in on itself, just like she was. “I was abandoned by my dad! Yours is sitting right there!” She threw her arm out in my dad’s direction, hitting him across the head in the process, but he didn’t seem to even feel it.
“No,” I whispered. I backed away from them. “That isn’t my dad. My dad only comes around when you get clean.” I made it all the way to the doorway of the living room. “You’re not the only ones whose parents abandoned her.” I placed my hand over my heart. “The only difference is, I had to watch my mom and dad each day while they disappeared into their own world. You may have physically been there, but you left me before we even had a chance.”
Dad raised his hand, his eyes blinking rapidly. Mom started shouting, but I blocked her out. I’d said my piece. I’d told them how I felt, even if they wouldn’t remember it by morning.
I spun around, needing to get the hell out of this place. I practically ran toward the front door. My feet were bare, my hair still wet, but that didn’t bother me, I still yanked the door open and slammed it behind me, causing the frame to shake. I was too angry to think, too raging to care what I looked like. I walked from one edge of the apartment building to the other, staring at the stairs every time I moved past them. It was yet another reminder of what else was going on in my life.
I hated this. I hated everything about this stupid fuckin’ place.
I halted two doors away from my apartment.
Maybe I should leave.
My breaths came easier as the thought occurred to me. Could I leave? I’d be abandoning my plans. I’d have to start over with literally nothing but the clothes on my back. It’d be hard, but it’d be worth it to get away from them.
I slapped my hand on the brickwork, wincing as the sharp edges of it dug into my palms.
No. I wouldn’t leave. I wouldn’t let them push me out. I wouldn’t let them win. I was here to change my life in spite of them. I’d yank myself out from the pits of hell even if it was only for a glimpse of sunshine.
I turned slowly, renewed energy flowing through me. I wasn’t going to be the same Luna they thought I was. I wasn’t going to be the girl who took and took without saying a word. I was done being the nice guy. I was done taking the heat. I was done—
My heart beat wildly as an engine in the otherwise quite night seeped through my ranting thoughts. I knew who it was before I set eyes on the gleaming black SUV.
He was here. But I knew it wasn’t for me. He was here for himself, just like my parents were.
MATEO
I wasn’t sure why I was here. Maybe it was because my body was working on automatic and I’d headed here after leaving the mansion. Or maybe it was because of a certain blue-eyed girl that I couldn’t get out of my head no matter how much I tried.
It had been two weeks since I’d watched her walk out of my apartment.
Fourteen days since I’d felt her skin against mine.
It was too long to go without our lips fused together, but also not long enough.
She couldn’t see me through the tinted windows, yet if felt like her eyes were burning a path through the bulletproof surface. Her body didn’t move, her muscles locking into place as she watched me.
I had the splatter of blood still on my shirt from earlier, but it wasn’t that stopping me from opening the door and going to her.
No.
It was the thought of where it would lead. If I took a leap, I was afraid I’d crash and break into a thousand pieces. I saw it when I looked into her eyes—the depth I could fall into.
I shook my head, scraping my hand down my face but not looking away from her. Physical distance separated us, but there was so much more than that. It didn’t matter that she could understand me more than anyone else—we’d been raised with addicts, something most people couldn’t identify with. It didn’t matter that when I touched her, something roared to life inside me. It didn’t matter that the kids loved her.
She wasn’t meant to be in my life. She wasn’t meant to be part of