AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Whatever this is… whatever you’re doing here?” he murmured, his voice gravel. “It won’t change the way you feel, Alissa. And I fucking know you felt something.”
I wiped my face bare of emotion.
“You’re wrong, Pretty Boy,” I said, my voice devoid of any obvious inflection that might discredit my claim. “I don’t feel anything. I never did.”
He stood and watched me, those eyes intense, searching for a fracture in my façade. Then he blew out a breath and said, “For a second there, I thought you were actually capable of feeling something. Guess I was wrong.”
He scrubbed a hand over his jaw and gave me one last long look. “See you around, Snow Queen.”
Not today. Not again. A handful of weeks and high school would be over. A few months, and I’d put Claremont in my rear-view, Leon Bradshaw with it.
My emotions wouldn’t get a say; I was made of fucking ice, right?
So why did it feel like boiling acid lined my stomach, burning a hole through it as I watched him stroll away?
THIRTEEN
LEON
I stepped out of my truck and pushed the door closed, glancing up at the midday sun through squinted eyes as I approached Ren’s trailer. Three months had passed since graduation, and I’d either been on a construction site, or here. I rapped my knuckles against the thin pane of glass, a quick succession of sharp taps that cut through the quiet trailer park, then closed my hand around the knob. I pushed and shifted forward, expecting the door to give. When I met resistance, my brow furrowed, and I took a small step back before knocking my fists against it again. After a minute with no response, I cupped my hands around my face and peered through into the darkened interior of Reno’s trailer. It was hard to make out much with every window covered, but there were no signs of life inside.
I knew he was in there. He’d barely left since April. In the days following his and Ri’s big showdown at Lissa’s party, Ren’s world came crashing down on top of him for a second time. The guy was still breathing, but that was about it. A familiar sense of unease spiked through me as soon as the thought entered my head. The worry that one day I might come by and he might not answer… because he couldn’t.
I paced back to the truck and grabbed the spare key before jogging back to Ren’s door and twisting it in the lock. My pulse skittered around under my skin as I pushed the door open.
“Reno?” My eyes scoured the dim room, adjusting slowly to the lack of light. The place was a mess—empty bottles and cans littered the floor and table, trash overflowed from the can. “Ren?”
My legs felt heavy as I strode through the hall, trepid
ation building like a storm and bringing with it a cloying sickness that settled in my gut. I paused with my fingers clenched around the bedroom doorknob and drew in an uneasy breath of musty air.
“Ren, you in there?”
He needed to fucking answer, make a noise, tell me to fuck off. Anything. My body buzzed with nervous energy, the kind that zipped through your veins and made every heartbeat a boom of thunder in your head.
Fucking open the door, asshole.
I gave it a hard shove.
Reno lay face down, limbs sprawled out across the twin bed, one leg hanging over the edge.
“Ren?”
His arm shifted, and he emitted a low groan. Relief flooded me, and I swiped a clammy palm down my face. I took a few seconds to let my heart rate calm, then stormed across the room and jabbed a fist into Ren’s shoulder. Enough was enough.
“Get the fuck up.”
“Go ‘way,” he grumbled, his voice muffled by the pillow.
“Nope. Not today. Get your ass out of bed. We’re cleaning this shithole up and getting you a goddamn shower because you look like you stink.” I leaned in and took a quick sniff, wincing at the smell of stale beer. “Christ. You smell worse than you look if that’s possible. We’re getting you the fuck out of this pit of doom, Ren. Whether you like it, or not.”
“Fuck off.” He grabbed the pillow from underneath him and wrapped it around his head.
I snatched it out of his hands and tossed it across the room. “Whine all you want, asshole. I got all day for this shit. Ain’t going nowhere. You want rid of me, get your lazy ass up and fucking make it happen.”
“I’m gonna fucking kill you.” His fist shot out, narrowly missing my kidney.
“Yeah? If it gets you up, go for it.” I reached out and clipped the back of my hand across his head.
