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Thursday

I read his note for the millionth time and then screamed into my pillow.

I was amazing?

Really?

Fuck you, Mr. Halifax!

I was so mad at him. He’d used me. And then left me like a piece of trash.

I hated his freaking guts.

But not more than I loved him.

And I was so freaking pissed that my mystery man was right about everything. Banging Mr. Halifax was a mistake. He was my Hephaestus. Not the Adam to my Eve.

I threw Mr. Halifax’s sweater onto the floor and screamed into my pillow again.

Chapter 23 – I’m Fine

Friday

RJ climbed onto my bed, just like he had every night this week.

Like how I used to do for him when he was little and scared of the dark.

“You don’t have to stay,” I said. It was Friday night. Surely he had better things to do than sit here with me.

“This is the only place I want to be,” RJ said.

I smiled at the wall.

“Unless you like...want to get up and shower, because you’re starting to smell.”

I rolled over and hit him with my pillow.

He laughed and tore it out of my hands. “Seriously. Come out and watch a movie. Everyone is here.”

“What do you mean everyone is here?”

“Liam. Scar. Axel. Jacob.”

“They’re all here?”

“They come every night, Soph.”

“I didn’t know that,” I said.

“Well you keep saying you don’t want to see anyone. So I haven’t mentioned it. But you’ve stayed home from school all week. Everyone is worried about you.”

I stared at my brother. He’d told me he couldn’t find Mr. Halifax. That he’d vanished without a trace. But I was pretty sure he’d found him and was just protecting me from something. I just wasn’t sure what. Myself, probably.

And I’d spent all week staring at my ceiling thinking about this.

Mr. Halifax didn’t want me. And I knew exactly why. It was so obvious. At first I’d been sad. Then furious. And now I’d kind of just accepted the truth, even if it stung like hell. An eerie calm had finally settled around me today.

And knowing where he’d moved wasn’t going to make him want me any more. Or make me want him any less. I’d be tempted to go do something embarrassing. Like beg him to give me another chance. It was better if I didn’t know. So I didn’t push the topic.