36. Cin
Cin
Mom knocks on the door not long after dinner, entering with a cupcake in her hand.
“I swiped one from the kitchen,” she says, handing it over. I put it on the nightstand and eye her. “That was… interesting.”
“I’m having a hard time believing that you’re okay with me going back to school, even with Griffin, Mama. I was kidnapped in broad daylight in the bathroom of a cafe where you also were, and you had no idea. What makes you think he can’t get to me at school?”
She looks around the room, at the chair left sitting before the mirror, and chews the inside of her cheek. It's her way of stalling, of coming up with a lie.
“I understand why you didn’t tell me the truth about my father,” her head turns in my direction, eyes are slowly filling with tears, “but what I don’t understand is why you’d lie to me, especially now. What is going on, Mama?”
“Cin,” she closes her eyes, and a tear falls, rolling down her cheek and falling into her lap. “We don’t know where he is or how he’s been able to hide for so long. I’m terrified to send you back to school, but Mack says the boys will protect you, and I know Griffin would give up his life for you… but I don’t want that to happen. I want to find Serge before he can do any more damage to you, or me, or our friends.” She takes a deep breath and looks at me. “I want to finish his story so he can’t ever touch you again.”
I nod, “we go back in a few days. I have assignments I have to turn in. How am I going to forget that he’s out there?”
“You can never forget he’s out there, Cin, never. Because the moment you do is the moment he’ll find you. And this time, I don’t know if I’ll be able to save you in time.”
She’s full-on crying now, and my throat starts to burn with my own tears. “I just want this nightmare to be over.”
“I know, Muffin,” she wraps her arms around me and squeezes me to her chest. My ribs scream from the pressure, but I don’t stop her. I need her to be okay and I need this hug just as much as she does.
We stay like that until her tears are dry, and she bids me good night, slipping out of my room and leaving the door cracked open.
Opening my laptop, I find my Young Decay playlist and let the speakers play. Curling up on my side, I stare at the screen of texts that I’ve missed over the last five days.
Mainly from Cody, he’s texted at least ten times a day asking if I’m mad or ghosting him.
I’m not sure what I feel for Cody anymore. I liked the attention he gave me and the way he stood up for me when no one else did. But the red flags are still there. The way he begged me to tell him that I loved him.
His vague answers about his family being back.
The way he paraded around telling people about my virginity.
It's all just…
Talon opens the door and steps in quietly closing it behind him. When he turns I can see the weight of everything pressing down on him.
He wasn’t ready to put us into a category, even to his family. To be completely honest, I don’t know that I am either. The one thing I do know is that he’s been showing up in his own way since that night at the pool.
True to his word, he’s trying to be someone worthy of me.
“Hey,” he finally says, gesturing to the opposite side of the bed.
I nod and let him slide onto the mattress. Moving my computer down to the foot of the bed, still open, so I can hear Reed’s voice fill the room.
“Hey,” I say once his head hits the pillow and his eyes find mine.
“Dinner was…”
“Something,” I finish for him. “I’m fine.”
“No, you aren’t,” he calls my bluff, “don’t lie to me.”
I close my eyes and shake my head because I shouldn’t lie about being okay. Especially not for anyone else’s benefit, but the alternative is most people offering me pity, and that’s not at all what I need.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him, “I feel like I’m losing a battle I didn’t know I was a part of.”
“That sounds better,” he runs a finger over my brow and tucks a piece of hair behind my ear.
“I don’t like not knowing,” I admit.
“Understandable,” he says, slowly laying his arm across my hip.
In this space, with the door shut and Talon looking at me with open and honest eyes, I feel like I could tell him the world and he’d still stay, so I give him my scariest truth.
“I’m terrified that my father is going to kill me one day, and what’s worse is I don’t know how to pretend that threat isn’t real. How to live and go back to school with the threat of death looming over my head and continue with life like it’s all fucking sunshine and roses.”
He doesn’t say anything because what can he say? He just scoots me close to him and shimmies his other arm under my head. Using his bicep as a pillow, we stare at each other.
“Will you tell me about your mom?” I ask, praying that he won’t get up and leave. I know Toby told me that’s a subject he doesn’t talk about, but I’m desperate for more pieces of him.
“No.” He refuses, and I don’t pry because he has to be the one to want to open up.
So we lay there, letting the music wash over us until we drift to sleep.
Waking up beside someone should scare me. Neither one of us moved much last night. We’re in the same position we were in when we fell asleep, except now his bicep is covered in drool.
That's so not cool, Cin.
Taking the bed covers and wiping his arm of any evidence, I turn over and eye the cupcake mom brought me last night that I forgot about.
The icing looks crunchy now, but otherwise, the cake looks delicious. I won’t eat it, but it sure is aesthetically pleasing.
“Good morning,” Talon grumbles behind me, throwing one arm over his eyes.
I laugh and head for the bathroom. Relieving myself and washing my hands, I return back to the room where Talon is still lying on the bed.
“We don’t have long before we have to go back to school,” I say, gripping his ankles so I know he knows I’m talking to him, “what are we going to do with them?”
He pops one eye open and smirks, “I have a few ideas.”