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With that, he walks away and leaves me alone with my best friend. I step in front of the room and tap quietly.
“Sav, it’s me. Grayson went downstairs. Let me in.”
It takes a few seconds, but finally, I hear the lock on the door click. I step inside, feeling my heart break as I find the girl who’s normally the strongest person I know in a broken mess on the floor. There may be a lot of things going through my mind right now, and I might have no idea how I’m going to handle Knox, not to mention my sociopathic uncle, but right here—in this room—the only thing that matters is her.
“Oh, Savi,” I weep, dropping down and wrapping her tightly in my arms. “I’m so sorry.”
Sobs rip through her body while her head rests on her shoulder. There’s nothing I can say, nothing I can do that will make this better, so instead, I run my fingers through her hair and hum her favorite song. Finally, when she starts to calm down, she giggles.
“You’re a horrible singer.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Says the girl who can’t carry a single note.”
She gets up with a heavy sigh, walking over to the mirror and cleaning the smeared mascara off her face. It doesn’t do much, but she looks a little less like a trash panda. When she’s done, the two of us sit on the bed.
“Can we go back to the times of playing hide and seek?”
I pull a face. “When you used to scare me for sport? No, thank you.”
She chuckles. “It wasn’t my fault you scared so easily. Besides, those days were so much simpler—when we were too young to know how scary the world is.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Those were better times.” I nudge her with my elbow. “Are you okay?”
Shrugging, she looks down at her hands. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s not even what he did that bothers me. It’s the fact that he lied about it. Is that fucked up? Does it make me a horrible person because I don’t hate him for killing my father?”
“No,” I assure her, because I honestly don’t believe it does. “You went through years of intense trauma brought on by your dad. I don’t think you’re required to feel any kind of sympathy or guilt for what happened to him.”
She thinks about it for a second then rolls her eyes. “I don’t know. This is just all sorts of fucked up.”
I chuckle dryly. “I know what you mean.”
As if she didn’t realize it before, her eyes soften as she looks at me. “How are you holding up?”
It’s a loaded question, really. “As good as I can be after finding out my uncle is a psychopath and my ex-boyfriend is a killer.”
The second the words register in my brain, I hear how insane they sound, and I can’t help but laugh. It starts as a snicker, and I slap my hand over my mouth to try to keep it in. Still, it only grows from there. The next thing I know, I’m in full blown hysterics while Sav watches me like some bizarre circus attraction.
“Laney?”
I only laugh harder. It’s as if I can’t control it. I mean, I may have actually lost my mind.
“It’s just—” I try to calm myself down, taking deep breaths. “Everyone warned me he was bat-shit crazy, and I didn’t listen. Instead, I went and fell in love with him.”
In seconds, the laughter turns to sobs and the amusement turns to grief. Now, it’s Sav’s turn to hold me—and she does, without hesitation.
There isn’t a single part of me that isn’t conflicted. The logical side wants me to run for the fucking hills, leaving Knox in this godforsaken town and never looking back. The bigger side, however, the side that loves him, wants to believe every word that comes out of his mouth like it’s etched in gold and declared as law.
When I finally get a handle on myself, Savannah releases me, and the two of us lie on the bed. All the events of tonight are catching up to me, and while I know I should talk to Knox, I’m not going to be able to make sense of anything until I get some rest.
Sav and I stare up at the dark ceiling, the sound of our breathing the only thing filling the room.
“Are you going to forgive Knox?” she questions.
“I don’t know. Are you going to forgive Grayson?”
She only thinks for a second before letting out a sigh. “Yeah. He’s my Gray. I can’t imagine a world where I don’t. And honestly, what can I really say? He lost his father because of my dad, and then my dad was threatening me.”
It makes sense, and honestly, it’s a little relieving. If the two of them couldn’t make it through this, I’d feel like there’s no point in even attempting it with Knox. The two of them together has always been the one guaranteed thing in my life.
