“Can I just sit here for a bit?”
“No. I don’t trust you not to drink more.”
“This is the first drink I’ve had since I found out what he did. I’ve been eating ice cream, but too much of it hurts my belly.” She poked him in the side. “Like Ford said happens to you. But mine gave me gas. Does that happen with too much cider? I don’t want to toot in front of you.”
He looked up at the ceiling. He wasn’t a religious guy, but heaven help him.
“Do whatever makes you feel better,” he said. “Let’s get you to lie down.”
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“My place.”
“You don’t even like me,” she said. “Why would you want me in your bed?”
He liked her too much.
He wasn’t heartless, but his soul was empty and had been for too long.
Meredith needed someone whose optimism flowed through them like magic.
He could barely get a full night’s sleep without getting a glimpse of the filth he’d been exposed to, if not the destruction he’d left in his wake.
She’d figure it out soon enough, that he wasn’t who she hoped he was.
He shouldn’t have damagedher car.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Now he had to figure out what to do. How to cover his tracks. How to hide his temporary lapse in judgement.
Where the heck had all his control gone? Mother would be so mad if she knew what he’d done and have him right back to the doctor to find out the problems.
He didn’t need anyone to tell him what to do. To restrain him from being the person he wanted to be. He was done with all that nonsense.
He was his own man and was going to prove it to everyone.
But Meredith wouldn’t want someone who lost their temper like that. He knew. He’d witnessed it already with her ex.
He started to bang his fist to his head.
“Think. Think. How am I going to get out of this?”
He went to his medicine cabinet, pulled out the bottle of pills, looked them over a few times and put them back.
“No. Meredith wouldn’t want anyone weak enough to medicate themselves. I got through this before, I can do it again and win her back. She’ll be mine without help from anyone or anything.”
10
SCARE ME AWAY
“How was your weekend?” Cassidy asked Monday at lunch.
Meredith was in her classroom eating and trying to hide her embarrassment over her actions this weekend.
Not that Cassidy knew, but she’d confess because she had to tell someone. Gale was out of the question.
“Horrifying,” she said.
