Chapter 31
Korren
The cabin is eerily quiet when I return.
It was great to spend the day out in the wilderness alone. That was what I used to do, before everything fell apart, and it was always the best way to clear my head and figure things out.
Last time I tried hiking as an escape, I was in a really dark place, and all I could think about was how much I wanted to get lost in the wilderness and never return. But this time it was exactly what I needed.
Except I couldn’t stop thinking about how much more fun it would be with Dex there.
As I started back from the trail, I happened to spot a community noticeboard with a posted advertisement for a room available in a shared house.
It’s not ideal, but it would give me some space and break my dependence on Dex.
I think I’m doing a lot better, but I need to figure out if it’s because of Copper Creek or because of Dex.
And if it’s because of Dex, I need to stop playing this fucking game before I get too attached.
The notice didn’t advertise the price. And there were a few other places pinned up there too, all for some obscene amount that’s obviously geared toward tourists looking to stay a week or two. So my hopes aren’t very high.
But I have to try.
My phone is still as functional as a hunk of wood, so I have to do this the hard way. I drop my pack and trudge back down the trail toward town, planning to hunt down the rental and knock on the door until someone lets me in and tells me what it costs.
I never paid much attention to the street names before, so it takes me a few circuits of town before I stumble across the right block.
The house is tucked beside the used clothing store, and its roof has been repaired so many times with so many different sheets of iron and corrugated plastic that it looks like it leaks in about twenty places.
With great trepidation, I knock on the door. Even though I know this is the right thing to do, there’s a sick weight in my stomach when I hear footsteps approaching.
To my surprise, it’s Garret who answers the door, his usual grin on his face.
“Hey, Korren! What’s the occasion?” He runs a hand over his buzz-cut hair.
“I—uh—saw the listing for a room in this house. I was wondering how much it costs.”
“Ah, fuck, does that mean you’ve lost the challenge?”
“Not yet,” I mumble. “I don’t want to give in until I have somewhere to stay afterward.”
“You guys are insane.”
I choose not to respond to that.
“Anyway, it’s two hundred a week including power,” Garret says. “Not bad for here, really.”
“Not bad,” I echo hollowly. I have no way of affording this.
“D’you want to see the room?”
“Sure.”
I follow Garret numbly into the house, past a dingy living room full of mismatched couches and tables and through a kitchen with several broken floorboards.
“This is the one,” he says, pushing open a door.
The room is worse than any I’ve lived in before. The ceiling is badly water-stained, the floor sagging, and the bed is nothing more than a mattress on the floor.
“Not the nicest, I know, but at least it’s an improvement over the tussocks!” Garret says with a grin.
“Yeah.” I nod robotically. “I think I’ll keep looking, sorry.”
Then I turn and trudge out of that depressing-ass house and back toward my cabin, hating how grateful I am that it won’t work out.
Okay. New plan.
Dex doesn’t want to kick me out. He thinks we can live together.
He’s wrong, because winter is going to be a totally different story than summer, and there’s no way in hell I’m trapping myself in such a small space with someone.
I know myself. I might be enjoying the company now, but it’s going to wear off, because I’m fundamentally a loner. And winter will be the wrong time to figure that out and end up homeless.
But in the meantime, it seems like Dex doesn’t want to scare me off. He probably won’t give me any new dares for a while.
I just need to come up with the ultimate dare, something he’ll never agree to. Something that will guarantee the cabin is mine.
And until then, I need to keep to myself. Stop pretending this is something it isn’t.