Page 168 of Paint the Town, Dove
Chapter Forty-Seven
Ryden
“We’re alone, in this town,
Of heavenly red, constant dread…”
Arc & Sheild Records:‘Paint the Town,Dove’
Composition By:Ryden Spectre
What the fuck is going on.
“And you just do shit, you do shit all the time, Ryden! You can’t keep your hands to yourself and you make me want to –”
How the hell did we get here.
“ – and Paisley, I mean, what the hell were you even thinking? You didn’t even want to work with her but I’ve been right here just waiting for you to ask –”
What is she even talking about right now.
“Dove –” I wrapped her in my arms, because what the fuck else was I supposed to do? She was spiralling –
So I stopped my thoughts.
Stop your thoughts. Stop your thoughts.
Take a breath. One, two.She needs you.
My Dove, needs me.
“Don’t touch me!” She yelled, but she still held on, arms digging into the back of my skin, grabbing onto my shirt.
Face buried in my chest.
Soaked with tears.
Ryden Spectre, the abuser.Really.
How the hell could I not have checked? How the hell did I not know?Paisley was right. I did have my phone.
I never looked. Not once.
And goddamn did I ever feel free.
“I don’t care about what they said, Dove,” I whispered into her hair. “I only care about you right now.”
She raised those beautiful, brown eyes, reddened with exhaustion. “You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
She felt my neck. No chain. “Where is it?”
I smiled, thinking about our time over the holiday when I flushed it down the toilet at Frevo. “Gone.”
“Since when?”
Sometimes a person’s addiction is another person.I pulled her closer. “Does it matter?”
