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He looks at the house and then back at me. “Are you going to be okay here tonight or you want me to stay?”
If he was here by himself, I’d probably tell him to crash here, but I can hardly handle Laiken being on the front lawn, let alone inside. “I’ll be fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He nods, bumping my fist with his own. “Sounds good, man. Call if you need me.”
“I will.”
Cam starts walking back toward his Jeep, expecting Laiken to follow, but she hesitates as she looks back at me.
“You’re selling the house?”
I glance past her at the sign down by the street. “Yeah.”
She swallows. “Oh.”
“It’s not about you,” I say, then backtrack slightly. “Not completely, anyway. It’s just…sometimes plans change.”
It looks like she wants to fight me on that, tell me that our plans don’t have to change. That we could still have the future we used to talk about. And there’s a part of me that wants to hear her say the words. But she decides against it, and it’s probably for the best.
The plans we made together are dead.
I can’t do it.It sounds shitty of me, and prissy, and probably even like diva behavior, but I can’t fucking do it. It’s just too uncomfortable. It puts me in a mood for the rest of the day as my body aches.
I. Just. Can’t. Do. It.
“Cam, I love you,” I tell him. “But no. I can’t. If there were an award for the most uncomfortable couch in existence, it would be yours. I’ve slept on it for two nights and it’s already fucking with my back.”
He groans. “Oh, come on. How much better can those motel beds be?”
I stare blankly back at him. “Thefloorwould be better than that couch.”
Smirking, he shrugs. “Okay, so you’ll sleep on my floor then. Glad that’s settled.”
No.
It’s not happening.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my brother, and I’ve really appreciated how much he’s helped me lately. He’s constantly looking out for me, the same way he always has, and staying with him has made me feel safer. But I can’t anymore. I’ll always love him. I’m genetically predisposed to love him. But if I don’t start staying somewhere else, I’m not going to like him anymore.
“I’ll get a different motel room,” I promise. “I won’t go back to the same place I was staying.”
Mali snorts beside me. “You think that’s going to stop them from finding you? Hayes tried switching where he was sleeping and had a dead animal hung on his door like a redneck Christmas wreath.”
Hayes narrows his eyes at her as he tries not to smile. “Your guardian angel must drink.”
“Good,” she replies. “I wouldn’t want her, otherwise.”
“Uh, H?” Cam says, lightly smacking his arm repeatedly.
“What?” he asks, confused, but as he looks behind me, his eyes widen. “Fuck.”
Mali turns around to see what they’re talking about, but I’m too focused on the way Hayes looks like he’s mid panic. He finally lets his eyes land on me.
“You should hide,” he tells me.
My brows furrow. “Hide?”
Cam huffs out a laugh. “Too late now.”
