Page 123 of Pick Me Up On Tuesdays

I stayed mostly quiet, my thoughts louder than the hum of the engine, watching the school shrink into the distance.

Home was waiting. Familiar. Predictable. But something in me tugged backward—as if I’d left a piece of myself behind in that motel room. Something unsaid. Unfinished.

Or rather, someone.

Chapter 37: The Shadow That Stayed

ETHAN'S POV

I shut my laptop, my fingers hovering over the keyboard longer than they should have.

The file was still there—untouched, unchanged. I had made it for Clark. Thought he would like it. Thought maybe, just maybe, he would look at me differently if I gave him something that mattered. But Clark didn’t like me back, did he? No matter how often I caught him sneaking glances when he thought I wasn’t looking, it didn’t change the fact that, at the core of it all, he still saw me as just another cocky jock.

The cursor blinked. Delete it. Keep it. Delete it. Keep it.

My jaw clenched, and I pulled away before making a decision I would regret. Not like it mattered. He wouldn’t have cared either way.

Then, suddenly, a presence shifted in the room, and every muscle in my body locked.

I didn’t need to turn around. I knew who it was. The air in the room changed when he was near—thicker, heavier, something in it crawling under my skin like it was trying to dig its way into my bones.

I pretended not to see him.

Maybe if I didn’t acknowledge him, he would disappear.

Silence stretched between us, taut as a wire. I heard him breathe, slow and measured like he was giving me a chance to acknowledge him first. I didn’t.

Then, finally, his voice cut through the quiet. Low. Amused.

"Ignoring me won’t make me leave, son."

I still didn’t look at him. My fingers tapped against the laptop lid, restless energy begging for an outlet. "Wasn’t expecting you."

"Of course not." A soft chuckle. He moved, footsteps careful, calculated. Like a predator sizing up its prey. "But you knew I’d come eventually."

My teeth ground together. He was right. He always was.

"What do you want?" I asked, voice flat.

"Is that any way to greet your father?"

The word curdled in my throat. Father. That’s what he called himself, but he was not anything like one. He was a presence. A force. A shadow that loomed over my life, whispering things I didn’t want to hear, making me an offer I didn’t want to take.

And yet, here he was.

"I don’t have time for this," I muttered, reaching for my laptop again, just for something to do. Something to focus on that wasn’t him.

"Oh, but you do." He was closer now. I still didn’t look at him, but I could feel him watching me. "You have all the time in the world, Ethan. And you’re wasting it."

A chill crawled up my spine. My fingers tightened around the laptop’s edges.

"Is that what you came here to tell me?" I asked, feigning boredom. "Because I’m really not in the mood for another attempt to indoctrinate me."

He laughed. It was a smooth, knowing sound like he was amused by how much I tried to fight him.

The air got colder, but I couldn't say if it was the cold air or the thickening silence that followed, hung over me, heavy and unforgiving. I sat, hands clinging to the rim of my laptop, trying to drown myself in the illumination of the screen, but it was not enough. Not today.

He stood across from me, rigid as stone. His smile was there, however, curling at the edge of his mouth. Like he was looking for some type of response from me, some break in tension that had piled up between us since weeks before turning seventeen. I didn't grant him that pleasure. Not now. Not after everything.

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