FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHORS OF THE CHEATER.FAKER.TROUBLEMAKER SERIES (WATTY'S 2016, FICTION AWARDS 2016, HACHETTE AUDIO 2017), JENNY ROSEN & KRISTEN MAGLONZO.
After bullies, braces, and brutal heartbreak shatters his faith in love, soon-to-be fre...
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CHAPTER 7
Elias
Tanner spends the next twenty minutes in the car doing what he does best—lecturing me.
And that's the thing. I know he means well. It's not like he's trying to put me into a word coma every time he goes off about how I need to control myself around Dad or whatever. But whenever he talks at me like this, not to me, I check out.
Get lost in my own head.
But today it's different. Today, I'm beyond wandering 'cause instead of losing my way around my own thoughts, I'm losing control of them.
Images of Nikki, Trish, Josh, Trevor, and Dad keep racing around my skull. Spinning and bouncing off the insides of my temples like they're trapped inside a pinball machine. I need to tell someone about what happened. I need my brother to help me, but my mouth stays closed and my ears wide open.
Instead of being able to just listen to Tanner's words, I'm drowning in them. His sentences crash into each other like the waves are crashing onto the San Diego coastline outside my window. I roll it down and let the salt-kissed breeze rush into my lungs, but the air doesn't reach them fast enough.
I suck in another breath and taste Nikki on my lips. A hint of vodka, smoke, and just a touch of that underlying danger I can't get enough of.
I shut my eyes and suddenly she's next me, around me, all over me. Her hands on my chest, her voice in my ear, her lips everywhere.
I lean my head back and let myself fall into the memory of her. Of being with her. Losing myself in the high of last night. My body heats up as I let myself sink back to the space Nikki pulled me into. But then the lines start blurring.
Nikki's body warps into Trish's and then twists and bends itself out of shape until it turns into someone I don't recognize. Last night's moans morph into yesterday's screaming until all that's left is a shadow.
