Chapter Twenty-Three - Zay

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I'm shaking as we approach my parents' house

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I'm shaking as we approach my parents' house. I use the spare key under the mat to get in. They're not home. The only reason I came here and brought Riggs with me is because it's the only safe haven I could think of. My dorm is out of the question. I have no money for a hotel.

I can't trust anyone.

Riggs looks out of place here.

Rugged, big fella such as himself in a traditional home with white couches and hardwood floors.

I don't know where he lives, but I'm sure he doesn't have an ottoman and a decorative bowl of potpourri on the coffee table.

He looks around, keeping his mouth shut but his eyes say enough.

They prove I wasn't lying when I said my parents have money. Money I'd be more than willing to give to get me out of this mess.

I don't say anything. I don't know what to say. After seeing him holding the gun at Clayton, growling those words, I realize he's not the man I slept with the past two days. He's different.

A monster.

I climb the stairs and he follows, hand holding onto the gun tucked in the back of his jeans.

My room is as I left it. Beige walls filled with hanging picture frames of all my friends and family. There are pictures of Lillian and me from when we were twelve, up until a week before she died. When Adam and I broke up, I came here for a weekend, to unwind and cry without my roommate asking me what was wrong. Without the chance of bumping into Adam on campus. I came here and took down the photos of Adam and me. But couldn't get rid of them, they're in a drawer in my closet. We're not officially over. Not after he snuck back into my room days after he spoke those broken words and held me all night crying, apologizing, and making love to me well into the morning when he left.

Not when he told me again that he loved me.

Not when he promised he'd fix this mess.

Not when he proposed.

I glance at a picture of Lillian again, the memories her smile holds will stay with me forever. We first met in elementary school. She sat by the playground alone, poking sand with a stick. I made friends very easily, and it bothered me that not a single one of the friends I had walked up to her and said hi. She was the new girl, she didn't have cooties. I walked right up to her and plopped on the sand at her feet, introducing myself. She smiled, and I told her she was going to be my new best friend. We were attached at the hip since then. Inseparable. Until we hit university. Once that happened, all hell broke loose and we lost each other. Instead of working on what we lost, she died. And now I'll never have my best friend back.

Riggs drops my backpack on the bed and groans when he sits down, shaking his head. "We can't stay here long."

I nod, smiling at a picture of Lillian and me on our sixteenth birthday. She's smiling so elegantly, while I'm licking the side of her face. That was us. The tame one and the wild one. The blonde and the brunette. The sweet and the sassy.

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