Page 67 of Riot Reunion
Pax snarls, whipping around, the slate grey focus of his eyes boring into me. “A banana. Some yogurt. Something. If she hasn’t eaten anything by two p.m., I’m pinning her down and force-feeding her.”
Presley growls, hurling a pillow at Pax as he storms out of the room. It hits his back, but the guy doesn’t even react. “Can youbelievehim?” Pres acts as if she’s never actually met Pax Davis before, and this behavior is coming as a shock to her; she was the one who mooned after him for years, though. She knows that this version of Pax is downright benevolent compared to the guy who used to prowl the halls of the academy in search of blood.
“Believe me, I know how this is gonna sound, but…” I laugh under my breath. “I think he’s actually being pretty reasonable.”
Betrayal streaks across Presley’s freckled face. The anger in her eyes turns to hurt. “Well, gee. Hell must have frozen over if you think Pax is being more rational thanme. Fuck.”
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I take her by the hand, smiling sadly. “You’re pregnant, Pres. You’re carrying his kid. Pax loves you, and he’s worried about you. It’s not crazy to think that he might want to keep the two of you safe and health—”
Pres tugs her hand away. She closes her eyes, tucking both of her hands beneath the covers, visibly withdrawing. “Don’t say that. The two of us. There is notwoof us. Why does everyone assume that I’ll allow this situation to go on longer than it already has? I have…” She exhales hard, her nostrils flaring. “I have…”
“No clue what you wanna do?” I offer.
Presley lets out a loud sob, sinking back into the stack of pillows propped up against the headboard behind her. That single sob quickly becomes a series of them, and then Pres dissolves into a flood of heartbroken tears. “Oh, Jesus. It’s okay. Shh, come here.” I take Pres in my arms, pulling her to me even though she fights me at first. The deep, burnished red of her hair spills down around her shoulders as I rub my hand up and down her back—a feeble attempt at comforting her. “It’s gonna be okay, y’know. No matter what, it’ll be okay. Whatever happens, you’ll have me, and E, and your dad. And you’ll havePax—”
“No, I won’t!” She sits up, pulling away again. She sniffs, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. “Iwon’thave Pax. You don’t get it, okay. There’s no right decision here. If I keep this baby, things are gonna be so stressful. We’re just kids ourselves, Carrie. My dad keeps telling me… The pressure. The lack of sleep. The screaming and crying. It’ll be too much for him. For both of us. Pax willleave. And if I don’t have the baby, then I’m the monster who killed his child. He’ll never be able to look at me and not see me that way, Carina. He won’t. So, yeah. He’ll leave. Either way, Pax leaves, andmyworld ends. I just—I can’t—”
Her body shakes. Presley sobs, her breath coming in jagged gasps that sounds painful. I consider trying to hold her again, to try and ease some of the misery pouring out of her, but then rethink that plan. Her body is taut, full of tension, so much so that I worry she might break if I try to hug her.
“I think you’re underestimating him,” I say. “I think he’ll stay, no matter what. Don’t you see the way he looks at you? You’ve got to know how much he loves you—”
“Love won’t be enough!”
I ignore her, because let’s face it, she’s being stupid. “And you’re underestimating yourself, too. Howdareyou underestimate one of my best friends.” I grin to let her know that I’m teasing. “You think your world will end if hedoesleave you? Don’t you know who the fuck you are, Presley Chase? You’re so fucking strong. You’re smart as hell. Fuck, you’rebrilliant. There’s nothing this world can throw at you that you can’t handle. I know this because I know about all of the things you’ve already fought and overcome. You’re a warrior, Pres. A goddamnwarrior. I won’t sit here and listen to you say such shitty things about yourself. A guy does not define you. Not even one as hot and crazy as Pax Davis.”
Presley sniffs, her tears abating. The tip of her nose has turned pink. “Your opinion of me is very generous.”
“No. It’searned. There’s a vast difference.” I refuse to bring up all of the horrific things Jonah did to her. She survived that, though. She fought for her fucking life, and she won. Her current situation might be difficult. Okay, difficult is an understatement. It’s shitty and complicated and no small matter, but Presley is a badass and she needs to remember that.
The shadows beneath her eyes look even more like bruises than when I first entered the room, but her expression gradually becomes one of cautious hope. She wipes her nose with the cuff of Pax’s Slayer hoody. “You think so?”
“I fuckingknowso. But either way, you need to listen to your boyfriend and eat something, dude. Whatever you decide to do, starving yourself isn’t going to help matters, is it?”
She pulls a face, wrinkling her nose. I take it as a sign of surrender. “I’ll go and grab you something that’ll be light on your stomach in a minute. But first, now that I’ve given you my unsolicited advice, I actually came here to ask foryouropinion on something.”
“Oh?”
I take a deep breath, unsure how to continue. “Yeah. So I moved to London to be with Dash…”
“Hah! Remember when you said that astronomy program was unmatched, and you one hundred percent weren’t moving across the world for a boy?” Pres arches an eyebrow at me. It sucks to have my own words thrown back at me when I made them sound so convincing a couple of months ago.
Sighing, I level my gaze at the ceiling, at the wall, out of the window. Anywhere but directly at her. “Yeah, well. I lied.”
“Humph,” she snorts.
I move on before she can give me any shit, after thedon’t-you-know-who-you-are, you-don’t-need-a-guy, you’re-a-badassspeech I just gave her. “Anyway, Dash auditioned for that course in Seattle next year. He didn’t get it, but…I got myself so caught up, imagining living there next year—”
“Weren’t you going to live there, anyway? Before England was thrown into the mix?”
“Yeah. And being back there for Michael’s restaurant opening and the audition…it made me realize how badly I wanted to stay.” Guilt whittles my bones down to toothpicks. After uprooting ourselves and moving all the way across the world, it feels like an act of betrayal to even say these words out loud. I chose to be with Dash. He loves being back in the U.K., even if it does rain ninety percent of the time. The home we’ve made for ourselves is beautiful, it really is. I’ve made new friends. I could be happy there, together, with my blond-haired lord.
But…
Those new friends aren’t family. Not like Pres and Elodie. Not like Michael.
“Maybe I’m being silly,” I say. “Seattle’s still on the other side of the country from Massachusetts and New York, but at least we’d be in the same country. And only three hours apart instead of five. God, now that I’m saying it out loud, I sound pathetic, don’t I? The flight from Seattle to New York is almost as long as it is from London. I don’t know. I just—I feel like something’s pulling me back, and…”
“And what does Dash say?”
