Chapter Two
For three days,I hid in our tiny cottage that felt like an empty mansion. I collapsed onto the shag carpet and eyed Zoey’s old bed. I’d celebrated the day she had left for college because I could finally have my own bedroom, but now, I wanted her home instead of staying with Sadie andAshton.
I eyed my bed and took a deep, lungful of air, steadying myself for what I was about to face. I retrieved my photo box tucked under my bed behind my old skateboard. My hands shook as I unveiled the memoriesinside.
The papers and photos and scraps of a shattered former life sat in front of me. The button from my mother’s favorite dress she’d left behind in her haste to escape us, to my father’s half-smoked cigarette, to my ex-boyfriend’s love notes tome.
I lifted a slip of worn paper. It took some effort, but I read the faint print on the ticket stub.Little Shop of Horrors. We lived in a small town, and the show was so controversial that Sadie nearly collapsed from shock when she drove by and saw me in my sexy Audrey costume waiting outside for the doors toopen.
Underneath it was a picture of Dylan and I snuggled together in our folding chairs. He rocked those Seymour Krelborn glasses with a hot incognito look. I chuckled at the memory of him acting like a nerd. It was so wrong with his boy-gone-wild normallook.
“Avery, you here?” Sadie’s voice echoed from the front door to myears.
I quickly slammed the box top on and shoved the memories back where they belonged, under the bed in the darkness. “You don’t live here anymore, remember? You should knock before you let yourselfin.”
It only took a few seconds for her to reach my door from the front and peer around at me. “I did knock, but you didn’t answer. We wereworried.”
“We?”
Zoey poked her head out from the hall underneath Sadie’s chin. “Hey, sis.” She raised a brow at me. “Whatcha doing on thefloor?”
I thought fast, not wanting to open the door to any further questions. “Just organizing some things.” I didn’t have the energy to get off the floor, but I managed to avoid the sympatheticstares.
“Oh, okay. I thought maybe you were looking through all that stuff you keep under your bed from your relationship with Dylan,” Zoey said in a sweet, unassuming tone. At least I didn’t fall for her innocent act. I knew better than to let my guard down with her. She wanted peace in our family at any cost, and with Sadie and I not speaking the last few days I knew she was on theoffensive.
“You knew?” Iasked.
“Of course we knew.” Sadie sat on the edge of my bed and patted the mattress for me to sit by herside.
I acquiesced, knowing I couldn’t hide for long in such a small town, especially when my sisters still had a key to thehouse.
Zoey plopped down on my other side for a sisterly prying sandwich. “Listen, you’ve been hiding for three days here. Don’t you think it’s time to go outsideagain?”
“I’m not hiding. I’m avoiding. There’s a difference,” I said in a matter-of-facttone.
“I know you don’t want to hear this, but maybe you need to face Dylan once and for all.” Sadie studied her nails. “I mean, what do you have tolose?”
What did I have to lose? I could fall into a landfill of excuses and lies, unable to claw my way out the minute he looked at me. That was his power over me. Everything. I tried to be strong, but I wasn’t. That boy twisted me around until I didn’t know which way toturn.
Zoey scooted closer and took my hand in hers. “Sadie’s right. You are perfect, Avery. I want to be strong like you. In the last couple of years, you have become wiser, stronger,but…”
“But still a mess.” I didn’t cry. There were no tears left. I’d cried for hours, days, years. I would never cry for Dylan or any other family member who took the express bus out of my lifeagain.
Sadie patted my leg. “I know you’re in pain, and I can’t watch you sufferanymore.”
Zoey released my hand and wrapped her arm around me. “We love you.” She kept me squeezed to her side and nudged me to stand. “Come on. We have something that we hope will help you.” The way her voice cracked made menervous.
I followed her like a zombie. “A pint of Chunk Chocolate Extreme, Ihope.”
Sadie took a deep breath, and I paused, trying to decipher what her sad eyes and lowered shoulders meant. She really was worried aboutme.
“Listen. I’m fine, you two. Stop sister obsessing. If I want to go talk to Dylan while he’s in town, I will. If not, then I’ll be fine. Let itgo.”
I pushed from Zoey’s arms and headed to the livingroom.
“You’ll never be okay until you face this. I hope you forgive us someday,” Sadie said, racing by me with Zoey on herheels.
A heated warning flooded my skin. “What did you two do?” I shuffled into the living room, and by the door stood a man in uniform. I blinked and shook my head, waiting for someone toexplain.
Then the man smiled, and I saw that long-haired boy with a lopsided grin flash before myeyes.
“Dylan?”
