Page 48 of Paint the Town, Dove
Ryden stared at me contemplative. The sparkle in his eyes had dimmed, and I knew that they’d gone back tothatplace. I was just about to touch his arm, to bring him back to lifewhen he said, “Fine, Dove. Let’s have a day off.”
“What?” I asked.
He yanked me to the exit before I could say bye to my friends. “Come with me.”
“Well, I clearly don’t have a choice.”
He turned to me. “We never did.”
I swallowed, breathing in the stale air of New York City.
“We never had a choice,” he faced me, “so we made one. Let’s make another.”
“That easy?”
He said nothing, stepping forward, grabbing my hand. “You trust me?”
All surrounding noise was drowned out by the ambit of us, the black hole we lived inside of, keeping me secure with the onlymanI’ve ever trusted in my whole life. He knew the answer to that. But he wanted to hear me say it.
“You trust me,” he stated now.
And no word in the world could ever emphasize how much I did.
Eagle and Dove.Forever and –
“Always.”
Chapter Fifteen
Scarlett
Fifteen Years Ago
It was my first day of ninth grade.
Everybody’s fresh meat, that’s what Sinead told me before I walked out the door. Ryden was waiting for me at my front steps. He was starting his sophomore year.
“Why can’t you be in the same grade as me?” I’d asked, stomping over melted ice. We got hit with a pretty nasty storm a few days ago. Flack made me shovel the driveway. Would’ve made me shovel all of Slater Street just to teach me a lesson.
I didn’t do anything wrong.
He just hated me.
I peered into the living room when I was putting my boots on. There was a needle sticking out of his arm, Sinead’s too. Maybe he was sick, I don’t know. He never responded to me when he was out of it.
So, Ryden helped me.
Ryden always helped me.
Except today.
When I needed him to be one year younger.
“I can’t just turn back time,” he said, nudging my shoulder.
In the last year, he had a major growth spurt. Sort of looked like a bean pole with abnormally long limbs. I was still short. I was convinced a giant stomped on my head when I was child.
If the giant’s name was Sinead, short form,Flack.
