roar, Velyn’s hand squeezes my arm and I turn to her. “You need to stay out of my business and out of my life. How can I make this clearer to you?”
Not waiting for a reply, I turn and walk out, jump in my car, and peel out of the driveway. When will they figure out that I don’t need anyone, not anymore?
The bass is pumping, and the kegs are lined up neatly in a row crossing from one end of the room to the other. It’s the last party of my senior year, why not go out with a bang—or at least one hell of a raging hangover?
Jordan sneaks up behind me, his trusty sidekick with him. I turn and look at them with a greeting. “Jordan! Ava! Glad you two could take the time out of your conveniently busy schedules to stop by.”
Of course, all I get from Ava is an eye roll, and Jordan offers up a little more with a, “You called we came.”
“There was a time when I didn’t have to call you,” I let out.
Jordan lets out a sigh. “Yeah, well, things change.”
“Yeah, no shit. I also used to have a brother, and now he’s dead.”
“Shit, Dylan, really?” Jordan scowls.
I hold his stare long and hard, and then with a laugh, I move past him. Maybe I was wrong in thinking that Jordan would still be someone I wanted in my life. I think perhaps a whole new fresh start is what I need.
Walking out to the patio, I instantly spot a stunning blonde with legs for days, a nice set of tits and an ass calling out to me. I make my way over to introduce myself, and she’s instantly welcoming.
“Hey, handsome.”
“Hey, beautiful.”
She moves in, placing a hand on my bicep, but instantly at her touch, my whole body turns cold.
“Dammit!” I growl.
Her eyes go wide. “Excuse me?”
I look out, not to her, but up to the open sky. “You’ve got to be shitting me?”
“Um yeah, okay, I’m so lost right now,” she comments.
I look down to her utterly confused glare. “No shit. Look, it’s not you, it’s me.”
She flashes her eyes up to me, brow pinched. “Yeah, that’s something you definitely don’t need to explain, creep.”
Not wasting another second, she expertly twirls on her spiked heel and heads off.
Dammit, why is Velyn still in my head? I don’t want her in my head.
“That’s what happens when you love someone, Dylan.”
Hearing the voice behind me and realizing I said that aloud, I turn and see Velyn standing there. She usually has an undeniable radiance about her, well, to me she always did. But when I look at her now the light’s gone—she looks shattered.
Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath to regain some sense, I reply, “Who said anything about love?”
With her eyes no longer holding a spark and her voice dull with no joyful expression, she replies, “I did. I was hoping if I said it, you’d realize it’s true.”
A sharp pain hits my chest. Dammit. I bring up my hand to push it away, but it doesn’t work, so I look down to the ground to avoid eye contact.
“It’s not true. Velyn, you’re creating shit up in your head to try and reason this all out when it’s simple; I just don’t want this.”
She doesn’t give a reply, not even a, you’re a damn liar, so when I look up, she’s just standing there with tears in her eyes.
I shake my head. “Vel, what do you want from me?”
“Honesty,” she replies.
“And you think I haven’t been honest?”
Velyn lets out a shuddered breath. “Not with yourself, no.”
The interaction between us has added the slightest glimmer to her eyes. I’m guessing it’s hope; hope that I may consider what she’s saying, and then come to some prodigious revelation that she’s right and let her back in, but she’s mistaken.
“Velyn, I’m being honest with myself. I don’t want this...I don’t want us.”
The tears fall from her eyes freely, with no attempt on her part to keep them at bay. With a slight pain now in my chest, I clear my throat and move to leave, stopping briefly beside her. “I think you should leave and don't come back...please.”
A muted sob escapes from between her lips, and the pain in my chest has grown to a full force slaughter.
I head back into the house, making my way passed the droves of bodies grouped throughout the rooms. Reaching the bedroom, I walk in, locking the
door behind me. I move over to the other side of the room and fall onto the bed—Chase’s bed. It’s where I’ve been sleeping every night since I’ve returned home. It’s bare; all his stuff has been removed. I close my eyes and lay there, blocking out the now muffled noise rumbling on the other side of the door. The pain in my chest from before is still there; it never really goes away but seems to dull when I can just block all the shit out of my mind.
I turn on my side, facing the door. From the movement, the pillow that I’m lying on, Chase’s pillow, gives off a slight scent of that fruity shampoo he used. I let out a chuckle at the memory of the time I saw the hot pink bottle in the main bathroom. I busted into his room, searching around. He asked what the hell I was doing? I looked to him in mock surprise
