Chapter 52
“What the hell?” I threw my phone on the couch after looking at it for the tenth time. Theo still hadn’t texted me back. I hadn’t heard from him since he’d left and it was driving me crazy. Where was he?
Surely, West hadn’t actually murdered him…
We’d made love in a way I’d never experienced before, and it was so weird to endure this silence now.
I was absolutely sure he’d felt the same way.
I hated not knowing what was going on. Waiting patiently for anything was not something I was good at.
The girls had left earlier and I wandered around my house aimlessly, trying to process the events of the last few days. I felt like I’d endured a tornado of trauma, followed quickly by the best few hours of my life in Theo’s arms.
I was a mess, and the booze didn’t help, but I was already three drinks in, so I kept going, my mind spinning as I tried to make sense of everything while I waited.
To think that if that one night hadn’t happened with Avett, I wouldn’t have been here right now was wild. The magic I’d felt in Theo’s arms today never would have happened.
In a flash, I could see us clearly that night as we ran off into the darkness of the thick woods surrounding Town Lake.
My skirt was torn and my red lipstick was smeared across my cheek. Both of our hearts raced with fear and shock, the pounding of his heart beat pushing against mine in my palm as he gripped my hand tightly. As we ran, Theo had grabbed it, guiding me through the dark woods, but now that we were a mile away, standing together under the street lights on a deserted road, there was no reason to keep holding it, but he was.
“Are you okay?” He asked, his voice urgent and pleading.
“I think so,” I whispered, looking around. We were alone, the stars twinkling over the trees. A firefly sparked over his head, just a quick flash of light that I took as a blessing in the moment, a little sign from the universe that we were okay, we’d figure this nightmare out together.
We weren’t alone.
He pulled me close, holding me tightly against his chest. I clung to him, our chests heaving together from the long trek through the thick pines.
“Listen, nobody saw us, okay?” He finally said, his words muffled by my hair. “Maybe we just don’t say anything? Like, to anyone? Ever?”
I nodded, hot tears falling down my face now. Shock settled into my bones and my body started shivering. Theo took off his coat and threw it over my shoulders, then wrapped his scarf around my neck, pulling me to him again.
“It’s going to be okay, Ev, I promise. I’ve got you,” he whispered, stroking my hair. He held me for a long time there under the warm amber glow of the streetlights, long enough for me to stop shaking, long enough for me to decide to trust him.
“We’re in this together,” he assured me. “Don’t tell a soul. And I won’t either.”
“We stick together,” I murmured. “Okay, I promise.”
“I promise, too.”
He pulled me back again, peering deeply into my eyes.
He nodded once, then planted a kiss on my lips like a vow, firmly but gently, his lips warm and soft against mine, stealing my breath away.
When he pulled away, my eyes blinked open, the world spinning around us. I nodded slowly, knowing our entire lives had changed that night.
Nothing would ever be the same again.
Not me. Not Theo. Certainly not Avett…
But I had no idea how deeply our futures would be affected, not at that moment.
The firefly lit up again, landing on my cheek this time.
Theo looked down at me and smiled, before gently pushing it away.
“We’re going to be okay, Ev.”
I trusted him then. I had no choice.
I’d kept that scarf of his all this time, a reminder of our promise to each other that night. A reminder of everything we’d gone through. I hadn’t thought of it for years, but now I walked to my bedroom and pulled out a long-forgotten box from the back.
Opening it, I was bombarded by the sights and smells of the past that quickly washed over me. Memories flashed over me from high school as I pulled out glitter covered party invitations and old ticket stubs and photographs from high school. I’d kept everything, plagued by a constant sense of nostalgia for a long time after I left Texas.
I’d look at them those first few years when I felt lonely, trying to remember the good times, but after a while those memories faded as I built my life here, and I didn’t need the comfort of them anymore.
The scarf was folded in a small box, the one thing that wasn’t thrown into the box haphazardly. It had always been special to me. I took it out now, inhaling the familiar scent of the soft black cashmere. Of course, Theo would have the best quality scarf around, even back then, probably a gift from his mother. He’d worn it all the time back then, donning it as soon as the nights started to turn colder even a little.
After that night, he’d never asked for it back. I’d never offered.
I put it around me now, a poor substitute for his arms.
With a heavy sigh, I started putting everything back in the box, leaving the scarf draped around my neck.
When I spotted my old yearbook covered in old newspaper clippings, I almost shouted in glee.
“I thought I lost this!” I cried out in the empty room. Carrying it to my bed, I snuggled under the covers and pulled the scarf tighter around my neck before cracking the spine and diving into the past.