Afterglow

paralyze

For a while there was just nothing. No sound, no sight, no touch, no smell, no senses at all. Just me and my mind that wouldn't shut the fuck up.

But then the inevitable pain infiltrated everything just like it always did and there was nothing that I could do about it.

White ambient noise surrounded me, like ears ringing after listening to a particularly loud song in your headphones, which was exactly what I had been doing on the ride back to the school after my mind refused to accept the message that my biological father had sent me.

All your other friends are next.

Those words sent more than a chill cascading through my body. It did more than sweep ice through my veins, and it sure as hell did more than prompt Vera to immediately take me back to the school.

It forced me to make up my mind, steel my resolve and make a plan.

I refused to allow the man who had destroyed so much to hurt anyone or anything else I cared about. It was probably stupid, no- it was definitely stupid, but I couldn't bring myself to care in that moment.

Step one of my plan flew into motion the moment I entered Vera's room, my best friend hot on my heels.

"Blythe, what's your brother's number? Brandon, not Lachlan..."

"I'll text it to you. Why, what's going on?"

She shared a tense look with her girlfriend who hadn't uttered a single word since we'd entered the room.

Blythe twirled an extra curly piece of hair around her finger while scrutinizing the two of us. I hadn't spoken the entire ride back to the school, and Vera didn't push.

I was in a state far past numb, almost like I was stuck in a fugue state that had more than the ability to paralyze my emotions past the ones that I needed to see a few feet in front of me. Once I pushed open that gate, everything else would come crumbling down. Everything.

"He's the head of the foreign division at your dad's company right? So he has a private jet."

"Yeah, but why do you need a private jet?"

"I'm going to California. My mom won't let me go so I'm going to go on my own."

"Okay..." Blythe said, holding the word out like she was worried for my mental health.

I set to collecting my things that had been brought over from the room I shared with Jenna, dutifully packing everything I needed, knowing that I would have to take a discreet trip to my house to grab some warmer temperature appropriate items, and I would have to count my lucky stars to hope that I didn't run across my mother.

"Well you're not going alone."

"What? Yes, I have to go alone."

Vera backed up her girlfriend, standing beside her when Blythe rose from her spot on her twin bed.

"No, you don't. I don't know what's going on, but we're not letting you go to California alone, especially not after what happened yesterday. We almost lost you Kate, and I don't really want to let you out of our sight for the next few weeks to be honest."

"I second that," a masculine voice noted from behind us, and I turned to find Evan in the doorway with an unabashed look on his face.

"I don't know what's going on, but Vera just texted me to get my ass to her room, so here I am."

"Vera," I groaned, not wanting anyone else that I cared about to be dragged along like this. I'd have to set something up with Brandon and tell them the wrong time so they couldn't come with me. I couldn't bring them along just to get hurt because of me.