Landon almost looks… annoyed?
“When did you start liking twinks? He’s a little pretty and girly for your taste, no?” he presses, and something ugly and hot turns over in my gut.
Not only because I feel incredibly judged, but because it feels as if he’s judgingAtlas,who was nothing but kind to Landon.
“He’s my boss’s son,” I counter, narrowing my eyes at his green ones. My expression is telling him to shut the fuck up, but he doesn’t listen.
Landonneverlistens.
“Have you put hands on him?” he asks.
I say nothing. I can’t lie to him, he knows this, and I technicallydidlay hands on him when I pinned him to my bedroom door and told him I’d fuck him better than his made-up boyfriend ever could.
But luckily, I don’t have to speak as Susie comes to my rescue.
“Is that your business, Lan? Jeez, you guys really have to stop running in circles like this. Give it up, okay?” she complains,except it kind of sounds like she’s pleading, and her nervous eyes are drilling into a glaring Landon.
“Maybe itisabout time I give it up,” he says, and his tone is harsh, poisonous.
I find myself flinching, taking one solid step backward. My eyes widen, my heart pausing as if it craves to miss a beat or two.
Is Landon aware that speaking those words might kill me? Does he knowwhythey hold that power?And if he does, will he tell me? Because I can’t for the life of me sort out why I’m hurting as badly as I am in this moment.
“That’s what you want, isn’t it, Julie?” he asks. “After all of these years, you want me to set you free?”
What has shifted in him in the past handful of hours? From the moment I left him in that bathroom until now, what has happened to him to turn him intothis? Angry, resentful, detached.
Or maybe he’s just doing exactly what I’ve always asked him to do. He’s moving on.
I nod. “Yes.”
Something akin to agony passes through his green eyes, the muscles of his face twitching for a brief second. Then, as if he never reacted at all, he is expressionless.
“Consider it done, Julian. Whatever you want, consider it done.”
Susie and Landon spend the rest of the day at Chastain Castle. Other than a brief encounter with Theodora (in which Susie fallsinstantly in love with her), we don’t run into any other staff or residents.
It’s almost as if they’ve been directed to leave us alone—to let us enjoy our time together—which I find highly unlikely yet entirely possible with how quiet the estate is.
Landon doesn’t mention Atlas again or his moving on from me romantically. Things are coated with a layer of tension, but we ignore it, soaking in as much time together as possible while the three of us still can.
And when the sun begins to set, I walk the two of them to the front door, an ache forming in my stomach as the realization that they’re really leaving begins to settle in.
It might be hard sometimes—the situation with Landon, I mean—but they’re still my childhood best friends. I love them; a part of me is left empty when they’re gone.
Susie is who I went to with all of my embarrassing puberty questions; Landon had more sleepovers in my bed throughout the years than I spent the night alone.
Without them, it feels as if a large chunk of my childhood doesn’t exist anymore. Being around them makes everything feel normal and comfortable. And knowing what I might be returning to once the moon rises, Ireallywant some comfort right now.
“I’m gonna miss you so much, Julian,” Susie whispers, sniffling in my ear as she holds me to her. “We’ll visit again soon, okay?”
I nod, patting her hand where it rests against my shoulder. “I’m going to miss you too.”
After a moment, she lets me go, wiping under her eyes as she takes a few steps away to allow Landon some space.
When he steps up to me, he’s wearing that carefully blank expression.
“You’re going to leave mad?” I ask him, trying not to disclose any of my own emotions.
