AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It won’t work anyway.
I won’t breathe right again until I know she’s okay.
Please, I think to myself, over and over and over. Please, be okay.
When I finally get to where I need to be, I stop just inside the room, holding onto the vending machine on my left to keep myself steady. There are a lot of people in here, low voices and soft cries coming from…I don’t know where, because my eyes refuse to focus on anyone but him.
Like magnets, they won’t let him go.
He’s sitting by himself in the middle of the room, elbows resting on his knees as he runs his thumb over the black ring he’s holding—my ring. They must have taken it off her finger when they brought her in and given it to him. That’s the only reason he has it. That has to be the reason. Because if he was the one who took it from her…if he was the one who found her like that…
I can’t even think about it.
I don’t say anything, but it seems I don’t need to. It’s like he senses my presence here, my heart stopping when he lifts his head to look at me.
Fuck.
He looks so mad at me, his usually light brown eyes now red and bloodshot, his short, dark hair sticking up at the top like he’s been yanking on it repeatedly. His knuckles look busted too, like he’s punched a few walls. Or people, probably.
I think he’s been crying—which makes an ice-cold chill run down my spine; Nate Grayson never cries—but when he looks at me, there are no tears left. There’s only hate and rage.
“Nate,” I hear myself saying, taking a slow, cautious step closer to him. “What happened?”
He just stares up at me, which is weird because it’s usually me looking up at him. He’s only nineteen—two years older than me and his little sister—but he’s a tall motherfucker with a body built for basketball. He and I both know he could snap my skinny ass in half if he wanted to.
“Who called you?” he asks, ignoring my question.
“My dad,” I whisper. “He’s on his way.”
He nods slowly, his hands shaking slightly as he continues to play with the ring. “Get out.”
I swallow and look over at his parents for the first time. His mom is sobbing into her hands in the corner, his dad on the chair next to her, gently rubbing his wife’s back as he stares off into space.
“Nate…” I try again. “Please, just tell me wh—”
He’s up and coming for me before I can finish, pulling on my jacket and then slamming me back into the vending machine, causing a scene. I wince and wrap my hands around his, holding my breath as he moves in closer, erasing the small amount of distance between us.
“Nate, let him go,” his mom says from the corner, sniffing as she looks up and wipes her eyes with her sleeve. “It’s not his fault.”
“Fuck that. He’s fucking high right now, Mom,” he growls, still looking at me, lowering his voice so she can’t hear the next part. “You wanna know what happened, party boy?” he taunts, cruel and menacing. “You killed her. My sister’s dead because of you.”
“No,” I choke out, shaking my head. “You’re lying.”
She’s not dead.
She can’t be dead.
But he’s not lying.
A broken noise escapes my throat, the tears bursting from my eyes, and I can feel him watching them fall as if he’s fascinated by them. He’s staring at me again, his fingers clutching my shirt now, like he knows I’ll fall apart if he doesn’t hold me up.
I wish he’d let me fall.
“It should have been you,” he says after a minute, granting my unspoken wish and letting me go.
I slide down to the floor, struggling not to throw up as I scoot away from him.
I didn’t think it was possible to feel this much pain again, but there it is, eating me up and swallowing me from the inside out.
