Broken and the Beast

Ch 2: Beastly

Elara

It took the better part of an hour to find a spare bit of tarp in the attic and nail it to the broken window. It didn't form a perfect seal, but I did the best I could, quietly furious at Asher for destroying public property and putting all our stock at risk. If the snow blew in too far and mildew took hold...

How the hell am I going to explain this to the owners? I wondered, chewing on the inside of my lip. Thank god they were in another hemisphere; I could write an apologetic email and conveniently forget to check for a reply.

I'm going to have to dip into the tip jar to fix it, I decided, rubbing my face. Goddess knew my wages barely even covered the Crescent Pack tax, let alone groceries for three. There was nothing left to give up, besides my organs, and I still needed to buy Poppy and Daisy new shoes for school.

My lips pursed. They were growing up too fast.

Maybe I should sell my organs, I thought, genuinely considering it for a second before shaking my head. I couldn't afford to take the time off work to recover from a black market surgery.

Sighing, I retrieved the dustpan and broom and sank to my knees, sweeping up shards of glass. My thoughts drifted as I fell into a rhythm, scraping against my peace of mind like loose shards gliding over the floorboards.

Asher had gone too far this time. A drive-by and a homemade missile? I'd known she was cruel, but this... This was unhinged.

My brush stalled. Setting aside the dustpan, I reached out to grab the brick and spotted a piece of paper wrapped around it. The muscles in my wrists strained as I hefted it into my lap, wondering what would have happened if it caught me in the head. It would have, if my handsome stranger hadn't bowled me over.

He's not yours, I hissed to myself.

The stranger's burning eyes haunted me, scratching at a memory that wasn't quite ready to surface. Who are you? I wondered, chewing on the inside of my lip. I could still feel the phantom pressure of his breath on my neck, the residual warmth of his fingers on my waist. Even now it knocked the breath from my lungs.

Focus.

But I didn't want to; not really. I'd never been kissed before, but I was suddenly imagining what it would be like with him. If all that angry tension in his frame would make his muscles hard under my trailing fingers. What his tongue would feel like sliding over mine. Would he grab my hair and demand access to my body, or would he hold back with the arrogant leisure of the experienced, forcing me to take what I wanted? To prove how much I wanted him by taking initiative?

Elara, snap out of it!

My breath came a little shorter as I unwrapped the brick. The tape tore some of the paper away, taking a page number along with it. I realised with a slow, sinking feeling that Asher had ripped it straight out of a book.

A book called How to be Popular, apparently. Probably stolen from my shop, just to rub salt in the wound. And scrawled in sharpie, right next to the title, she'd written:

Looks like you're going to need this.
- A <3

I blew a strand of hair out of my face. How could somebody so sadistic dot their i's with little hearts? It was diabolical.

Turning the page over, I read the first tip and snorted.

Be genuinely kind!

"You need this more than I do," I muttered, scrunching it into a ball and throwing it at the trash can. It fell short, of course, but I shook my head and left it there. My brain was fried. It was officially a tomorrow problem.