been the same since he came into your life.”
She can say that again.
“Wait a minute.” She sniffs the air and my breathing stops when she gets closer to inhale me.
“Is that… were you drinking?” She all but shrieks.
“It was only a glass, I promise.”
Her eyes blur with unshed tears and I feel as if someone jammed a knife into my heart. I don’t like making Aunt upset. What the hell is wrong with me?
“It won’t happen again,” I offer in a small voice. “I’m not even drunk.”
“What if your heart condition relapses? You know how hard we’ve worked to get you stabilised.”
“I-I’m sorry.” God. I feel like the most horrible person ever.
Aunt clutches me by the shoulders and pulls me inside to sit me on the sofa. “A few days ago, you were found drowning in a pool. Then you had an episode in the hospital and now you’re drinking? This isn’t you, Elsie. Tell me what’s going on.”
I want to know the truth. Tell me the truth, Aunt.
But I can’t say that, so I apologise one more time and promise her that it won’t happen again.
We eat dinner together and I try to ignore how she watches me as if I’ll have an episode any second now.
It’s at times like these that I wish Uncle Jaxon was around.
After helping out with the dishes — and Aunt making me drink some soup to chase away the alcohol — I go to my room.
I sit at my desk to work on some homework, but I end up slouching in my seat with a pen in my mouth.
Did the plan work?
Cole or Ronan are supposed to send a picture to Aiden that I ditched the party to go with Knox.
Would that ruin his mood or is he too busy with Silver to care?
Maybe he’s fucking her in his indoor pool as he did to me the other time. Maybe he has her spread-eagle as he eats her the way he devoured me.
My hold on the pen turns painful.
How could he move on with Silver when it’s barely been two days since we ended it?
Since I ended it.
The time frame doesn’t matter. I don’t have the right to question him anymore.
I groan and run a hand through my hair in frustration. I don’t care who he fucks.
Not one bit.
Giving up on homework, I snuggle in bed and pull out my phone.
My heart surges in its cavity at the two texts waiting.
Aiden: Let’s play that game you love so much, sweetheart.
Aiden: Be mine again or…
I refresh the page, searching for his next text, but there’s nothing.
He always offers two options. Where’s the other facet of the coin?
Then it hits me.
He sent those texts after school when he was leaving with Silver.
He wants me to be his again or he’d… what? Fuck Silver?
Is he going to send me a pornographic text of how he fucked her now?
Disgusted, I open Instagram. I unfollowed him the other day, but I search for him anyway.
His last post was after the night he attacked me in the middle of the night.
It’s a black and white picture of a chessboard with all the glass pieces scattered. There’s no caption and he posted the picture around five in the morning.
I scroll in the comments. There’s one from SilverQueens a few hours ago.
Can’t wait for 2nite. Xo.
I click on her profile and something in my heart dies.
Since they left together, I knew it was for this, but I kept telling myself that he wouldn’t do it.
Not after he promised he’d stay away from Silver.
On the picture Silver posted half an hour ago, there’s enough evidence to shut off my delusions.
There’s a selfie of Silver sitting at the edge of the pool, still in her uniform’s skirt. At first glance, she appears alone, but at the bottom corner of the picture, there’s a hand gripping her thigh.
Even if the hand isn’t clear, the pool is.
The same pool in which I felt special.
The same pool in which Aiden made me think that I could live past my fears and my traumas.
And now, he tainted it with Silver.
I throw the phone away and hide my face in the pillow as tears barge into my eyes.
I guess it’s really over now.
12
Aiden
I twirl a pawn chess piece between my index and middle finger as I stare out of the locker room’s window.
Both the football team and the girls’ track team are inside the changing rooms.
Elsa lingers back with their coach. She discreetly keeps herself the last to