Regretting You (Blackthorn Elite #4) - J.L. Beck Page 0,30

but nothing can truly make me forget. This is a temporary fix. Tomorrow, I’ll wake up and be reminded of it all over again. Such a vicious fucking cycle.

“I hate her so much, Jill. I hate her, and I don’t want to care, but a part of me does, and it feels like a betrayal. She killed you, took you from me…” I sob, feeling the loss of my sister for the first time. I never cried at her funeral. I couldn’t. I needed to be strong. For my parents, for myself. Plus, crying wouldn’t fix anything, wouldn’t bring her back, but not allowing myself to mourn—my best friend, my twin, my other half—only made the emotions I was feeling ten times worse. I held it all in, thinking I could swallow it down, but all it did was swallow me. I was drowning, and there wasn’t a lifeboat in sight.

Sighing, I down the rest of the liquid, and when it’s empty, I toss the bottle at the wall, watching as the glass fractures, flying in a million directions. I’m not sure how many shards of glass the bottle has become, but I imagine that’s what my heart looks like now.

It’ll never be whole again.

Feeling the unbearable rage building inside me again, I want to hurt someone, but like always, there is no one here to hurt but myself. Needing to unleash the pain, I rear my hand back and punch the wall. One hit isn’t enough, and neither is two.

I clobber the wall like it’s the pain I face every day. I beat my fists into the drywall until I’m sure someone is going to call the cops, until my knuckles are bloody, and there is nothing left inside me. No anger, no sadness, just a numb feeling that washes over me, taking all the good and bad with it. Tonight I realized something… Kennedy might have been the one to kill my sister, but I helped. I helped put her in the ground. I’m to blame too. Sagging against the floor, I close my eyes and hope that I never wake up, that the nightmares become my reality.

12

Kennedy

It’s been a week, and I still feel used. Like I whored myself out. I don’t want to see Jackson again or think about what we did. It was wrong. We shouldn’t have gotten pleasure from each other’s pain, but somehow, we did. Immersing myself in classes, I focus on schoolwork and nothing else. I pick up a bunch of extra credit and toss myself headfirst into the work.

It’s the only thing I can do to stop myself from thinking about him. Any time that my mind starts to wander, it’s to him. I think about how angry he was and how he felt inside of me as our bodies became one. Thank god, I haven’t seen him since that night. I’m not sure what I would do, or even say if I did.

As I rush from the library–with three books for my extra credit project in hand–I nearly collide with another person. Looking up from the ground, I prepare myself to apologize, only to realize that I know the person I just ran into.

“Oh, hey!” the girl says. I rack my brain, trying to remember her name.

“Hey,” I mumble back, noticing that we aren’t alone. There are two men with her, hovering around her like protective animals. Both are brooding and dark, with a possessiveness in their gaze. Is she with both of them? Are they her friends? I shake the thoughts away before they can take root. I don’t care. I’m not interested, at least not really.

“Remember me? I’m Stella.” She smiles, and her eyes twinkle with excitement. She’s way too eager to make friends.

“Uh, yeah…” I press my lips together. I don’t really want to do this. Not today, or tomorrow, or ever really. I don’t need or want friends, but for some reason, I can’t bring myself to tell that to this girl.

“It’s funny that we meet again. Maybe we can go get a coffee or something? Or even have a glass of wine sometime?”

All I can do is shake my head and backpedal. “I… I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

One of the guys she’s with places his hand on her shoulder and gently pulls her toward him. “Let’s go, Stella. She doesn’t want to make friends, no matter how adamant you are.” The smile he gives her is one of love and admiration, and I’m