Page 110 of Bitter Lies

Chapter Thirty-Two

It’s always too good to be true.

Iwatch the scenery fly by from my spot on the bus, considering all my options before finally leaning back and giving it up to fate. I’m tired, and my heart hurts because this is all too much. I need out. I need—fuck, I don’t know, but not this.

Whenever I think about Griffin’s revelations, I start to panic, and since I’m on a fucking bus for the next several hours, I try to will the anxiety away. But this is my worst fear come true, and although I knew I couldn’t outrun it, I guess I hoped I would.

I don’t know how I can ever face Griff again, which is just as well because I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want anything to do with me. But it’s all the more painful after the last few days when everything was idyllic and we existed in a world of our own. It’s my own damn fault. I knew this was barreling down on me.

Finally, because I have no idea what’s going to happen to me when I get to the bus station, and maybe I’m being melodramatic, but my heart hurts, I text Griffin again.

I didn’t lie. I’ve never lied.

Five hours later, we pull into the station near the college, and I spy Patch outside the window, waiting with a nasty smirk.

With a sigh, I pull myself up and step from the bus, glancing down when my phone buzzes in my hand.

Griff: How do I know this isn’t a lie?

Hals: I guess you don’t. Goodbye Griff

Griff: ??

“Ah, here’s my girl. C’mon,” Patch says, rolling his eyes over me avidly.

Frowning, I pull away when he rests his hand at my back to lead me out of the building and with crawling skin, I hold out the necklace. “Here.”

But he ignores me as he pushes me along and with a trickle of fear, I stop up short at the car he’s heading toward as he turns to me with an impatient look.

“Get in the car,” he says through clenched teeth.

Holding out the necklace again, I pray he takes the fucking thing. “I can walk from here. Just take it.”

He raises a brow and pushes my hand away impatiently. “Nope, in the car.”

“No,” I whisper, stepping away.

Absently, I note my phone is buzzing in my pocket, but I can’t turn my focus from Patch, who looks around warily before going to grab my arm.

Stepping farther away, I back up slowly, glancing at the people around me and the safety in numbers. “Do you want it or not?”

“Bitch, you’re going to regret this.”

“I doubt it,” I say shakily, closing my hand around the necklace when he ignores it once again.

With a snarl, he gets in his car, and I watch him drive away with a trickle of relief before finding a bench under the city bus stop sign and collapsing against the seat.

Shit. That was close, and I have no idea what I just evaded, but judging by the gleam in his eyes, it could have been anything.

My phone buzzes again, and I pull it out with shaking fingers, reading through the texts Griffin sent in quick succession.

Griff: What the fuck does that mean?

Griff: Halsey?

Griff: Halsey, where the fuck are you?

I also have three missed calls, and as I stare at the phone, bewildered, it buzzes again, my brother’s picture filling the screen.

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