not feeling warm towards him right now so I need to know he’s not lying. I have to head over there in person and catch them all off guard, then I can find out what’s going on, starting with this mark.
I lean in to poke the spot, wondering if it’ll feel any different and as soon as I do, I feel a stronger connection to Jeremy. I can feel him freaking out, his worry and stress and for a minute I feel bad for him. Before I realize that means thismustbe a connection to him.
That confirms my assumption but there is only one way to find out for sure.
Eight
Kiran
