Pretty sure Kai could have afforded to keep me there as long as he wanted.
But no.
We decided it was ourresponsibilityto come back.
As much as we’d love to run away together, we agreed we’d need to graduate if we ever want to be more than some broke kids from the wrong side of Riverside.
Going to college was always about escaping my shitty life—that was like ninety percent of it.
I don’t want to run away from Agony Hollow, or Riverside.
I want tofixit.
Because if I can put even a dent in the community I grew up in, that’s something. In a few years, I could be surrounded by girls who actually got the hope and the backup I never had.
I had Kai back then, but he’d been fighting his own demons.
We were prisoners of war, propping each other up so we could survive another day.
Who would we have been today if instead of just surviving we’dthrived?
The GPS chimes for a right turn up ahead. I’m not sure how Bastian will feel about Kai driving his Land Rover, but the way my boyfriend smirked when he slid behind the wheel, it seems like any punishment would be worth it.
I’m sure Professor Rooke can come up withespeciallytorturous punishment for a bad girl and boy like?—
—Whoa, that was close.
Not today, Lucifer.
The GPS announces that we’ve arrived at our destination, and I peer out the window at the Airbnb.
A gust of wind sends leaves fluttering across my view, the day darkening as a cloud passes over the sun. Agony Hollow is just as we left it—with a storm brewing on the horizon, and the taste of fall in the air.
A thrill goes through me, because it feels like we’re still kinda on holiday. I mean, what else can I call it? I nearly squealed when Kai told me he’d booked a rental near campus until we figured out where the hell we were actually going to live.
Since I don’t technically have a bed.
And since Kai doesn’t have a frat anymore.
I tried to talk to him about it on the way back to town, but he kept changing the subject. Guess he’s still marinating in denial, but come on, how long does it take to admit your brother’s a backstabbing piece of shit?
That’s Ezra 101.
Kai didn’t really want to talk about his family when we first became friends—and neither did I—but we opened up to each other a little each day. Both of us testing the waters to see at what point the other would back off and say, ‘too much drama for me’.
We played that game of emotional-baggage chicken as often as we did Columbus and Jane until we realized both our families were so fucked up that we couldn’t judge each other.
That was a turning point.
We became each other’s therapists. We’d listen, sympathize, and then concoct grand plans of revenge together while simultaneously repressing every trauma.
Not at all toxic.
No wonder we turned out so well.
“You okay?” Kai leans into my view, and I realize I’d zoned out staring at the guest unit above the property’s detached garage. The main house is barely visible past a gigantic oak tree’s boughs.
I thump Kai on the shoulder. “Yeah! Let’s fucking go!”
