Break Me (Brayshaw High) - Meagan Brandy Page 0,126
I was taken from but now living in the middle of.
If this life, this place, is worth a lifetime of darkness in an already dark world.
I’ve asked myself this question at least a dozen times since yesterday’s accident, and every… single... time... I do, a haunted, addictive, infectiously live pair of brown eyes pop into my mind, and mine close, a deep, raspy voice answering with the same nine words...
Never let fear hold you back, baby girl. Ever.
So, as he would say, fuck it.
Everything sucks, so what more can it hurt?
My mind screams a lot, but I ignore it.
I shouldn’t have.
“I don’t think we should be here.”
“Shut up, Valine.”
“Bitch!” she snaps, but when I start laughing, she playfully shoves me.
“You might be right, we probably shouldn’t, but have you ever let that stop you, because I have, and guess what.” I pause, looking to her. “I’m over it. I need to talk to him and it needs to be now.”
Her grin is slow. “About fuckin’ time. Here. I’ll give you a boost.” She runs to the gate, bends, and waits.
“We’re not sneaking in. We’re going right through the door.”
Her eyes narrow. “How?”
I sigh, eyeing the place. “I’ve got a feeling they’ll let me pass.” And not a good one.
Royce walked away from me, and that can only mean one thing—he blames himself for what happened to me, and that’s my fault.
I should have told him more about my condition so he understood, but I was afraid he’d push me out, and now here we are.
The boy with the sweetest hidden heart, who wants nothing more than to find his epic ending, did the one thing his mind can’t handle, the thing that makes him lose the little bit of cool he possesses, as I saw on the very first day when Franky gripped on to my arm—he hit a girl.
He hit me, at least that’s the way he sees it.
I need to talk to him, to explain what he couldn’t see.
I need him to listen to me.
We reach the front gate and as I thought, we walk right through without any issues, but as we reach the doors to the Wolves Den, Andre slips farther in front of the door.
“Really?” My shoulders fall. “I thought you were a friendly giant where I was concerned?”
“Gotta know what your plan is before I let you in there, girl. A broken Brayshaw ain’t pretty, and I need to call for backup if you’re here to drive the blade deeper.”
“Come on, Andre. You know me well enough by now. Do you think I’d pour salt in a wound?”
His eyes move between mine and he grins. “Nah, you’d pacify the pain, but I’ll tell you, this ain’t gonna go however you worked out in that pretty little head. Our boy, he’s on another level tonight.”
“Thanks for the warning, now do me a favor and tell me where my man is.”
“Come on now, girl, you know your boy better than that.” He moves aside and there he is, smack dab in the middle of the room, an entourage already around him. “Front and center.”
Being what they expect.
He spots me right away, like he was waiting for me to walk through the doors.
“Well, well.” He accepts a fresh popped bottle from a girl I’ve never seen, kicking his leg out for her to take a seat that doesn’t belong to her.
“Look who’s showed up.” His head falls back lazily.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t know I was coming,” I call him out. “That’s the only reason you snapped your fingers and allowed in the swarm of swans.”
He flies from the seat, the girl falling to the floor, but he doesn’t pause to help her.
He stalks toward me, his chest puffed high, but his shoulders, they’re drawn up tight. And he’s angry.
So damn angry.
It’s fear that’s caused it, and he has no idea what to do with it.
He leans in, his lip curling, but my god, his body shakes.
It’s light, almost unnoticeable, but it’s there and it creates a sting within my own.
He’s aching on the inside, and it’s vibrating through his very being, and for some reason, this boy in front of me feels the need to hide it. To hide himself. Hide from himself behind these people who could never truly love him because they don’t know him like I do.