Page 210 of How My Neighbour Stole Christmas
“I should have stayed inhere,” I say to Colleen, one of the reindeer, as I brush her wiry coat. “Then none of this would have happened.”
When I walked back into my house after confronting Storee, I immediately regretted it because I could smell her, I could hear her, I could see her.
I saw her in front of the fireplace with me.
I saw her on the couch, riding me.
In the kitchen, on top of the counter.
On the stairs…
I needed fucking out, and luckily, Max was there to help. He guided me out of the house and into his truck. That’s when we saw her pop out of Cindy’s house, trying to wave us down. Max asked if I wanted to hear what she had to say, and I shook my head.
There was nothing she could say.
I told him to just take me to the barn.
When we arrived, he wasn’t going to leave me at first, but I practically pushed him away, begging for my own space, and thankfully he gave it.
He’s given me so much space that now the sun is starting to set and I have no intention of leaving this barn.
None.
I will pull up a cot, grab a blanket, and this is where I’ll live.
Where I’ll stay.
Because I can’t go back to my house.
I just fucking can’t.
It’s been tainted.
Tarnished.
A place where I don’t want to be because it’s too painful for so many reasons. It had almost become…homeagain. A place with joy and hope. And now that’s gone.Again.
“I’m such an idiot.” I sigh as I sit on a stool next to Colleen. She nudges me with her nose, but I don’t budge as I stare at the ground.
Storee never showed romantic interest in me before, back when we were teens, so why would she be into me out of the blue? Max was right all along—she was in it to distract me, to use me, and when she couldn’t stop me from excelling in the competition, she tried another way.
And it worked.
It worked so well because I want nothing to do with the competition now. I’m out.
Done.
Over it.
Wasn’t worth my time in the first place.
None of this was.
Who the fuck did I think I was, coming into this Christmas seasonthinking I could rekindle the same sense of joy I used to feel back when my parents were alive?
It was stupid and naïve and a mistake I won’t make again.
Nope.
