I need a fuckingrelease.
And if Rayne has to go to this stupid fucking party tonight, at least I’m going to be there to watch him.
23
Rayne
In my memory, Hunter seemed different.
In high school, he was terrifying and beautiful, all at once, like we had a living dragon inside our halls.
And I just watched him.
The art he made.
The way he always knew the answers when a teacher called on him in class.
The way he’d wait to walk home in front of me and Weston after school each day, even though he never spoke to us.
I snuck into his room and read a page of his journal, once. It was well-worn and completely full of written words on every page. But when I flipped it open, the one page I landed on was enough. I didn’t want to see more.
On that blank page, he’d written one sentence.
The same sentence, three times.
“I will always be alone.
I will always be alone.
I will always be alone.”
The final one had a streak of rusty red across it, and lied to myself when I thought it must be acrylic paint, not blood.
Who writes that, at age sixteen? Who thinks something like that at all?
When I heard a sound in the hall I dropped the journal like it was a murder weapon. I snuck away from his room like a criminal fleeing a scene, my heart pounding in my chest.
When I walkinto the Double Daggers party, it’s the first time Weston chooses to speak to me since that night.
He arrived before I did, and he’s standing near their pool table downstairs, while some girl I’ve never met squeezes his bicep.
“They’ve got a full bar,” he says to me, nodding toward the kitchen. “I think they’re trying to outdo us after our last party.”
“Daggers guys always try their best,” I say, giving the girl a polite smile when she smiles at me.
Hunter comes in a few moments after me.
He moves close to my side, and Weston immediately stands a little taller.
“You followhimaround like a dog, now, Hunter?”
Hunter’s expression is like stone.
He hasn’t been in a good mood all day, and Iknowhe wants to hit his brother for saying that.
“We walked over together,” Hunter says simply. “I just had to put my coat in the front closet.”
I feel Hunter’s hand slide over my lower back, and my body doesn’t know what to do with the sensation.
