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“Stop trying to run away from everything.”
“I’m not. I’m trying to—” Both our phones buzz on the table.
Looking over, my heart sinks and Millie groans at the email.
From: Maria Ashworth
Subject: Plans for Theodore’s 18thBirthday
“What’s wrong?” Millie asks mockingly when I don’t open it. “Don’t you want to know what caterers Dad insisted you have? Or what band? Or what the dress code is?”
“No. I really fucking don’t.”
There’s only one reason I’m going to be turning up to that party and it’s not going to have anything to do with the food or the entertainment.
Well, actually, that’s a lie. It just won’t be for the entertainment Maria has been instructed to book.
I’m bringing a whole heap of my own that night.
My eighteenth birthday. A day I’ve been planning for longer than anyone—besides Christian and Fiona—know about. A day that can’t come fucking soon enough.
“Why can’t they just piss off to the South of France or something?” Millie muses.
“I won’t let him get away with hurting you, Mills. You know that right?”
“Of course I do.” She shrinks into herself, and I hate it. I hate that my ballsy sister is a shell of herself wheneverhisname comes up in conversation. “It was my fault anyway. I shouldn’t have just turned up.”
“No,” I bark, forcing more than a few sets of eyes to turn our way. “That’s bullshit and you know it,” I say a little quieter. “Nothing about what happened is your fault. You should be able to go home whenever you like and not have to worry about the mood of the monster inside.”
“It’s not our reality though, is it?” she says sadly.
I shake my head, hating that this is her life.
“It’s going to get better,” I promise her.
“How? Do you have plans to kill him?” she jokes lightly.
I have no idea what she reads on my face, but her expression instantly drops.“No, Theo. Please don’t do anything crazy. I need you. If I lose you too I don’t know what I’d—”
Reaching across the table, I take her hand in mine. “I’m not going anywhere. You have nothing to worry about.”
She narrows her eyes at me, studying me as if she can read every one of my thoughts.“What are you planning, Theodore Ashworth?”
“Nothing you need to lose any sleep over. Just know that our lives are going to turn around soon.”
“That doesn’t exactly reassure me,” she mutters, eating another forkful of cake.
“So what should I do about Raine then?” I ask.
I hate turning this back on me and my potential love life—fucking hell, I have a love life. But it’s the lesser of two evils right now.
“You need to make a grand gesture. Show her that all the crap you threw at her before was a load of rubbish. Prove to her how you really feel. Ooh, you should do it after a rugby game in front of the whole school.”
“No. I really shouldn’t,” I hiss.
“But it’s not a grand gesture if no one sees it,” she points out.
“I don’t need the world to see it, Mills. Raine is the only one who needs the reason to stay, not anyone else.”
