Page 157 of Bewitched By the Sea Monster
Stupid!
I yelled and smacked my hands against the top of the closed toilet seat. It discharged an awful, tinny twang that made my ears ring, and fanned the broiling agitation. So I kicked the toilet too, for good measure, and hit it again when a throbbing agony bit my toes.
I was a mess.
A shrieking, wild, messy-mess.
Calm down, Pippi.
I joggled my hands, sprinkling blood droplets all over the bathroom.
CALM DOWN!
I turned and plopped onto the toilet, pressing my forehead to my jittering knees. Breathing in the musky brine clinging to my clothes and skin—an odor that would’ve sent me scrambling for a place to upchuck a week ago, but was now so twined around memories of Alistair, it was a comfort.
Breathe, Pippi.
My lungs stuttered around each thin inhale.
Breathe. In. And out.
But with Alistair’s scent tickling my nose, I kept seeing a horrific image of him being impaled by a harpoon, ala Moby Dick style.
My gut lurched.
Breathe, Pippi.
Jackson can’t do anything.
Alistair is safe.
Tears splashed onto the tops of my knees.
He can’t do anything.
But if hedoesdo something, I can’t stop him…
Because the selfish prick locked. Me. In. The. Bathroom!
And that…that…
The fact that Jackson had been so quick to jump on the idea that Alistair had bewitched me. So quick to believe the only reason I’d“changed”was because a sea beast had me in a thrall.
He’d refused to hear my side of it. Refused to listen toanythingI’d said all week.
Because he didn’t care.
How had I not seen this before?
The only person Jackson truly cared about was himself.
Relationship.Bah. That wasn’t the word for what we had been.
A relationship was a thing two people builttogether.
Jackson had never built anything. He’d dictated. Taken for himself. Left me to do the heavy lifting until I decided I was done breaking my back. Then he got mad. Because he’d boasted about our relationship—this thing I’d built alone—and had taken great pride in it. And I’d had the gall to take it away from him.
I’d empathized with him when I pulled that plug. My heart had bled for him. Ihatedhurting him.
