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“What makes you say that?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Your tone is tight again. Your eyes are dilated.”
I laughed stiffly. “You are rather insightful. Annoyingly so.”
He grinned. “I’m paid to sniff out the truth. I can see yours plain as day.”
“Oh?” I cocked my head. “And what is my truth?”
Dylan glanced at Margot before lowering his voice and murmuring, “I think there’s a lot more to come. I think...I think something happened to you that stole the rest of your childhood. And I think something happened to him. Something that changed both of you.”
Goosebumps cloaked over my entire body. “Like I said. Insightful.”
Dylan leaned back, rubbing his beard-covered jaw. “So...what happened?”
“Don’t rush her,” Margot snipped. “The story has to unfold the way she lived it, not leap forward.”
I smiled at the eager girl, wishing I could pause my tale and live in that intense, skin-scratching newness of angst and want. Instead, the months had passed, the years had followed, and tragedy had come for both of us. And as much as I wanted to rewrite our history, I couldn’t erase what I’d lived through, suffered through. I couldn’t put out the fire that’d burned everything to the ground because then I wouldn’t have risen from the ashes, even if I wasn’t the same girl as before.
“I appreciate your commitment to the full events, Margot, but Dylan is right. Things happened. Things that irrevocably broke both of us. And they’re just around the corner. The easy parts are over, unfortunately. I suppose I have to say goodbye to the light and tread deeper into the darkness that follows.”
“Oh God, you’re going to break my heart, aren’t you?” Margot rubbed her nose. “Is it rude of me to ask for the easy version? The one where Aslan returned, realised he was being an ass and was ridiculously in love with you, took you to his bed, and then announced to the world to do its worst because you were together now and that was all that mattered?”
Dylan rolled his eyes. “There you go again. Making me worry that I should have you committed to some Romance Readers Anonymous. You need help, Margot.”
“I need to know that this love story has a happy ending.”
I gave her a smile that I hoped hid everything I had yet to share. “How about a drink? Something stronger than lemonade?”
“That would be great.” Margot laughed, fanning herself. “A shot of alcohol would help steady my nerves.”
Grabbing my phone from the rattan coffee table, I texted Tiffany to bring a selection of drinks down. I could do with some liquid courage too.
The moment I started this next chapter, I would find no peace until the end. I was condemning myself to living it all over again. Every harrowing and hopeful moment. Every ecstatic high and despairing low.
Was I strong enough?
I was barely strong enough to survive it the first time, let alone willingly reliving it.
Dylan fiddled with the microphone, and Margot swapped to a new page in her notebook. By the time Tiffany arrived with a tray of artisan beers and a few locally brewed liquors, the air crackled with anticipation.
“Thank you, Tiffany,” I murmured. Taking the Mermaid Sea Salt Vodka that tasted like the ocean and was my poison of choice, I waited until Dylan had chosen a beer and Margot had selected a Scapegrace gin over ice.
With the sharp salty taste of liquor on my tongue, I began where everything started falling apart.
“My father was strict on chores. I loved him dearly, and he indulged me in many things, but he never backed down on chores and hard work. So that was how I found myself cleaning The Fluke one afternoon after school, a few days after they returned from their research trip in Whitsundays.
“Aslan hadn’t pulled me aside to talk about our late-night messages. I forbid myself from asking him about the girl he’d tried to sleep with, and I bided my time. I had a plan, you see. I was going to wait until the next time my parents were away and then do something that Aslan couldn’t refuse. I was going to seduce him. I was going to wait in his room and not let him say no.
“I was sick of him fighting it. I could see him hurting just as much as me, and I didn’t understand why he wouldn’t give in. I was done waiting...but of course, that all changed when I found the used condom in the rubbish bin.”
Margot sucked in a breath, drinking her gin at record speed. “Oh no.”
“Thank God I was alone because my legs gave out. I crumpled to the floor and remember just holding that slimy horrible thing, not caring about hygiene or where it’d been. I knew it wasn’t my parents because my father had had a vasectomy. They had no need for birth control...but Aslan? He did.
