Redesigning Fate (Revive #1) - A. M. Wilson Page 0,84
says I need a distraction?” She answered defiantly, ignoring all my questions.
A smile played at the corner of my lips.
She was beautiful. The glow of the light cascaded down her long wavy dark hair, tossing shadows along her flawless, tanned skin. Her eyes appeared like two black pools with endless depths of understanding and pain. As she looked at me, I knew she could see how alike we were. How our rotten pasts could bring us together to be something great and powerful. Two identical souls fated to be together—to save one another.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she breathed softly, as if she didn’t have the strength to deter me, as if she didn’t mind the companionship. “What are you doing out here?”
“Looking for you.”
Her eyes snapped to mine, searching my face with a mixture of shock and relief. “Why?”
Why.
I expected as much, but I didn’t have an answer. Any answer I conjured up would certainly terrify her; send her running when I wanted nothing more than to hold her tightly in my grasp. Initially her beauty drew me in—her eyes so like my mother’s, her soft pale skin, as porcelain as I remembered, but the similarities didn’t stop there. Lena carried herself with immeasurable strength masking some deep dark wound in such a way as I remembered my mother doing after her attack.
Two vulnerable women hiding behind their courage, both tough as stone, and yet, where one crumbled beneath the weight of her burden, the other will not. Where I failed to protect my mother, I won’t fail Lena.
“I wanted to talk to you.”
She laughed a hollow sound. “Why would you want to talk to me?” she asked in disbelief.
“Because I don’t want to miss my chance to know you before we all graduate and leave this place.” I tried not to grin at her sharp intake of breath.
“My name’s Marlena.”
“I know.”
She nodded. “Have you been stalking me?”
“No,” I laughed. “I’ve just seen you around.”
“Right…while you were stalking me.”
I laughed again. “If you want to call it stalking, go right ahead, but I swear I’ve only seen you in passing.” When she smiled in response, I swore my heart stopped in my chest. Silence enveloped us, so I tried to press her again. “Do you want to talk about what’s wrong?”
Lena cleared her throat. “Um, well, my brother left today. He moved out and left me behind.” Her voice shook with a deep sadness I’d do anything permanently erase. She continued, “I had always hoped he’d wait and take me with him.”
I could have pegged her for someone without a great home-life, but hearing her voice, it aloud guts me. Girls like her—beautiful, strong, intelligent girls—deserve the world, and I’d do anything to give it to her.
“You don’t have to be alone.”
“Right, because who’d ever want me?” She scoffed in a moment of weakness, her voice heavy with sarcasm.
“I would,” I responded without hesitation. Lena shook her head sadly. “Marlena,” I stepped closer, placed my hands on her shoulders, and rubbed soothingly down her arms. “I want you.” Those words had the desired effect on her, and she practically crumbled into my arms. I pulled her closer yet and brought my forehead to hers until our lips almost touched. “Let me have you,” I whispered.
Marlena nodded her head as a tear dripped down her cheek. I caught the rogue droplet with my thumb and brushed it away before I took her lips with my own. She tasted of strawberry lip-gloss and spearmint, and it was so fucking divine I never wanted to taste anything else. She kissed me back with surprising urgency, which I repaid in equal enthusiasm as I reveled in the fact that I was indeed saving her. The last thought I remembered having as we embraced on that jungle gym was this girl will fucking ruin me.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Carly and I are lounging on my couch, drinking a bottle of cheap wine, as I fill her in on all things surrounding Elias and myself. I know I put up a fight whenever she noses into my business, but in all honesty, I love it. She knows everything about me. Her invasive questions are nothing more than a strong indication of how much she cares about me, which is something I’ve been missing. Our busy schedules tend to pull us in opposite directions, but we always make time to fill each other in on our lives.
Despite some of the rockiness that has been my life the