Chapter 14: Wren
By the time I get home, my body feels like it’s been wrung out and hung up to dry.
My apartment is quiet—too quiet after hours of yelling, skates grinding, bodies slamming into boards.I kick off my shoes, drop my bag on the couch, and flick on the dim lamp near the window.
Warm light fills the room.
It should be comforting.
It isn’t.
Not when my chest is still tight from earlier.
Not when Atlas’s eyes won’t leave my head.
Not when Finn’s hurt expression keeps replaying.
Not when Kael looked at me like I was slipping through his fingers.
I tell myself a hot shower will help.
It doesn’t.
I step out with wet hair and a towel wrapped around me, moving on autopilot as I pull on an oversized shirt and sink onto the couch.
Finally, my body stills.
Finally, my head quiets.
For maybe three seconds.
Then my phone buzzes.
My stomach drops—reflex, instinct, dread.I shouldn’t feel this way over a text notification, but my body hasn’t caught up with the lie that I’m safe.
I reach for my phone with shaking fingers and flip it over.
It’s not an unknown number this time.
It’s worse.
Adrian Frost
1 New Message
My pulse stutters.
He shouldn’t be texting me.
He shouldn’t be thinking about me.
He shouldn’t even remember my number.
I shouldn’t open it.
But I do.
