Chapter Twenty-Six #3
I leaned against the counter and hid from the drama piranhas, my soul nearly leaving my body when Laken’s older sister, Leanora, and her soon-to-be-wife, Ivy, snuck in from the other side door giggling and whispering.
Lea’s eyes widened and she stopped so abruptly Ivy smacked into her shoulder. I raised my brows.
Lea stood every inch of her six feet, always neck and neck with Laken.
She’d cut her black hair short, shaved on one side.
Her eyes, like her brother’s, were a glimmering blue.
She wore a black little corset with black pants.
Lea worked at an armory last I knew. Ivy, on the other hand, had tan freckled skin and green eyes.
Wavy light-brown hair cascaded beautifully down her back.
Her cream-colored dress fit her well. She seemed humble and gentle from what I’d heard about her.
She was a healer working in Riversbend, where the two lived.
“Reece?” Lea questioned, but quickly realized it was, in fact, me standing there. She threw her arms around my neck. “Laken said you’d be here, but I didn’t actually believe him.”
Holding my plate out to avoid it smearing on my dress, I half hugged her back. Nodding to the rings on their fingers, I gave my congratulations. Lea and I could basically be considered friends; she’d always been laid-back and easy to talk to. We got along well, even as kids.
“Right, right. You haven’t met Ivy.” She stepped back to her fiancée and introduced her properly, though I knew more than I should’ve, simply from hearsay. “This is Reece, Laken’s… um. Laken’s—” Lea cut off, looking at me for an answer. She didn’t know what to call me. And neither did I.
“Ex. Past. Future. Friend? Call it what you want.” I shrugged and ate another bite. “Or Reece is fine.”
Ivy smiled, bright and warm. “Reece it is, then.”
“We’re so glad to have you both back. It felt weird having Laken without you, and vice versa. I don’t even remember Laken before you, if there was such a thing.” Lea waded through the kitchen and poured them glasses of wine, offering me one, but I waved it off with a mouth full of chocolate pie.
Lea sipped her wine and made a face. “Does suck he won’t be here for the wedding, though. I’d hoped he’d be able to stay home for another three months, and yet we didn’t even get a week’s notice of him leaving again.”
Because I half-listened, I nodded with fake yeahs and ohs. Until I choked on my pie. Stepping back to avoid the spill on my dress, I covered my mouth and regathered myself. “I’m sorry, what?”
She looked at me from her peripheral, her brows lowering. “Well… since he’s leaving for work again soon and will be gone for months…”
I didn’t hear what else she said. I didn’t hear her ask if I knew. I didn’t hear her curse as she realized. Across the room, standing under the buttery light of a floating candle, Laken’s gaze met mine and the world shifted under my feet.
I knew by his face that he knew by my face that I knew. His wide grin died and turned into something deserving of a soggy sweat sock to his cheek: regret.
In the middle of a crowded room, surrounded by people, I’d never felt so alone. Laken was leaving and he didn’t tell me.
The muscles in my jaw quivered and clenched and did everything in their power to restrain me from crying.
I didn’t cry in front of people. The familiar slithering anxious feeling snaked up my throat and squeezed.
As the floor under my feet disappeared, the sound around me drew silent and the walls no longer supported the roof but closed in on me instead.
I needed out. And because of the people and Laken, I couldn’t take the front door. Which left me with one option.
Speed walking down the hall, I made sure to keep a pace fast enough to get me out but slow enough to avoid drawing attention.
The back door was too visible; I’d be seen trying to flee the scene.
I couldn’t make it up the stairs fast enough—it had to be stairs.
Fucking stairs, I cursed under my breath.
My world had fallen into shambles, and I had to exercise—double whammy.
Tripping up, I grabbed the rail and didn’t look back to see who’d possibly seen up my dress as I leaned forward.
The second the floor came into sight, I searched frantically to find the window on the second floor that Laken and I used to sneak in and out of.
Like a fish out of water, I hurriedly set my glass down and crouched at the seal of the window at the end of the hall.
Am I really jumping out of a window to avoid confrontation?
Yes. The answer was and always will be yes.
Unlatching the metal, it took one good shove to pry the window open enough for me to slide onto the roof. Thankfully, the noise from the party below drowned out my escape and I made it. Or I dangled from the roof.
Pain seeped into my fingertips, and with the ground two feet below me, I dropped. My foot skidded in the mud. But I didn’t have time for this. I wiggled my boot out, bit back some tears, and whipped around to bolt.
Sliding my back against the house’s edge, I peeked around the corner from the back of their yard and noted the coast was clear.
“Going somewhere?”
Fuck.
Laken stood with his hands in his pockets, his jaw clenched, and he tightened his mouth in a thin frown. The warm lights from the house outlined his body, highlighting the tips of his dark-blond hair, the edges of his body I craved. “Reece…”
I couldn’t do this.
Arguing had never been my thing because the moment I got upset, frustrated, or mad, I’d cry.
And despite Laken only saying those three words, I looked at him and my body flooded.
My eyes lined with tears and my throat closed in on itself.
I couldn’t move my feet and my hands tore at my arms, looking for somewhere to hide, looking for an ounce of comfort.
Even with the darkness engulfing him, his lips quivered. “Reece, please.”
“You’re leaving,” I blurted. The noise behind him felt overwhelming, and with the lights, the worry of someone walking out or watching from inside… I felt sick. “You’re leaving and you didn’t tell me.”
His shoulders caved. “I was waiting—”
“For what?” Here we go. “What were you waiting for? To let me down softly? Kill me slowly? Break it to me easy?” Did I breathe too heavily or not breathe at all?
Laken could’ve said a thousand things. He could’ve made a hundred excuses. But he didn’t—he didn’t because he knew. He knew how much I feared this and that was why he hadn’t told me. We both knew. He came closer, leaving only inches between us.
“Do you know how much it hurts to hear it from someone else? Surrounded by people where I can’t even react? I can’t—”
My breath ran out. “How long have you known?”
“A couple days”—he swallowed—“after we got back from the market.”
I bit the inside of my lip and tore my attention from his face. If I stared into his eyes any longer, I’d forget why we were having this conversation in the first place.
“I didn’t intend for you to find out like this, I planned to tell you myself after the party.
” Hearing Laken defend himself sent a crack through my heart.
He wasn’t supposed to defend himself to me, this wasn’t supposed to happen.
“Telling you before the party would’ve made it impossible to be here and I thought we’d have a chance to talk it out… ”
Lip quivering, I blinked away the rising tears. “I just got you back.”
“I am leaving, Reece. But I am coming back to you, whether you like it or not. I always do. I always will. Don’t you get that? It’s always been you, Reece.”
I knew that.
But could I do this again?
“I… I—I need some time.”
Laken didn’t have time to react before I turned to leave, and he didn’t grab my wrist as I walked away.
With all of the will in my bones, I didn’t turn around.
If I saw him standing there with his sad puppy dog eyes and hands in his pockets, I’d cave.
Because as much as he felt like my strength—he was also my weakness. My soft spot.
One step forward, I repeated to myself the entire walk home. During the moment, I’d forgotten we rode to his parents on Moon, and it was a long walk home. One I took by myself, where my tears could run free.