Thao’s absence left a gaping hole deep inside of her. It had never gone away. She’d only learned to work around the growing emptiness inside of her. Admittedly, her idea of coping hadn’t been so healthy in the past, but she was learning.
What is life but trial and error?
Jake’s fingers tugged on her hair, pulling gently at her scalp. The movement was both comforting and grounded her in the present moment. In a rush of awareness, as the cold wave washing over her retreated, she realized how close she sat to her sworn enemy. And how she’dallowedhim to touch her.
This anger wasfamiliar. It was comforting and justified. She leaned into it, letting it make her feel alive when otherwise she was a walking zombie.
Funny how one person could do that to her. Of course, it had to be Jake.
There was no way she could forgive him for what he had done to her. The night she snuck into his window, she’d been wanting to escape from the oppressive mood. It had felt like a suffocating weight was holding everyone down. She couldn’t face her parents’ disappointment in losing their only son.
It should have been me.
Thao deserved to live the rest of his life. He would have been an amazing artist, doctor, or whatever he set his mind on becoming. Whatever it was, she knew he would have changed people’s lives for the better.
Unlike her.
Her only legacy was a path of destruction. She destroyed everything she touched.
It was like bad luck followed her everywhere, waiting for the moment to drag her down and reminding her of how unworthy shewas. Every time she thought her luck was changing, something awful would happen. Like when she was about to head off to college, only to lose her twin. Or when all of her hard work seemed to pay off, but she became ensnared in a cycle of drug abuse. After clawing her way back to sobriety, she thought the tides were finally changing with this new role, only to find it was yet another horrifying catastrophe.
Those thoughts still whispered to her sometimes. Especially when she wasn’t paying attention or during an attack. It had been the reason why she snuck out of her house during her brother’s funeral and walked the distance to Jake’s.
The reason she finally acted on her crush.
At first, he’d resisted, but she climbed onto his lap and kissed him until he couldn’t say no. She hadn’t known what she was doing, but she figured with all the romance movies she watched, it couldn’t have been hard.
What she hadn’t expected was the way she’d felt when their lips touched. Her nerve endings felt electrified as a zap of intense pleasure traveled from her lips straight to her core. It had made her feel tingling and achy for something. Her inexperience on the subject had been frustrating, but when she’d instinctively rocked her hips to ease the ache, she’d felt something hard between her thighs.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
Gia whipped her head to glare at the offending owner of the husky voice.
“You need more than just a penny to hear my thoughts, buddy,” she spat, trying to melt him with the heat of her glare. It was too bad she didn’t have laser eyes. She could do some actual damage to the bane of her existence.
“Oh, really? How much more do I need?” Jake untangled his fingers from her hair and crossed his arms across his chest, eyebrow raised in challenge, the corner of his lip upturned. She had the urge to smack the smirk right off his face.
“You couldn’t afford it.” Turning her nose in the air, shemoved to turn away, except something caught her eye. Halting, she turned her body toward what had caught her attention.
A brown plaque was in the middle of the bench where Jake’s arm had been resting. It wasn’t the plaque itself that caught her attention, but the sight of a familiar name. Her lips parted as her eyes roamed over the plaque disbelievingly.
In loving memory of Thao Lien
1997-2015
Someone had donated a bench in honor of her brother. People hadn’t forgotten about him.
Tears welled in her eyes as she brought her fingers to gently graze the raised words.
“Who…?” Dumbfounded, she turned her gaze to Jake, who had been watching her closely. Grief strangled her voice. All this time she thought she was alone in grieving Thao, but here was the physical reminder that she wasn’t.
“An anonymous donor had it installed a few years after the… accident.” His voice was curt, as though he were battling his emotions.
A boom of thunder sounded in the distance. Turning their attention to the darkening horizon, she gleaned from the ominous dark clouds that a rainstorm was imminent.
A fast-moving thunderstorm, by the looks of it.
“Fuck. We should get going.” Jake jumped from his seat and held out his hand to her. For once, she agreed with him.
