Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 23745 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 119(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23745 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 119(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
“All right.”
Once she’s let me go, I head upstairs, my stomach and soul heavy with the news I’m about to break to Blake. This is the last thing in the world I want to do right now, and the hatred for my dad is burning in my heart like the world’s most fiery volcano – whichever one that is.
I find him in his room, doing something on his computer. He looks up and smiles when I come through the door, which somehow makes things worse.
“Hey, you,” he says, looking so frickin’ handsome. I wish I had a science-fiction machine that could take the two of us to another dimension so we could get away from all of this together.
I try to smile back at him, but something must be showing across my face, because his expression quickly changes to one of concern. “What? What is it?” he asks. “What’s wrong?”
I stare at him – the man I love—and feel a wave of hopelessness wash over me like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. It’s like a blanket of pain covering every inch of my body, and acknowledging the fact that it’s coming from my father just makes it even worse.
I’m helpless. There’s nothing I can do.
I have a choice to make here. Either break off things with Blake or continue them out of selfishness and potentially end up getting him hurt of worse.
And no matter how hard it is, I know the decision I have to make.
“I…I have to talk to you about something, Blake.”
Blake’s eyes change. He knows whatever it is I have to say, it’s not good. “Okay,” he says slowly. “And what’s that?”
9
Blake
Four days later…
The female species can take a rocket to Mars for all I care.
I should have known better than to let myself get even remotely attached to one of them, even if she was as gorgeous as Luna. But nope, I made a serious mistake and convinced myself that this time, things would be different. But as it turns out, they’re all the same. When things come down to the wire, women are all the same.
They all bail on you.
I skipped dinner after she gave me the news. She tried to “let me down easy,” whatever the hell that means. I told my dad and Susan that I’d already eaten and I wasn’t hungry, and spent the rest of the night up in my room, staring at the ceiling. I thought about going out to the bar and finding myself a booty-call to just wash the whole experience of Luna out of my mind, but even before I went to put my shoes on, I realized I wasn’t up for it.
This is going to be hard, living under the same roof as her now. In fact, it’s going to be next to impossible. I’m going to have to work on getting that apartment a whole lot faster than I was before. Lower my standards for where I am willing to live just so I can get away from her.
I’ve been ducking her every time I see or hear her, doing my best to avoid running into her at all, but it’s been tough, especially considering we share the upstairs together. Every time she showers, I catch a whiff of her shampoo in the hallway, which simply reminds me of what it was like when our bodies were pressed up against each other, wrapped in the throes of passion.
We still share family meals together, and I have to constantly keep my eyes on my plate, all the while trying not to make it look like there’s something horribly wrong between us so as not to arouse suspicion in our parents.
And what’s even worse, at the same time, I can see Luna doing similar things– trying to avoid me, averting her eyes, changing directions when she sees me in the hall. Little things like that just cause my heart to break all over again, just like it did when she told me the first time that we were no longer going to be together.
I feel hollow. Sick. Emptied out.
It’s like I found something I was missing and then lost it again. Or even worse, like it was snatched away from me as part of the punchline of some terrible joke. And now I don’t know what to do with myself. But as each day goes by, I can feel myself growing colder and colder, as though a winter is setting in on my soul.
I’m spending more time at the garage now, honing my skills at my trade. I need to hurry up and get my own shop open. When I close my eyes, I can see it. The vision is right there in front of me; I just need to make it happen.
It’s nearly nine o’clock, and I’m lying on my bed, staring up at the ceiling when my phone rings from a blocked number. On any other circumstance, I would never answer, but I’m in such a foul mood that I’d just love to chew a telemarketer’s head off, so I go ahead and pick up.