Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 71 - Chapitre 80

This time I saw him coming. Cain moved fast, but I was ready for him. I rolled off the bed just as his second punch whistled through the air where my head had been. “Better,” he said, circling me like a vulture. He came at me again, faster this time, throwing a combination that would have put a normal person in the hospital. I blocked most of it, but he was good. Really good. Trained by professionals while I’d been playing high school volleyball and pretending to be human. A sharp right hook caught me in the ribs, and I heard something crack. Another jab snapped my head back, and I tasted more blood. “Come on, little brother,” he taunted. “I thought you were supposed to be impressive.” “Little brother?” I was still trying to wrap my head around that. I didn’t remember having any siblings. Hell, I barely remembered living here at all. I was holding back, still trying to process everything that had happened in the last few hours. Still overwhelmed by the ritual, by finding

LilyI’d been lying in bed for three days straight, and I was pretty sure the only reason I’d gotten up at all was to use the bathroom. I was starting to gross myself out, My room smelled stale and my hair was probably a disaster, but moving felt like too much effort.My phone had been buzzing on and off all morning. Naomi’s name kept lighting up the screen, but I just watched it ring until it stopped. She’d left about fifteen voicemails that I wasn’t planning to listen to anytime soon.Outside my door, I could hear Mom doing her daily routine of leaving a tray of food that I wouldn’t touch. Yesterday’s sandwich was probably still sitting out there, getting stale. The day before that, she’d brought soup that had gone cold and congealed into something gross.“Honey, you need to eat something,” she said through the door, her voice doing that careful thing where she was trying not to sound as worried as she actually was.I pulled my pillow over my head instead of answering. What was I su

Lily Naomi stayed for another hour, mostly just sitting on my bed while I finished packing. She kept asking questions about my summer classes and whether I’d be back before the fall semester, but I could tell she was really trying to figure out and fish out for more details. The conversation with my parents went about as well as I’d expected. Mom cried a little, Dad looked confused and concerned, and they both tried to convince me that running away to Oregon wasn’t going to solve whatever I was going through. But in the end, they helped me pack my stuff into the car and drove me to the airport, probably because they figured I was going to college eventually anyway and at least this way they knew where I was going. The flight to Oregon was the longest two hours of my life, mainly because I had nothing to distract me from thinking about how my new life would be. This is nothing like I have planned. But when I finally got to campus and saw the dorms, I felt something that might have b

LilyWhen I finished, I waited for Naomi to either pity me or laugh at how stupid I’d been. Instead, she was quiet for about ten seconds, and then she exploded.“That absolute cockwaffling piece of shit,” she said, and her voice was so full of rage that I almost jumped. “I hope his dick falls off and gets eaten by rabid squirrels.”I couldn’t help it. I started laughing, partly because “cockwaffling” was possibly the most creative insult I’d ever heard, and partly because it felt so good to have someone be angry on my behalf instead of just feeling sorry for me.“I thought you liked him,” I said, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand. “You even had a crush on him before we started dating. I remember you being weird about it when I told you we were together.”Naomi’s face scrunched up like she’d tasted something disgusting. “That was just me being clueless with terrible taste in guys. And honestly? I was probably just jealous because you got the cute foster brother and I was stuck cr

The alcohol was starting to hit me a little, making everything feel slightly fuzzy around the edges. I looked at Ethan, who was sitting there looking genuinely uncomfortable and sorry, and I felt some of the anger drain out of me. He didn’t deserve to get his head bitten off for trying to be nice.“Sorry,” I said, my voice coming out quieter than before. “That was…. I didn’t mean to snap at you like that.”“No, it’s okay,” Ethan said quickly. “I shouldn’t have pushed.”He looked so genuinely apologetic that I felt bad for being such a bitch to him. Ethan had cheated on me, yeah, but that was months ago and had apologized over and over again.“How are your classes going?” I asked, trying to steer us back to safer territory. “Business administration, right?”“Yeah,. Not nearly as hardcore as what you’re doing. I don’t know how you handle three science courses at once.”“I like staying busy,” I said, which was the understatement of the century.“Busy is one thing, but hours a day in a l