“Come see me tomorrow.” He tugged on my hand, turning me to face him.
“It may be a few days.”
He nodded as he gazed out to the fence. “You want me to walk you to your house?”
“I’ll be fine. It’s private property. I’m the only one who ever goes in those woods.” I gripped the front of his Ramones T-shirt and pressed my mouth against his, letting my lips linger. As I pulled back, Jake’s eyes slowly opened, and he grinned his heart-stopping crooked smile, his dark eyes hooded.
“I’ll see you later.” He ran his hand over his hair, causing it to stick up in every direction.
“Bye.” I waved as I slipped through the hole in the fence and disappeared into the trees toward my home.
Chapter 2—Colin
I drained the double shot of Jim Beam down my throat, the burn long gone and replaced by numbness an hour ago. I looked down at my watch, but it was too dark to see the time, which was probably for the best because it would only enrage me further. It was three in the morning last time I’d checked. Annie hadn’t called or texted, but her best friend Mara, whom she was supposed to be out with, had stopped by four hours ago looking for her.
When I heard the doorknob turn, I sat holding my empty glass in the formal living room, veiled in shadows. She stepped inside, walking on her tiptoes as she shut the door behind her, flinching as it clicked loudly into the lock and echoed throughout the cavernous space. She tiptoed to the stairs and grabbed hold of the banister.
“Is this fun for you?” I asked, and she jumped, grabbing her chest as she turned toward the sound of my voice. Her eyes narrowed as she searched me out.
“Could you be more dramatic?” she whisper-yelled, not wanting to disturb Connor from his sleep, even though his room was on the third floor, and he slept like the dead.
“More dramatic?” I asked as I pushed to my feet. I hurled the glass across the room, and it connected with the inside of the living-room wall, shattering into the darkness. “That better?” I asked, arms stretched out at my sides as I walked toward her.
Her hands went over her face reflexively, and as she lowered them, she stared daggers at me. “I don’t have to listen to you.”
“That so? Where were you?” I hurried toward her angrily. My filter had disintegrated with each drink, and now I was dangling on the edge of aggression.
“None of your business,” she snapped and took off up the steps to avoid me. When she slipped, coming down hard on her knee, the cracking sound was enough to cause me to flinch. She let out a cry of pain as she clutched her leg, her body splayed on the staircase like a broken doll. This is what happens to girls who get too close to me.
I took the first three steps in one stride and lifted her effortlessly into my arms to carry her up to her room.
“Fuck, Annabel,” I groaned as we made it to the darkened hall above, and I kicked open her door with my foot. She cried, her tears wetting my bare chest. I laid her in the center of her bed and brushed the hair from her face, causing her to flinch and clutch her cheek.
“You hit your face?” Through the moonlight coming in through her window, I could see her nod, and the shadow of a forming bruise was already evident. “Hold on.” I hurried back downstairs and grabbed an ice pack from the freezer, wrapping it in a red dish towel. When I made it back to her room, she was lying on her side, her hand on her face. I pulled her fingers away and pressed the ice pack to her cheek. She flinched, but her hand slid over mine to hold it in place. I stood up and sighed as I ran my hand over my short, dark hair.
“Thank you,” she whimpered, sounding years younger than seventeen and more like that girl I had met a lifetime ago.
“Don’t thank me yet. You’re still going to tell me where you were.”
“I was out with friends.”
“You need to trust me and let me protect you. It’s my job.”
“I don’t need you to protect me, Colin. I just want you to leave me alone.” She rolled farther away, and the pain of her words hurt worse than a physical blow could inflict.
“Because you’re so good at taking care of yourself? Look at you. You just kicked your own ass.”
“I don’t need to protect myself,” she bit back, her feelings hurt from my implication that she was helpless.
That was it. That’s what I was waiting to hear. She had met someone. I had no idea who this guy was, and the fact that she smelled like marijuana did not get by me. The once perfect and innocent Annabel was falling from grace, hell-bent on proving me wrong about who she was.
“You can continue to pretend that our life before we moved here was all just a bad dream. I wish I had that luxury. But I know exactly what happens to girls like you who think they are invincible.”