Page 11 of Degradation
I can barely walk. Running is out of the question.
‘This is a college campus, son. Someone might get the wrong idea,’ Officer One calls after us.
My jaw clenches so tightly my teeth hurt. They didn’t even check that Shade is who he says he is. He could literally be anyone.
I hobble outside, Shade’s hand at the small of my back, though luckily, he doesn’t actually touch me. I think that would be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
He opens his car door for me, and I hesitate.
I glance up at him. ‘Am I going back tonight, or tomorrow?’
He stares at me blankly.
I close my eyes and take a slow breath, drawing on the last of my patience. ‘The Heath, Jack. Will I at least be able to sleep before they take me back?’
‘Daisy, they aren’t here,’ he says slowly, his forehead creasing. ‘At the party, it was just some of the guys dressed up in lab coats. It wasn’t The Heath.’
I let out a harsh breath as my body suddenly uncoils, forcing my tears back. I’ll cry later. Not now.
‘What about John? He’ll be sending me away, won’t he? He knows I was picked up by the campus police. He’ll be embarrassed. Angry.’
Shade watches me for a moment and when I move my gaze away, I can still feel his eyes on my face.
‘I wasn’t lying to those assholes in there,’ he says. ‘John really is on a work trip. They never got through to him. His secretary, Melissa, called me. Even if she bothers to tell him, which I doubt she will knowing her, I’ll play it down, let him know it wasn’t whatever he’s heard.’
I glance up with a frown and then run my eyes over his car. It gleams in the streetlights.
‘Why would you do that? You’ve been trying to get rid of me since I got here. If John finds out about this, don’t you get what you want?’
‘That’s not what I want, Daisy,’ he says, ‘not whatwewant.’
More lies.
Next, he’ll be trying to gaslight me into believing I didn’t see Laurie naked in his bed tonight. I let out a slow breath as I remember all the nasty things she said.
I thought perhaps Shade might see me as his equal now that he knows what I do in the lab. I thought I’d proven myself. But I haven’t and I never will, not to him. Not to the others. At best I’m a sideshow freak, one that Mav and Blake play with like a toy, a hollow, wooden toy that wants to be a real girl.
God, how pathetic is that?
I thought I was equipped for life out here, but I’m not. Not at all.
Tears come to my eyes at these horrible realizations, but I beat them back.
I get in the car, and he closes the door quietly.
At least he didn’t bang it, I think as we roll out of the lot.
SHADE
‘I’m getting you a phone.’
She side-eyes me. ‘Who would I call?’
I grit my teeth. After tonight, I feel like I’m fraying at the edges. But when I answer, I make sure I come across completely calm. I’m not angry with her, after all. Nothing that happened tonight was Daisy’s fault. Nothing.
‘Whoever you need to,’ I reply. ‘If not me, Mav, or Blake, then your friend, Lu.’
I glance over at her. She’s staring straight ahead at the road in front of us.
