AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Fuck it, I knew I’d just said I wasn’t going to do it, but I really needed to get stoned for the rest of this conversation. It wasn’t anything like how I thought it was going to go, and I still wasn’t sure if it was a good or a bad thing yet.
She chewed on her bottom lip as she watched me dig through my bag. I pulled out my silver cigarette case and cracked it open. It was full of pre-rolled joints and a gold Zippo lighter. I popped the Zippo out along with a joint.
I held the open case out to Ariel in offering, and she surprised the shit out of me when she plucked out a joint.
When Rain asked me about how this went down, giving his daughter drugs wasn’t something I would ever tell him about. I hoped she wouldn’t throw me under the bus and would take it to her grave as well.
I flicked my Zippo open, held my joint up to my lips, sparked up, and inhaled the sickly sweet smoke. I passed the lighter over to Ariel and sat back in my chair.
We both smoked in silence. I had no idea what she was thinking about, but my eyes were drawn to the water, and bad thoughts were starting to creep into my brain.
“I’m sorry for being a huge bitch,” Ariel said after a few minutes, breaking the silence.
My eyes snapped to her as I completely forgot about the water, and my mouth dropped open. That wasn’t what I was expecting to come out of her mouth.
“I’m fucked up,” she admitted while puffing away at her joint. “I mean, I always knew I was, but I’ve recently realized it’s even worse than I had originally thought. I need some serious fucking stability in my life and absolutely no more trauma. Your new relationship threatens that stability, because if it goes south, that’s going to have a negative effect on not just Rain but both Baxter and Romero as well. I’ve fought so hard for my family, Isobel. We all have. To have finally found some semblance of peace and a whole lot of happiness now, well, it’s something I’m going to fight tooth and nail to hold onto.”
I could easily understand where she was coming from, and I wished she had just explained it like this from the start. That would have made things so much easier.
Apparently, we female witches didn’t like to do things the easy way. Glad to know it wasn’t just me.
“I’m not going to hurt or fuck with your family,” I told her honestly. This next part was going to hurt so badly for me to say becauseshehad thoroughly ruined it for me, and it had been something that had started to plug those holes in my heart that I hadn’t even realized were there until they’d started being filled in. “I’m not going to do anything that’s going to hurtourfamily, Ariel. And that’s how I see us, even if you no longer do or never have.”
I could say so much more, but I had to stop myself. I had to think about Rain and keep my tongue in check, even if it killed a small piece of my pride or whatever you wanted to call it.
“Isobel,” she said in a pained voice as she reached across the table for me. She clasped hold of my hand, and even though I really wanted to wrench my hand away from her, I held steady and let her hold my hand.
It was uncomfortable as fuck, but I did not pull my hand back from hers. We weren’t at a place where we should be holding hands, at least that was what I thought. Clearly she thought differently. Go figure.
“I’m so fucking sorry,” she whispered in a voice that actually cracked. Her green eyes shone brightly with tears, and if she fucking cried on me, I didn’t think I’d be able to take it.
I’d have to leave her here all alone with her tears and her bullshit.
“I fucked up so much with you, and I can’t even explain to you why I said that. You and Iarefamily, and that has not one thing to do with whether or not you do end up in a relationship with Rain. From the very first time I got sucked into your dream slash nightmare, I think you’ve meant a lot to me. Wearefamily. I share things with you that no one else will ever understand. To me, you’re almost like my sister.”
I let go of her hand and jerked mine back to my side of the table. I placed my hands in my lap and stared her down.
Sister.
I thought not.
If I were her sister, then wanting to fuck her father would be oh so wrong on so many different levels.
I had smoked my joint down to a roach, and to make sure I didn’t drink any more of it, I dropped the roach into my glass of water. Ariel copied me and dropped hers into my glass as well. Normally I would stub them out and keep them, but I didn’t have the time for that shit today. I had to get out of here and fast.
This was turning into a real shit show, and I didn’t want her trying to hug me next or something. She’d apologized to me, and I had accepted it. Now it was time to move on.
Rain should be happy with how things had gone here today, and that was all that I cared about at the moment.
“Listen,” I said as I pushed my chair back and stood up. “This is done, squashed, it’s over. We’re moving on from it. We both love your dad, and we’re going to make it work for him. Just, please, don’t fuck me over like that again, and it’ll all be good. I don’t think I’ll be so forgiving next time.”
“Isobel, you should sit down, because we should probably talk about Finn.”
Yeah, that wouldn’t be happening today. Not if she wanted the two of us to remain on peaceful, friendly terms.
“Everything okay over there, Bells?”
I turned around to see both Toby and Baylie standing in their yard, watching me. It was sweet that they were checking on me.
