Page 70 of Composed
“Right around the time I got old.” I chuckle.
I dip my gaze to his hands, to the white-gold ring, and Teddy inked across his fingers. My stomach knots when I spy the purple and black beaded bracelet wrapping his wrist.
I don’t know how I missed them yesterday.
He clocks my notice, arching a brow.
“You held on,” I say.
He nods, eyes glinting under the evening sun. “You didn’t.”
I swallow down bile as it crawls up my throat. The accusation in his voice, the tone at which he delivers the blow is precise. He means it to taunt, tohurt, and it does.
I don’t say anything.
His ring clinks against the metal as he raps his knuckles. Smoke curls in the air, wrapping around us, the sound of his drags filling the quiet.
“What happened today, Rix?” he finally asks.
I narrow my gaze. “What makes you think something happened?”
“You only skate when the world is too heavy.” He shakes his head. “Not to mention Cole having a face like a slapped arse when he stomped out of the studio.”
I frown, my stomach twisting. “I don’t know. Everything was fine. And then it wasn’t and he practically shoved me out the door.” I drop my board, jump down onto it, and roll toward the base of the ramp. “It doesn’t matter anyway. We got what we needed.”
“Then why are you still here?”
“Here? As in this skate park or…”
“Here.” He calls after me. “Why haven’t you run off home yet? Disappeared like you do best when things get too hard.”
“That’s not fair,” I whisper, the words bitter on my tongue.
“Isn’t it?” he quips, his voice ice cold. “You want to pretend like that’s not what you did?”
“Don’t.” I shake my head. “Saint. Please.”
“You didn’t see him after you left. You didn’t have to pick up the pieces of the boy you broke.”
His words hit me like a knife, searing my skin as ice slithers down my spine.
Saint doesn’t relent. “And you won’t be the one who has to do it when you leaveagain.”
“What am I supposed to do? Stick around in a place I no longer belong? Beg for scraps because it’s all I deserve.”
“Who’s fault is that, Hendrix?” His steps are clipped as they follow behind me. “You walked away.Youdisappeared. And then you come back and expect him to what? Just be okay with you? Work in harmony as if you didn’t rip his heart out ten years ago and refuse to hand it back?”
“I didn’t ask for this, Saint.” My muscles lock. “He came to me.”
A dull laugh wraps around me. “But you didn’t say no.”
The board slips beneath my feet.
I kick it into my hand, my fingers clinging to the tail in a death grip.
“Why didn’t you say no?”
“I don’t know.”
