I unscrew the lid and squeeze a little onto my fingertip. It’s cold and thick, but still usable.
Dragging my paint-covered finger around the eyeholes, I smear the pink into a heart. One for each eye. The paint is stark and a little messy, but when I’m done, two ragged hearts stare back at me.
My mouth twitches.
It looks right. Like her world and mine have collided. I glance back at her face on my phone.
Heart eyes.
‘This is all just temporary. Just a means to an end,’ I remind myself.
Just until I decide whether to step out of the shadows and show myself.
By the time darkness has fallen, I’m itching to go to her. To catch a glimpse of her through her window just to reassure myself she’s still in my world.
Dressed in my cheap, black clothing, I stalk throughthe streets toward the student housing. Skirting it, I pace further into the more run-down section behind it, the orange pools of light that would normally bring comfort making me antsy.
You know you’re doing something wrong when you want to keep to the shadows. But try as I might, I can’t help but follow the path back to Kat.
My fingers dip into my pocket and brush against the mask for the umpteenth time since I left my flat. A reminder that it’s there if I need it. Definitely before entering the alley.
Ellie’s still across town working, pulling pints in some dingy bar. I’d question why she can’t pick one of the student bars near her home, but it works out better for me that she doesn’t. Her little dot being miles away is much easier.
I’m halfway down the street when I see a flash of blonde hair that stops me in my tracks. Kat steps out of her alley and heads across the road. Two more minutes and she’d have walked right into me.
A thrill sizzles up my spine at the thought.
Not yet.
She’s dressed up. Short skirt and knee-high boots. Her oversized sweater slips off her shoulder as she moves. The idea of biting the exposed flesh there steals my breath. I’ve never so viscerally wanted to touch someone. If anything, people’s touch makes me want to scream.
She doesn’t see me as I trail her, keeping far enough back to avoid suspicion. I hope.
I should probably turn and go home. To classify my journey as a failure and slink back to my flat with my tail between my legs.
My hand drifts to the mask in my pocket again as I match Kat’s pace. I want to hide from her almost as much as I want to throw myself in front of her and beg her to notice me.
But I can’t put it on under the streetlights while people walk by. I’d attract more attention than without it.
Kat walks for a few streets, cutting through the university campus and out the other side, where the streets take on a more industrial flavour. In the daytime, there would be burger vans to feed the local labourers and a plethora of white vans filling the carparks. Protectiveness washes over me as a man walks past her, turning to eye the expanse of her thighs from behind. The desire to pull him into a darkened corner and rip his throat out hits me like a runaway truck.
But she stops in front of a hotel. If you can call it that. And the man with the wandering eyes moves away, keeping his pulse for another day.
The hotel is low budget, probably teeming to the seams with workmen and sleazy business types. The ones whose bosses secretly hate them and send them to the shit-heaps. It’s big enough to be busy, but all on onelevel from what I can see. Like a huge, shabby bungalow surrounded by weeds and broken fencing.
What the hell is Kat doing in a place like this?
Maybe my flat won’t seem so shitty after all.
It’s a hotel you definitely don’t want to stay at for more than one night. Hell, probably not for more than an hour.
Realisation hits me as Kat smiles at a guy. My guts twist.
He’s leaning against the wall just to the side of the entrance with his hands in his pockets, like he’s been waiting a while. Tucking in beside a parked van, I seethe. Logically, I know that Kat doesn’t know I’m here—hell, she probably doesn’t even remember me—but seeing her with another man tears me up inside.
He’s the bloke from her pictures online. The one who always seems to be with her on nights out, hanging around behind her and Ellie. But never up front and posing with them. Not a boyfriend. Just… something.
He pushes off the wall and steps toward her, running a hand through his hair before letting it fall to her waist in a touch that screams of familiarity.
