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“Ophelia,” I try, but the words won’t come.
She glares at me for a breathless second—then chucks the letter right at me.
The air catches the cursed paper and sends it fluttering down on the table between us, this damning thing. “So you just... you’re going to throw that at me and bring up all these old memories for what? So I won’t leave? So I’ll keep chasing Ethan’s ghost instead of having a life?”
I almost rock back.
A shotgun burst to the heart wouldn’t have the same punch.
“No, damn you!” I shoot back, and dammit, I’m trying not to yell but she just pulls it out of me. “Don’t. Just don’t fucking give up on him, okay? That’s what I’m asking, all I ever asked.”
“If you think just because I want to go to college, I’m giving up on my brother...” Ophelia stands. Her slender frame thrums with energy, with anger, shivering so hard that loose shirt shakes against her body, her eyes lit furious. “You don’t know me at all, Grant. I’m going. I’m going, and you can’t stop me.”
“Never tried,” I snarl, rising to my feet. “Go on. Fucking go to Florida. Leave your family.”Leave me,I don’t say, still tasting those bitter words. “You’re gonna run, Ophelia? That’s your answer? You’re gonna run away from Ethan?” I grind my teeth. “Then get out. Get the fuck out of here and don’t come back.”
I don’t mean it.
I don’t fucking mean it at all, but there’s this sudden scalding panic in my chest at the idea of never seeing Ophelia Sanderson again.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m having this crazy déjà vu over the thought of her disappearing just like her brother or if I’m actually wanting her to—
No.
I can’t think about that shit.
I already planted my foot in my mouth so far it’s blown out my ass.
Ophelia’s eyes widen.
There’s an instant hurt, where I know those tears aren’t just for Ethan, but because I just stabbed her so brutally.
Then it closes over behind anger, her mouth setting with stubborn determination.
“Fine,” she bites off, cutting and cold. “I will. If I don’t come back, I won’t have to deal with angry pricks like you. Get lost, Grant. I don’t want to see you again.”
Just like that.
Believe me, I know it’s what I deserve.
Her ripping my beating heart out with a few savage words, sentencing me to the same fate that has me so piss scared.
But before I can say anything, she whirls around and she’s gone, slamming through the back door of her house into the golden glow of her kitchen.
Just a last whipping slash of her baggy butterfly shirt before I can’t see her anymore and I’m alone.
I stand there like the colossal idiot I am for the longest time.
The night hums with crickets and frogs, a whole world indifferent to my suffering and my stupidity.
I know I need to leave.
This isn’t my house anymore, even if it’s been a second home since I was a kid.
Even if those memories I cherish double as a torture chamber now.
Late nights watching movies in the Sandersons’ living room, me and Ethan sitting cross-legged on the floor with our faces nearly pressed to the TV. We were glued to some bad monster movie or clutching our controllers tight as we tried to shoot every zombie.
Ophelia would sneak down way past her bedtime and curl up on the sofa, hugging her blanket with the red butterflies to her chest, glued to us like a little burr.
