Her voice is so quiet I have to strain to hear her over the breeze through the tree branches. “Back then, he rejected me.”
My lips part in an unvoiced question.
What the fuck?
“Kiyoshi?” Mira asks, the skin around her eyes tight with worry.
Arlowe gives an affirmative bob of her head before falling back on her hands and looking up at the blue sky. “He called me a child and told me to leave.” A bitter laugh. “He was gone the next day anyway.”
How could this be? I remember so clearly that he would follow her movements with those strange, pale eyes of his. I knew she liked him, and figured he had a crush on her, too. Why in the world would he have rejected Lowe?
There has to be a reason.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” My voice nearly cracks on the words.
Arlowe has been my best friend since I arrived at the juvie facility. I’ve shared with her nearly every detail of my life, from past to present, and she kept this pain to herself all this time?
Lowe sits back up, wipes her palms against one another before rising to her feet. She pulls her hood back over her head before glancing down at me, her face devoid of emotion. “It’s my burden to bear.”
And in a swirl of shadow, she’s gone.
Erich
Well, I’ve made things worse.
What else is new?
Losing control with Zephyr like I did the other day was not my brightest decision, and now I’m here alone, instead of with them.
To be fair, they haven’t shunned me. I’ve just stayed away. But then, they haven’t come to find me, either.
Who would think to look for me in the library, though? And isn’t that why I came here in the first place?
Deep down, I don’t want to be found. Wallowing in my anger is all the company I’m accustomed to, so really, what’s the big deal at this point?
“Misery loves company, it seems.”
I spin toward the voice behind me and find Arlowe approaching my table. I follow her movements as she pulls the chair out across from me and sits, leans back, and crosses her arms over her chest.
This new attitude of hers is… weird. It’s like looking in a mirror at myself from years ago.
Okay, even up to a month back, but still. It doesn’t fit her.
She’s always been this snarky girl, but she was fun, good-natured.
“What bug crawled up your ass?”
She actually huffs a laugh, the corner of her mouth curls upward for a nanosecond before her lips go flat again. Her eyes bore into me across the table. “I know how you’re feeling.”
I send her a doubtful look.
She continues. “You’ve been in love with one person for as long as you can remember, and now, here comes some other people you’re supposed to love, too. They’re in your way, they confuse you, they upset you.” She leans forward, gaze dropping to the table. “You hate the complications.”
Well, shit. “Sounds like you know firsthand.”
She looks up, frowns. “I’ve been in love with someone I haven’t seen in almost five years now. I don’t even know if…” She swallows her words, but I know what she meant to say.
She doesn’t even know if he’s alive.
