Sitting there withKristen Edwardstucked in between them. Theo laughs, and Oscar grins, his arm slung around the back of the booth as she looks up at him.
It looks so… easy.
I lose my balance. One moment, the ground is steady beneath my feet. And then – it’s gone. I’m sitting on my ass on the sidewalk, still watching them.
This is what it’ll be like. I’ll be gone, and they’ll just… move on. Biting down on my lip, I barely feel my hands curling into fists, my nails breaking skin.
They don’t love you.
You’re not staying anyway.
Both points which make being theirs an impossibility. Something that was never going to happen, no matter how much I wished for it.
But I’m not gone yet.
I sit there for a few minutes. I don’t know what I’m looking for. A few people step around me, muttering to themselves as they pass by. Shaking their head at the weird, trashy omega that ruined the golden boy of Widow’s Peak, sat on the floor with tears on her face.
Maybe they don’t know everything, but they know all they need to know to judge me.
It hits me like a brick, then.
Nobody will miss me when I’m dead.
And in that moment, I wonder if anyone will even remember me.
My mother dumped me and took off. My father left me alone after a seizure, packing his bags and running so I couldn’t beg him to stay. And my mates are sitting there laughing with their arms around another fucking omega.
I swallow hard. My eyes begin to burn.
I’ll give them something to remember.
I stumble to my feet, racing back to the kitchen. Everyone ignores me as I yank open the marketing cupboard.
I know it’s here. Isawit – there.
Mick tried to rebrand as a baseball bar once. It didn’t work, but the bat he had on the wall is still propped in the corner, his name written on the pale yellow wood in red, swirling script.
It feels heavy in my hands as I grip it.
They think I’m a psychopath anyway. I may as well prove them right.
I walk right past the window, trailing the bat over the sidewalk beside me. In the corner of my eye, I see Oscar’s face change. See him blanch, as he turns.
That’s right. I see you,mate.
And they all see me. See the moment I swing the bat back, and I smash it forward with every bit of whatever strength I have left inside me.
Directly into the windscreen of Theo’s truck.
It’s not like he can’t afford to replace it. Just like he’s replacing me, when I’m still fuckinghere.
It hurts more than I thought possible. It feels like I can’t fucking breathe, like their disdain is shredding me.
It hurts more than those seventeen bite marks that are poisoning me from the inside out.
But this… yes. This helps.
The glass shatters with one hit, and I heft the bat in my hands, considering as my lips twist into a sharp smile.
