AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Just like no one wants me around.
As silence once again fills the vehicle, I focus on breathing.
Inhale.
Exhale.
But the breathing doesn’t work. It doesn’t push away the awful feelings inside me.
Squeezing my hands together in my lap, I walk through the steps my therapist taught me to get back into the present.
Three things I see.Tree. Exit sign. Red pickup truck.
Three things I hear.The tires on the road. The rumble of the engine. Dominic’s exhales.
I take another slow breath.
Three body parts.I wiggle my toes. I straighten my fingers. I lift my shoulders, then let them drop.
It’s all still there. All the badness. But some of the numbness is there, too.
Staring down at my lap, I ask a question I already hate myself for. But I need to ask it all the same. “Did King have anything to do with this? With you and me?”
Dom doesn’t answer for a long heartbeat, and the first tendrils of betrayal flicker in my vision.
But then he replies. “No. It was just me.”
Dom clears his throat, and then something is being set on my thigh.
My phone.
“If you wanted to check.” He moves his hand back to the steering wheel. “See if he’s telling the truth.”
I don’t know when he took my phone, but I slowly pick it up and see the settings have been changed to do not disturb.
I wait for one painful moment as I turn off the setting, and the screen fills with notifications.
Calls from King.
Texts from King.
He’s been trying to call me since we left.
Gross guilt fills my stomach for thinking he might be a part of this.
I open the texts and scroll through them with shaking hands.
King: Come back.
King: Are you okay?
King: Why were you crying?
King: Answer your phone.
King: I’m sorry if I was harsh.
King: Val, answer me.
