“Get the fuck out of here,” I bark, giving the man seconds to flee. He rushes off like a pussy, barely glancing back as he turns the corner up the street.
“What the fuck was that?” she screeches, pummeling my back with angry fists. “Are you trying to get me killed?”
Without warning, I spin, grabbing her flailing arms with my hands, forcing her to look into my eyes.
“I was just protecting you.”
She calms for half a second before her brow scrunches. “I don’t need you to protect me, Wesley. I just need you to forget I exist.”
Before she can protest, I pick her up by the waist, forcing her back into the alley she just came out of. If we’re going to have this conversation, we’re going to have it some place out of the view of others.
“Don’t you get it,” I yell, my voice coming out breathy and a little distraught. “Your existence is the only reason I’m still here.”
She stills, no longer fighting me.
“I don’t get you,” she finally says, voice more broken than she would like to let on. “I fight you every chance I get. I insult you. I cut your arm the last time we saw each other, and you still look at me like I’m the only thing that matters to you.”
“Because you are.”
She rips her hands out of my grasp, rubbing at her wrists that are now an angry red. I didn’t realize I was holding her that tightly, and it makes me feel like shit that I hurt her. Not that it’s hard. The girl’s nothing but skin, bones, and the markings of someone fighting addiction.
“Wesley, you gotta let me go. If you get too close to me, they’ll kill you.”
I rip her sleeve up, revealing the brand on her skin. “Who? Them?” Fuck them, Poppy. They’re the ones that are keeping you in this place of self-destruction. They don’t give two fucks about you. Not like I do. You can hate me all you want, and fight me tooth and nail, but there’s nothing you can do to keep me away from you.”
My body moves forward, pushing a strand of hair away from her eyes, pinning her so her back is flush against the wall, and she’s boxed into my arms. “You’re going to have to kill me to keep me away.”
She pushes against me, desperate for space I’m unwilling to give her. “If you keep chasing me, they will kill you.”
“Let them come.”
“I’m serious, Wesley. They don’t give two shits who you are. If you stand in their way, they will end you.”
She lets out a frustrated breath just as my hand starts tracing her skin, trying to imagine what it was like before it was marred with pick pox and track marks.
“Don’t,” she warns, though her eyes beg me for more.
“Don’t what?”
“Make me fall for you again.”
The word catches me off guard. “Again?”
She ducks beneath my arm, tears forming in her eyes that refuse to shed.
“Just forget about it,” she whispers, seconds away from bolting.
This time I don’t let her. I grab her hand, forcing her to look up, her vulnerability alarming.
“No, Poppy, not this time. What do you mean by again?”
“Prom,” she whispers, the words detonating my heartbeats. “When you took me home and kissed me.” Her voice shakes with conviction. “When you left and never looked back.” She hugs herself. “For a second… a moment… I actually thought…” She stutters out the words, a single tear slipping down her cheek with slow precision. “I actually thought you cared.”
“I do care, Poppy. Haven’t I shown you that yet? No matter what you do or say, I’ll always be here for you.”
She shakes her head when I caress her cheek, fighting off the attraction that’s still there and always has been. “If you knew who I am now, you wouldn’t be saying that, Wes.”She called meWes, not Wesley.
“I don’t care about that, Poppy. I just care about you.” Before she can stop me, I tug her forward, my lips crashing down on hers with a possession so deep it rattles my bones.
