Page 21 of My Revenant
I had no business going this way. There was nothing to see or do in Meadow Park. Nothing good anyway. But the beach felt like my spot with Becca, and I didn’t want to go there without her. I didn’t want to go therewithher right now, though, either.
After Bee left last night, I’d found it difficult to sleep. The events at the pier played over and over in my mind. Dex shirtless. Dex spitting blood into the sand. Dex being hurt.
It was Archer who’d been the one to go up to him after the fight, I’d realized, after talking to Bee about everything that went down. What were they to each other? Was Archer the type to check over Dex’s wounds? He didn’t seem like it. Did he have someone for that?Why does it matter?
Then there was the brawl afterward, and the ugly feeling inside that had me tripping that fuckhead.Why? Because he was disgusted that Dex had licked him? Why did that bother me? I’d be disgusted too in his position… wouldn’t I? Then Dex came out of nowhere to defend me. Or was it just because he was pissed about losing the fight? Maybe it had nothing to do with me at all, and I was just overthinking it.
I had far too many questions and not enough answers, and they circled inside me like sharks going in for the kill, something awful yet inevitable swirling around and around.
Dex. Dex.Dex.
Everything revolved around him. All of it was his fault.
I needed to understand whatever these feelings were. I needed to make themstop.
The grass here was long, unkempt, typical of the area in and around Meadow Park. It was such a pretty name for such a shitty place.
Across the field were blocks of land containing run-down houses with yards full of junk. Their fences were a mix of metal or wood so aged they’d sunk into the dirt like skeletons in a boneyard—sagging outward like not even they could stand proud and tall in a place like this. It looked like a dump. Litter and trash tangled in some of the taller blades of dying grass, and weeds scattered throughout the field.
In the distance there was a dog barking, mean and ragged, answered by silence and something on the breeze, unpleasant and unwelcoming.
I shouldn’t be here.
I kept walking, wading through the field, destination unknown until a new scent caught my attention, just as unpleasant but far more familiar.
Smoke rose from a grassy area about twenty feet to my left, so I altered my path to investigate. The long grass concealed its source until it was far too late to change my mind—because the body that lay in the grass was already looking in my direction whenhecame into view.
Ice eyes staredback at me.
Silence cut through my chest like a blade. A staring match that restricted my airflow like Darth fucking Vader was choking me with the Force as it caught me in its invisible and terrifying pull.
The voice in my head told me to turn around and back away, as if I were the prey in a predator’s sights. But fear and something much worse kept me in place as Dex Weller stared back at me.
Pursed between wounded lips was the source of the smoke, a thin tendril that weaved and danced into the air from the end of his cigarette.
Despite the weight of his gaze, he seemed completely unbothered by my presence, lying in the grass with the hand resting behind his head obscured by thick curly locks a few shades darker than the dying meadow. The other was on his stomach over a dark green shirt and his faded leather jacket.
I forgot how tobewhen he looked at me.
There was always so much noise in my head, so many thoughts and feelings andragethat all tangled into a big ball of itchysomethingthat I couldn’t unravel no matter how hard I tried. But it wasn’t there when he looked at me. It was silent. I didn’t know what to do with that.
I’m not sure how long passed with us simply staring at each other before he finally broke the tension and spoke. “Are you waiting for an invitation or something?”
“What?”
He rolled his eyes. “Lie down or fuck off. You’re blocking the view.”
The view?
I turned and looked up at the sky. It was as bleak as the field below it, more white than blue with all the clouds. When I turned back to him again, his gaze had finally left me to cast upwards. He was cloud gazing?
I wasn’t sure what to do with that. It felt like I should dosomethingwith that. Like this small piece of information meant something.
“Well?” He sounded annoyed this time.
Before I could even consider what the fuck I was doing, I was moving, my body obeying some unspoken command as I sank down into the grass beside him.
My heartbeat thundered in my ears as silence fell. I was looking up at the sky, but I wasn’t aware of anything but him. He filled my senses. All I could hear was his breath, with each exhale sending a new plume of smoke twisting into the atmosphere. Any time he shifted, I had to fight the urge to look at him.
