Page 35 of Dance Omega Dance

I knew she was mistaken about one thing. Not everything could be sweetened, but she was right about everything else.

"I’m lucky to have you," I said, as she walked to the counter. "Lucky you put up with all my craziness."

She laughed and didn’t turn back, but I could see her in my mind. My other half, my best friend. The one person who never ran and always came back.

When she sat down again, I reached for her. Held on like a lifeline, like she was all that kept me afloat.

"You’ve got this, Summer," she said. "I promise."

And for the first time in a long time, I almost believed it.

Anders

The door clicked shut behind her, and everything stilled, like the silence after an explosion. I could still feel the echo of her footsteps, fast and panicked, could still taste the fear she left behind like smoke in the air. It clung to the walls, thick and accusing.

“This isn’t what she wants,” I said, voice cracking on something jagged and bitter. “This isn’t what she needs.”

Zach didn’t answer right away. He just stared at the door like he could burn a hole through it, his fists clenched so tight they looked ready to shatter.

“We’ll find her,” he said.

“It’s my fault,” Blake muttered. The words came out sharp, unpolished, so different from the careful way he always was with her.

Zach kicked a chair leg hard enough to snap it. The whole thing folded like it was made of paper. “You didn’t make her run on your own.” His breath hitched, caught on something that sounded too much like guilt. “We both did.”

Blake dragged his hand through his hair, wrecking the perfect lines of it. The mess made him look more real. More like the rest of us... fallible.

“We can’t leave her out there alone.” I was the only one sitting, but even that felt false. My body was already half-rising, already chasing.

Zach paced, his hands a blur, his frustration ricocheting off the walls. “How the hell are we supposed to find her?”

Blake’s mouth pressed into that grim line he always wore when he’d already decided. When arguing was pointless.

“We can follow her scent,” he said, like a challenge. Like a prayer.

I stared at him. Waited.

“I’m not a fucking dog,” Zach said.

Blake growled. “Do you have a better idea?”

I stood up, angry at the pair of them. It was their bloody fault we’d lost our Omega. Our Summer.

“If you two start arguing again, so help me, I’ll walk out too!” I yelled. They both turned around and stared at me wide-eyed. Okay, so they had never seen me angry before. But knowing she was out there in the night, alone. I was fuming.

“Woah!” Zach said, holding his hands up. “We will find her!”

“Then let’s go and bloody find her!” I said, growling under my breath.

Blake moved first, Zach right behind, both of them already halfway out the door by the time I looked down at the street.

People. Cars. Neon lights flickering like broken promises. But not her. Not yet.

And then we were running, running into the dark, into the unknown, with only one word shouting from our mouths.

Summer.

Again and again and again.

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