Chapter 28 #2
No. I would never be okay again. I was dying inside. “I’m fine.” I jerked away from him.
“I’m worried about you,” he said, his voice low.
A tear slid down my cheek. “I can’t talk to you right now.” I turned to leave.
He grabbed my arm again. “Laney.”
“What?” I practically screamed. “What do you want from me?”
He raised his arms in surrender. “Sorry. I’m just worried about you.”
“If you’re so worried about me, maybe you should have considered my feelings when you decided to support the others. Did any of you even stop to consider Rowan’s feelings or mine?” It hurt. Everything hurt.
He shook his head. “Don’t give me that lame excuse. You know it’s not that simple. It isn’t like we don’t like you. This is about our survival. Rowan is our next alpha. There are certain demands and expectations. We have rules.”
I started to walk away. I couldn’t stand there and listen to him justify it all.
“You know this was Rowan’s choice, don’t you?”
That stopped me cold.
“He fucking loves you so much, he is willing to suffer the rest of his life.”
“We’ll both suffer.”
“It’s better than being dead.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. I felt dead inside. I just wished there was a way we could have fought for us. A way for us to have changed things.
“You don’t understand our world,” Adan said. “It’s not very forgiving. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made.”
“You’re going to miss your bus,” I reminded him. “You better be going.”
His chest rose and fell. “Fine. Just please be careful.”
“You got it.”
He finally left me alone.
After grabbing food, I headed to my room where I found Sarah getting ready to go out.
“It looks like it’s going to rain,” I told her since she was curling her hair.
“I hate this weather. It’s so depressing. One more week and I’ll be back in California for Thanksgiving.”
“Are you going to spend the entire week in California?” I asked, dropping my backpack and taking off my jacket.
“I am.” She turned to face me. “What are your plans for Thanksgiving?”
I shrugged. “I assume I’ll help my mom in her lab that week.” My dad would probably be working, and we never traveled. I wondered if it was because of my dad’s job or because of me.
“Why don’t you come home with me,” she suggested, wrapping a strand of her hair around a wand.
“To California?” That was where my mom grew up and where my grandparents lived.
“Yes. We can go to the beach, hiking, and shopping. It’ll be fun. It’ll help get your mind off of he who shall not be named.”
I chuckled.
“You laugh! I wasn’t sure that was still possible. So what do you think?”
For the past three weeks, I’d been saying no to everything, including life. The opposite of what I was supposed to be doing in college. I glanced outside. It had started to rain. “I’ll go.” I had no idea if my mom would let me, but I think a trip was just what I needed.
Sarah squealed. “It’ll be so much fun! I’ll send you my flight info so you can book yourself a ticket.”
I smiled. Sunshine seemed like the perfect remedy to help me move on.
The key was to move on with my life and not worry about having a guy to share it with. I just needed to focus on myself, my future, and what I wanted to do with it.
“Thank you,” I said to Sarah. “You’ve been a great friend to me. I appreciate it.”
“You would do the same for me.”
As I exited the San Diego airport with Sarah, I smiled.
The sun shone bright overhead, and not a single cloud was in sight.
This was just what I needed. At first, my mom didn’t want me to go.
She’d insisted I remain at home where it was safe.
When I hinted that there might be some dangerous people visiting Rowan’s family, she finally agreed to let me go.
She figured the other side of the country would be safer.
Especially if these enforcers were werewolves.
It was hard to have these conversations with my mom since we were dancing around the subject, both of us knowing but not saying certain words.
Her only stipulation for letting me go was that I didn’t try to find my grandparents.
“There’s my mom,” Sarah said, pointing to the white four-door sedan that pulled up to the curb.
“I can’t believe it’s seventy degrees. In November.” I lifted my suitcase into the trunk.
Sarah quickly introduced me to her mom, Lynn.
I climbed into the back seat while Sarah sat up front with her mom. As we drove to their place, Sarah talked non-stop, telling her mom about her classes, crazy things she’d seen at school, and she’d even called George her boyfriend. Apparently, they were a real couple with labels now.
Since we were exhausted from traveling all day, we decided to stay in that night. We ordered pizza and watched movies.
Now that Lynn was freshly divorced, she lived in a small two-bedroom condo in Carlsbad. I ended up sharing a room with Sarah, which I didn’t mind.
Monday, we went and hiked at Torrey Pines along the coastline. The views were spectacular. Tuesday, we went shopping. Wednesday we prepped for Thanksgiving. And on Thursday, we spent the day at the condo cooking, laughing, and having a wonderful time. We ate dinner on their balcony.
After we finished eating, Lynn went inside to call her sister. Sarah and I remained outside, watching the sun set.
“It’s so beautiful here,” I said. “I’m surprised you didn’t want to go to college in SoCal.”
“I grew up here,” she said. “I wanted to experience something different.”
My mom had grown up here and went to school here. It was an entire part of her life that I knew absolutely nothing about.
“My freshman year, my parents were fighting like mad. That’s when they decided to get a divorce and sell the house. I wanted to be as far away from them as possible.”
My parents never fought. Granted, they weren’t lovey dovey toward one another, but they didn’t fight.
“So,” Sarah said. “You seem to be doing better. Are you?”
I sighed. I wasn’t doing any better. “I am. Thanks to you.” Being here, away from school and everyone there, really was a huge help in pretending to be better. However, I didn’t think my heartbreak would ever heal. The pain was still as intense as if it had just happened.
“What went down between the two of you?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t even know.”
“You guys seemed perfect for each other.”
I’d thought we were. “We’re both headed in totally different directions,” I said, hoping that would be enough. Thankfully, she didn’t pry.
“I can set you up with someone when we get back. There’s a guy in my anatomy class that’s been asking about you.”
“No thanks.” I definitely wasn’t interested in dating anyone. I needed to focus on myself and my classes. I didn’t have the mental capacity for anything beyond that at the moment.
“Well, we have one day left. We can either spend it at the beach or go shopping. Which would you prefer?”
What a silly question. “Beach.”
Sarah laughed. “Good answer.”
It was all too soon before we had to fly home to reality.