“I hope that he turns out to be… someone who'll watch over me.”
It should be my arm around Rayne.
Letmy brother watch me take what he thought was his.
I want to put my hand on Rayne’s neck and feel him exhale when he can’t help himself from craving my touch, too.
I pull in a long breath of air, and it smells like rain is going to come. I can feel my heart pounding in my chest.
Maybe I don’t care if we’re moths to a flame.
When I get obsessed with something, or someone…
I go after it, even if I know it might destroy me.
11
Rayne
A hard rapping sound against the window wakes me later that night.
I shoot up in bed, gasping for breath as I move away from the dim light coming through the window.
I’ve heard a sound like that before, and when I last heard it, I ended up with a needle sticking out the side of my neck.
For a moment I think I must have dreamed it.
The wind is gently blowing outside, and nothing’s coming through the window.
But then I turn back toward my room and I hear it again.
Plink.Plink.
Something is hitting the window, hard.
“Fuck.Fuck.”
Adrenaline hits my blood fast.
Anyone could be out there on the balcony.
I toss away the covers and run for the small walk-in closet at the other side of the room, far from the window.
I’m still bleary from sleep as I move, tripping over a case of cold brew cans I stupidly left on the floor.
My back hits the bare wall on one edge of the closet and I look back to the window.
Something hits the window again and a tiny crack forms. Shadows dance along the walls as the wind blows the tree branches outside.
I watch it crack and realize that I truly may be about to die.
And all I can think about is my mom.
I’m her only child. She worked so goddamn hard to make a good life for me. I’m the first person in my family line to go to college at all, let alone get financial aid and a scholarship into Crimson College.
And she’s about to be the mother of a dead son.
The door handle of the room suddenly jiggles, and I have to act now or I know I’ll die.
