“You look like you wanna run away.”
I snorted, coughing as the drink burned down my throat. “I already have.”
“Then keep running.” Her eyes glittered. “Come meet my people. We don’t bite.”
“Do you always adopt strays?”
“Only the broken ones.”
We climbed over rocks slick with ocean spray. I could hear the ocean crashing beneath us, the tide rising just like the dread in my chest. She was talking—I half-heard her rambling about her brother’s ex, about how she once shaved her head in a bathroom at three a.m. But my mind was somewhere else. With mom but mostly with him.
He said he cared. Then turned around and shut the door. I didn’t know what burned more; his rejection or the fact that I stillwantedhim anyway. My chest tightened at the memory. Each beat was a drum of longing I couldn’t escape. Every laugh, every fire-lit shadow around me felt like a reminder that he hadn’t stayed. That I had fractured what little remained of something real.
“Hey, earth to mystery boy,” Mia said, nudging me with her shoulder. “What’s your name?”
“I didn’t say.”
“Still not saying?”
“Elliot.”
She nodded, pink hair blowing into her eyes. “Well, Elliot, you’ve officially been kidnapped. Welcome to the island of misfit toys.”
We jumped down onto the sand again. A smaller fire glowed in the distance, tucked into a hollow behind the rocks. Four people sat around it, passing bottles and blunts between them like they did this all the time. Their laughter was quiet and intimate, a different energy from the chaos behind us.
“Guys, I found a stray,” Mia announced, skipping into the circle.
The sand was cold as I sat down, hoodie zipped to my chin, heart thudding like a drum. The laughter around me was warm and inviting, but I could feel the hollow space Anthony had left. No one could touch that, no matter how many drinks or blunts I took.
A guy with long dark hair and tattoos that wrapped his arms like vines grinned at her. “You always do.” He looked at me, dark eyes sizing me up. “I’m Drax.”
I nodded.
“Jet,” said the one with the bleached hair and eyebrow rings.
“Dix,” the girl next to him said. Her lipstick was black and smeared but her smile was kind. “Want some?” She held out a flask.
The liquid was bitter as I took a sip without asking what it was, having lost my cup on the way over here. It burned like fire as I swallowed it and choked for the second time tonight.
They made room for me without question, the kind of welcome only the truly damaged understood. I sat in the sand, hoodie zipped to my chin, heart thudding loud against my ribs.
“So what’s your story?” Jet asked, flicking his lighter open and closed.
I shrugged. “Don’t have one.”
“That’s a lie,” Mia said softly. “We all do.”
My lips remained sealed. My throat felt tight. My fingers clenched around the flask like it was the only thing keeping me grounded. My vision blurred. Faces melted into one another, the fire splitting into shards of light. Each heartbeat rattled in my skull. My fingers tightened on the flask as if holding it could tether me to something real, something I could survive.
“I care about you. Just not like that.”
“Sorry,” Drax said suddenly. “Are you okay?”
“Do I look okay?”
He smirked. “You look like someone who’s trying not to drown.”
My eyes pinged to his, startled by the accuracy. “Yeah,” I whispered. “That’s exactly what it feels like.”
