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Again, he lets out a humored laugh. “Suit yourself.”
He turns his focus to the rearview mirror and nods subtly. I don’t get a chance to see what he’s looking at, however, before two arms come from behind and firmly hold a cloth over my mouth. It only takes a few seconds until everything goes black.
I gasp for air as I wake from my terrifying dream. The familiarity of my room does very little to calm me down. All the events replay in my head like a horror movie I can’t seem to escape from. None of it may be happening right now, but the scars are very real.
Knowing the last thing I want to do is be alone right now, I get up and head across the hall, quietly slipping into my sister’s room. As soon as I’m next to the bed, Delaney scoots over and pulls back the covers for me.
“Another nightmare?” she questions tiredly.
I sigh and cuddle up next to her. “Yeah.”
The best part about having a twin sister is how connected we are. She doesn’t say anything else, simply because she understands I don’t want to talk about it. That day is something she and I have both tried to leave as far in the past as possible, but as the age old saying goes: some things are easier said than done.
I WAKE IN THE morning to the sound of my sister quietly moving around her room. She takes stacks of clothes from her drawers and places them into her suitcase, reminding me she’s leaving tomorrow. The irony that I should be doing the same isn’t lost on me. Unfortunately, I made some idiotic choices last year and now I’m required to repeat half of my senior year. I guess that’s karma’s doing, and man is she a bitch.
“Can’t you take me with you? Hide me in your suitcase or some shit?”
She chuckles, walking to the side of the bed to sit beside me. “You know I would if I could.”
The two of us learned early in life to rely on each other. When our parents would argue. When our sister tried bossing us around and then lied to get us in trouble when we didn’t let her. When our best friend showed up at school after vanishing for years, only to act like she had no idea who we were. It’s always been her and me—the one constant thing I knew I could count on.
“What am I going to do without you?” I murmur sadly.
“The same thing you always do—make dad want to rip his hair out and laugh as you do it.”
I laugh, partly because it makes me sound like a maniac and partly because it’s true. It’s no secret that I’m the menace of the family. Delaney and our older sister Ainsley have always been the ones destined for greatness, but me? I’ve made it a game to see how many times I can get on my father’s shit list. I know they say to love your family and all that nonsense, but whoever said that never had a dad like mine.
My phone vibrates on the nightstand, and my heart sinks when I see the name. Easton—my boyfriend, at least for now, anyway. In a few days, he’ll be leaving for college like everyone else, and I’ll be stuck here. We’ve both been avoiding the inevitable conversation, but it looks like time has run out. I take the device into my hand and swipe it open, seeing exactly what I thought I would.
Easton: We need to talk.
We need to talk. Four words every girl loves to hear. Lucky for me, I’ve always looked at this relationship exactly for what it is—something to pass the time. Don’t get me wrong, Easton has helped me through a lot, but it would be naive of me to think we have any chance of making long distance work. I’m better than letting some high school fling turn into me being cheated on for months.
Tessa: The lake. One hour.
Delaney watches as I drop my phone into my lap and run my hands over my face. The comforting touch she places on my back tells me she’s here if I need her, but this is something I have to do on my own. Besides, as of tomorrow, I won’t have my sister to lean on for emotional support anymore. Sink or swim, bitch.
“Are we still on for the club tonight?” I ask, getting up from the bed.
“Yeah. I think Sav said she wants to leave around nine.”
I nod and head toward the door, only to be stopped.
“Tess?” Laney calls, causing me to glance back at her. “I love you.”
A small grin spreads across my face. “I love you, too.”
With that, I go to get ready for my unavoidable breakup.
AS SOON AS I pull into the parking lot, Easton can hear me coming. That’s the thing about having a jet-black Lamborghini Aventador—it’s a bit noticeable. As much as I love this car, it was a birthday present from my parents. Sometimes, that makes it feel more like a ball and chain than a luxury.
“You look good,” he tells me as soon as I climb out of the car.
I smirk. “Don’t I always?”
The tension between us is so thick I could choke on it. It’s like we both know exactly where this is heading but neither of us want to be the one to say it. I run my fingers through my long brown hair and look him up and down. There are a lot of things that attracted me to Easton in the first place, the main being his tendency to not give a single fuck about authority. His brunette locks are brushed away from his face, and his matching brown eyes are an aching reminder of all the time I spent staring into them. I walk around to the front and sit on the hood of my car.
“So, when do you leave?”
