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“Not now. But later you will.”
My head shook rapidly. “I can’t believe you can even think that of me. I mean—you’re leaving. Okay. So what then? What are you going to do for money? Where will you stay?”
“I’ll start over. I’ll make things right.”
I scoffed. “Make what right, Drake? What is so wrong with your life that you feel like you have to run away from it?”
“Everything!” he barked, and I flinched as he stood up and stepped towards me. “Everything about my life is fucked up. My mom is dead. My grandmother, dead. My father fucking hates me just as much as I hate his sorry ass. The twins have their own demons to deal with. I won’t let them try and tackle mine too. I have to deal with my shit. I have to get myself out of the shit life I put myself into.”
He looked disgusted with me, his eyes running up and down my frame. “You just don’t fucking get it and you never will because you have it all. You have this house. You have both of your parents, whether you hate them or not. You’re going to one of the most expensive schools in the country. You have friends. You have more money than you know what to do with!”
“Don’t think that of me,” I whimpered. “I don’t care about any of that stuff. Money is just an object, Drake.”
“But you wouldn’t be able to live without it.” He glared at me. “You and me… we are nothing alike. We come from two different sides of the tracks and everything in this world is telling us we need to stay away from each other—that I need to stay away from you. Don’t you fucking get it, Jenny? You deserve better than a low-life fuck like me. You deserve more than having to come back to a city you fucking hate just to see me—adding miles and miles to your life, all because you want to make me happy. I don’t want to put you through that.”
Tears threatened me. “That isn’t your decision to make. If I want to come back, I can. And I will. Nothing is going to stop me.”
“Yeah, and I knew you would say something like that, so here’s how I’m going to stop you.” He stepped in front of me, looking me straight in the eyes as he gripped my shoulders. “I am leaving, Jenny. I’m not coming back here, and I’m not telling you or the twins or anyone where I am really going because I don’t need anyone out looking for me. I will let everyone know I’m okay, but that’s it.”
My throat was dry, and as I swallowed down my emotions, it was painful. Like swallowing shards of glass.
“So… this is it?” I asked quietly. “You’re just going to leave, just like that?”
“Jenny—”
“No!” I cut him off before he could speak again, snatching my body away from his. “Don’t you think you should at least apologize for abandoning me like that? Days went by, Drake, without a single word from you.”
“I didn’t abandon you,” he bit out. “I needed space. I needed time.”
“And you don’t think me or the twins could have helped you during your time of need?”
“None of you could have helped me and you still can’t! You don’t know what I am feeling. You don’t get how it feels to lose not only a mother, but a grandmother too. To have a father that couldn’t give a shit less about me—” His words came to a halt and he studied my face for several seconds before pulling away.
Tears escaped me. Only three. I felt them fall.
“Look, I came here because I wanted to see you before the summer ended… and before I left town. I have to go. I don’t want to be in Fox River anymore.”
“The last person that told me he had to go was my brother, and look where that led him. I can’t just let you go like this. I… I need you. I miss you! I can help you, Drake!”
“Really?” He derided me. “Seriously, Jenny, think about what you’re saying. How in the hell will you be able to help me when you’ll be all the way in Connecticut?”
“You can come there with me, since you want to start over somewhere else,” I pleaded. I was desperate, but I knew I was barely hanging onto him by a thread.
“You and I both know I shouldn’t do that.”
“I can help you. I have money. I’ll do what I can to get you going, just let me help,” I begged.
“Oh, you mean the money that your parents give to you because you’re their spoiled little daughter?” He ridiculed me yet again. His harsh words were like a stab in the heart.
“How can you say that?”
