“Stop, Poppy. Please, stop,” Eddie begs.
“I hate you!” My voice echoes like a haunted moan. I’m seconds away from crumbling.
“I know. Hate me all you want, but please—”
“He can’t breathe,” Officer Johnston shouts. “He’s having another anxiety attack.”
“Then let him die! He deserves it after what he did to my sister and best friend. This world would be better off without him in it.” Do I mean the words?Maybe. But this reaction feels nothing like me. I’m calm. I’m the one that usually keeps a good head. But right now, it’s spinning and spinning and won’t fucking stop.
Dead? How can my sister be dead?
Pippa’s gone? I just lost Amber, now they’re saying my twin’s gone too.
Why did Amber have to leave now?I need her. I need her so much it fucking hurts.
“You need to calm down. I know you’re upset, but I will arrest you if you continue threatening him the way you are,” Officer Johnston warns.
“Threatening? You haven’t even seen threatening yet!” I shoot to my feet, unable to control my own body. I’m spiraling, everything closing in. The walls, the air around me. It all feels suffocating.
“Breathe, Eddie,” Officer Johnston instructs. “Take a long deep breath and let it out slowly.”
How can he be tending to Eddie right now when I’m the one who needs comforting?
I grab the first thing I see and throw it to the ground, realizing almost immediately that it was something Eddie gave Amber. The shattering of glass does something to me, and I grab something else, a picture of them in Cabo, throwing it to the ground too.
“Amber—” Eddie screams out, his voice wavering with pain.
“Don’t say her name!” I grab something off the table and launch it at him, only for it to be caught by the cop.Asshole. “You fucking broke her! You shattered her so bad she’ll never trust anyone again. She’s so fucked up that she left Reno because of you. She’s not dead, but you killed her anyway! You tore every piece of trust out of her. You think she’ll ever be whole again after you? S—She left me—left everyone.” My words come out in stutters. “She won’t answer my calls, and I don’t know if she’ll ever come back because you broke her down so far there’s nothing left for her here. She’ll never love again. Not when you left her hollow and without purpose!”
“Love? How can you talk about love when you don’t even know what it is?” Eddie snaps.
“What on earth are you talking about?” I fire back, unable to control myself.
“You act like you’re so perfect, Poppy. But you’ve ruined people too. Take Wesley for example.”
My gut sours. I hate hearing his name. I hate being reminded of him.
Yet Eddie continues, making everything worse. “The guy went to prison fighting for you! He laid a guy out because he fucking dared to touch you. Now he’s five years in because that’s his way of showing you how much he cares—how deep his love actually is for you. And what did you do, Poppy? You called him trash and treated him like he wasn’t worth the dirt under your feet.”
My lips begin to tremble, but I refuse to let him see me break. He won’t get that from me. “Don’t. Don’t you dare put that on me. Wesley did this to himself! He’s a fucking loose cannon and a criminal!”
“You don’t believe that.” Eddie steps toward me, his voice dropping to something more controlled. “I see it in your face. You pretend to loathe him because you think he’s beneath you. But he’s the only one who’s ever bled for you. And you hate him for that too, because deep down, you feel something for him you’ll never admit.”
Yeah, those words do everything they shouldn’t.
Before I can stop myself, my hand snaps across his face, whipping his head to the side so hard he seems dazed. “Shut the fuck up!”
That’s when Officer Johnston steps in. “Enough!”
“You pushed away Amber too. Always choosing Pippa before her, putting your own selfish needs before anyone else. Where’s those good grades and academic scholarships going to get you now, Poppy? Were they worth losing your twin sister and your best friend?”
He knows exactly how to unravel me. The tears come back full force, my heart shattering. When I finally find my voiceagain, it comes out pure venom. “I hope you rot in Hell for what you’ve done. I hope every breath you take burns like acid, and you feel my sister’s death like she’s cursed your damning soul.”
“Your wish is my command, Poppy, because I’m already feeling the repercussions for what happened up on that mountain.”
“That’s because you don’t just break people, Eddie, you hollow them out. You might as well have killed them both.”
Eddie starts to sway, a strange look of confusion taking over as his breathing increases into quick, little huffs. “Sit down, Eddie. You’re hyperventilating. Keep your eyes on me. In through your nose, out through your mouth.” He stands there like a statue. “Goddamn it, man! Fucking breathe!”
