Slower this time, I follow him. I press my hands to his chest.
I have to try. One more time.
"I’m begging you. Please don’t do this. Don’t run. We can face this. We can beat it. It was self-defense. He attacked you guys!"
Dogger whispers, "Sun… there were two of us and only one of him. That’s gonna be tough to argue in court."
Silence drops between us. My breath is shaky, thoughts spinning in all directions. I’m trying to find something. An answer, a shot, a miracle. I refuse to just give up.
Dogger stares at me like he’s reading every sentence starting inside my mind.
Then he leans in. His lips brush mine, soft, fleeting, electric. And then he pulls back and climbs onto his bike like it’s nothing.
I’m frozen, still not processing what just happened. It doesn’t feel real, some nightmare I’ll wake up from tomorrow. Or next week. It can’t really be goodbye. Not forever.
"So that’s it?" I whisper, stunned. "We’re never gonna see each other again?" My voice breaks. "No. I don’t accept that. Please, take me with you!"
A sob tears from my chest.
I see it, the pain on his face, raw and sharp, like it’s cutting him open. He looks away.
"I hope you have a fucking amazing life, Sun. That’s what I wish for you. Because you’re amazing. And… I love you. Always, kiddo."
Another, even louder, sob rips out of me so violently it hurts. I drop to my knees in the dirt.
"Dogger… why? Why, why, why?"
"Because I’m a goddamn idiot, Sun. I fucked everything up, and I have to pay. That’s how life works. Consequences."
For some reason, he raises his head and glances up at the sky. There’s a falcon over us, sailing the wind gusts. I blankly trace its flight.
It seems so carefree and light, the opposite of how I feel now.
Then Dogger’s eyes shift toward me again and his jaw tightens. His whole face hardens.
"You’re free now. Just… promise me you won’t do anything stupid, okay? Don’t go making the kind of mistakes I did. Don’t get yourself wrapped up in any more shit."
Then he starts the engine, and the roar of his bike rips through me like a tornado of thorns and grief.
And as he rides off, all I can do is cry. Loud. Hysterical. Wild.
My fingers dig into the sandy road. It feels like I’ve lost everything, something’s being ripped out of me and taken away with him. Like my heart is being dragged behind that motorbike.
And when he finally becomes nothing but a dot on the horizon, I’m just this empty shell, a mannequin.
Dogger took my soul.
***
Six Months Later
First day at Franklin High.
Three boring classes in, and now everyone’s heading to the cafeteria. I follow the crowd, but I don’t walk with anyone. I don’t know a single person here.
My parents transferred me from my old school because too many people there were involved in the Hanson situation.
Now I get driven almost forty minutes every day to Franklin. Jordan brings me, a beta who helps out my dad.
