Chapter 16
“Why would you do that?”
She shrugged, “Because it’s boring. And life’s too short to do boring shit.”
The corner of her mouth quirked like she was in on some joke I wasn’t. “Though that depends on whether or not they actually let me off with a warning this lime as well.”
“This time? My brow furrowed. “You’ve been arrested before?”
Her smirk widened. “A few times.”
I shook my head, exhaling sharply. “You? Is this your first time?”
I nodded.
Something flickered in her expression. It didn’t last long
She was still muttering under her breath about not believing her bad luck when I really looked at her.
Dark liner smudged around sharp blue eyes, lips a little chapped but full,-nose slightly upturned like she was perpetually unimpressed with the world. Messy blonde waves framed her face, a few strands stuck to her cheek.
She shouldn’t have looked pretty. Not in the harsh Duorescent lighting, not with all that attitude rolling off her in waves.
But she did
Annoyingly so.
She leaned back against the bars, crossing her arms, I wanted to keep–talking to her, so I asked her what she planned to do after she quit school. After a moment, she nodded toward the front of the station. “See that guy sitting over there? The biker–looking one, all tatted up?
I followed her gaze. The guy was cuffed, looking just as pissed as he was bored.
She let out a low laugh, and God: The sound seeped into my bloodstream and calmed me a fraction. That’s not a bad idea, but no. His tattoos are insane. Like, actually detailed and smart. I love that. I love art
She turned back to me. Smiling so brightly I was almost compelled to lean in. “So I think I’ll become a tattoo artist.”
† studied her. She was impossible to figure out. “You’re weird,” the words slipped out before I could stop them.
“That’s what they tell me,” she said, completely unfazed.
I didn’t know what to do with that, so I didn’t do anything
“What about you?” she asked.
I looked
away. “Doesn’t mutter. My life’s over anyway.”
Silence. For the first time since she got here, she wasn’t talking.
Then, she sat down. Just like that. As if we weren’t sitting in a shitty station, as if I wasn’t bleeding, as if my world hadn’t just cracked open. Minutes passed, and I almost thought I wouldn’t get to hear her voice again, and I felt an unexplainable sense of disappointment, until she did speak.
“It’s okay,” she said softly.
I frowned. “What?”
“It’s okay,” she repeated. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. You’re not exactly a ray of sunshine, but you don’t look like the type of guy who’d intentionally
want to hurt someone either. So… it’s okay.”
She said it like it was true. Like she actually believed it. I clenched my jaw, swallowing hard against the lump in my throat.
1/2
Chapter 16
“It won’t feel like it now,” she continued, her voice quieter. “And you probably won’t believe me. But eventually, it’ll be okay.”
She hesitated. Then, after a moment, she said, ‘Flowers.”
I blinked. “What?”
“Flowers,” she repented. “You know how they grow? In the dirt. In the dark. And they don’t even know they’re becoming something beautiful until one day. they just fucking are.”
She tilted her head, watching me. “You’ll get there too.”
I stared at her. Something ached in my chest.
An officer appeared at her cell, keys jingling. “Alright, let’s go.”
She pushed herself up, brushing off her ripped jeans. Before she stepped out, she turned to me one last time and smiled, casual, like she hadn’t just said something that wedged itself deep inside me. Like she hadn’t just engraved herself into my very soul.
1 read that on some dudes hoody by the way, it sounded all inspirational and shit. See you around, Broody.”
And then she was gone.
I shifted, watching as she walked toward the entrance. Feeling like a small part of me was being carved out with each step she took away from me. A woman stood there, arms crossed, looking absolutely livid. Trould see the resemblance and concluded it was her mum.
Tayla Christabel Stevens!” the woman snapped. “You are in so much trouble, young lady
The name glued
itself to my brain.
