Chapter 5
Chapter Five
“Perhaps it is our fault that we persist in coming into contact with plants that can kill. These toxic components have evolved out of a need to protect against consumption, after all, and yet we continue to consume.”
-Fez Inkwright, Botanical Curses and Poisons: The Shadow Lives of Plants-
Logan
“She just needs to cool off.” I say for the millionth time. I watch as Ace paces back and forth. He’s been like this since the night of the party when Thea fled back to their childhood home and had gone radio silent ever since.
He shakes his head as I pull a drag from the joint into my lungs, holding the drug in as long as I can. I love the burn of it. “Something is off, I can fucking feel it.”
Ace isn’t wrong that it feels odd but we talk to Thea all day everyday so truthfully any amount of silence would feel weird.
“Alright dude lets just call her.” Before he can stop me I hit the FaceTime button.
We both wait to see her adorable face pop up on the screen only to be met by ‘caller unavailable’.
“She’s just busy.” I say but as the words come out of my mouth I see her name pop up via text.
Tinkerbell: I need you all to leave me alone.
Tinkerbell: I’m seeing someone now and it’s not appropriate for me to be as close with you three. It was wrong for me to even think of entertaining a relationship with any of you, especially my brother. Please respect my decision.
The words feel like I’m getting punched in the gut over and over. And I’m ready to kill whoever thinks they can touch Thea. But when I look at Ace I know the words just destroyed a part of him that we may never get back.
I watch Thea’s reactions closely as we talk.
She’s a shell of who she used to be and all I want is to demand answers.
She was ours and yet she had left us for someone else.
Refusing to speak to us. Ace had spiraled deep after that, going to a dark place I hadn’t been sure we could pull him back from.
It had been miserably hard to respect her decision but I was also pissed that she could throw away years of friendship for some fucking asshole.
After I heard about her moms death I said fuck it and came back one weekend to demand she talk to me.
At the very least I was going to fucking be there for her while she grieved.
But she had vanished. No one could, or would, tell us where Thea Montgomery had gone.
And now I find her half dead on the side of the road. None of it makes sense.
Thea clears her throat. Her body shivers in my hold and I’m reminded how much of her story I’m missing. “Let’s get you in a warm shower. We can finish our conversation after that.”
I reluctantly pull away and lead her towards the back of the cabin, pushing the door open to our master bedroom.
Long ago, when we remodeled the house, I demanded a room big enough to fit all three of us with a shower and bathroom to match.
While the whole house is gorgeous and an architect's wet dream, the master is my favorite place.
Thea pulls up short just over the threshold, her eyes wide as she takes in the room. “Don’t worry Tink, this just has the best bathroom.” I say in a joking tone. “I promise to behave myself.” I throw a wink in for good measure.
She flushes crimson as she pulls her bottom lip into her teeth, biting down as she nervously shifts back and forth.
Fuck me, what I wouldn’t give to be the one biting that lip.
I stalk towards her with a low growl, the noise and movement spooking her and sending her back against the door jam. I want to feel bad, I should feel bad, for spooking her, but after everything I can’t help but enjoy the wide eyes she has.
Bracing an arm above her head I lean in, breathing in her natural scent. Without thought my thumb presses into her lip, dragging it back out. “No more biting this. That lip deserves to be cherished.” I hear the exhale of her breath in a rapid whoosh as I step away with a cocky smirk.
This girl is both sin and salvation. She’s the apple in my own garden of Eden and when I finally get a bite? I’m going to fucking devour her.
Starting the bath up, I look behind my shoulder. “Ace is out on a job right now, won’t be back for a few days.” I supply the information as I busy myself with adding the bath salts. I don’t miss the sigh of relief she has at that.
“Law?” She asks softly.
I barely conceal the smirk, turning to face her.
I cross my arms over my chest, enjoying how her eyes roam over my body.
“He’s around.” She seems to relax with the news.
“This is what we are going to do. I want you to hop into the bath. After you take a nice long soak we are going to have a long conversation about what the fuck is going on in that pretty little head of yours to think swallowing whatever you took was the only way out.”
“I didn’t…” She starts, frowning and shaking her head. “I didn’t want to kill myself. If that’s what you think.” Her voice is so fucking soft as her eyes flit around the room avoiding my own gaze.
I raise an eyebrow. “You sure about that?”
Her gaze cuts to me, hard and unmoving. “It’s odd you seem to care now.” The words are quiet but they hold an edge to them and they confuse the fuck out of me, but she plows forward before I can ask anything. “You don’t know anything about me Logan, you don’t know what I’ve been through.”
She may not have consciously wanted to die when she took those drugs but apathy towards life is just as deadly. Stepping into her space I cradle her face with my hands, the soft skin practically translucent. “So tell me your story Tink, give it all to me, I can take it.”
This time it’s fear that floods those blue eyes of hers and her body goes rigid.
“I don’t need you to do that.” She physically backs away from me until she’s just outside the threshold of the bathroom.
She looks small in the room. Her frame is thin and her hair hangs limp around her face.
The circles under her eyes are so dark they look like a deep bruising, as if they are permanently etched into her skull.
Taking one step forward I raise my eyebrow at her, hating that she’s hiding anything from me.
That she feels like she has to hide anything from me.
“You know of the three of us I’m going to ask the nicest, Ace won’t be asking at all and Law?
Well… daddy doesn’t like being denied.” She sucks in a breath of shock at my words, cheeks flushing.
“For now, however, I just want you warming up in the damn bath.”
I step back from her, allowing her to head towards the bath. She seems to melt with relief when her hand grazes the warm water. “Lavender?” She murmurs with a faint smile.
“Of course.” I lean against the door frame, watching her as she wraps her arms around herself.
Her cheeks flush with a light pink blush as she glances around, nervously. “Uh, if you don’t mind?”
I snort, nodding. “I’ll give you space.” I make a move to head out the door before pausing and glancing back at her. “But Tink, next time you won’t be alone in that bath.”
Thea
My body shivers at his words as I slowly strip from my clothes.
His presence still lingers in the opulent space, his scent filling the room and overpowering the lavender he dropped into the warm water.
Logan has always been a shameless flirt, and it’s easy to get lost in the way he makes me feel alive.
It's even easier to think about falling back into their lives, to think that they could maybe save me from the monster that haunts me.
We could hit rewind and pretend the party never happened, everything could go back to normal.
I groan. Utterly confused and beyond exhausted.
Dragging the sweatshirt over my head I drop it to the ground, turning towards the beckoning water.
My eyes skim past the mirror, a momentary lapse of judgment on my part.
I wince at my reflection, refusing to linger on it longer than necessary.
I know what I’ll see, and it’s the ice cold water I need to cool the lust I have building.
The girl in the mirror is nothing but skin and bones and bruises and scars.
She uses drugs and alcohol and pain to escape anything and everything.
She took five pills of unknown origin so she wouldn’t have to face life. That’s the truth of it.
Their silence may have broken me all those years ago, and Royce may have shattered those pieces even smaller, but I think deep down I've always been this girl. I avoided life in my garden when I was little. And lost myself in them when I was older. My methods just improved when I became an adult.
My attention drifts downward to my abdomen, my hand covering the mark Royce left on me long ago.
The swirling double RR brand that he burned into my flesh.
I can still smell my flesh, still feel the agonizing pain as he held me down and laughed.
I can still vividly remember how it felt when he took me later that night, taking care not to ‘ruin the brand’ when he did so.
It was the first night he gave me one of the white pills.
And the last night I cared about fighting him.
The sobering reality of it all is Logan may flirt all he wants but no one is going to want me once they see the ruined canvas Royce made of my body.
I lower myself into the water until the lavender scented liquid hits my chin.
For a flash of a moment I think about how easy it would be to slip under the warm water and slide into its embrace.
I could escape everything with one simple act.
I would never have to face any of my monsters ever again.
It's so tempting that I let my body start to slip on the bottom of the tub, a test if you will, to see if I can do it.