Page 60 of Broken Butterfly
Mom sniffles and nods her head emphatically. “Yes. Yes, I would like that very much. Oh, Lizzie. I’m so incredibly sorry. You have been through so much. You’re such a strong girl. Ann and John would be so very proud of you, honey.” Mom crushes Liz in a motherly embrace and rocks her back and forth.
“Do you want me to go find Dad?” I ask.
“No, baby. Let him have his time.” She wipes her face dry. “I think we all need a cup of hot tea. If you’ll excuse me.” Mom kisses me, Liz, and Jay, on the tops of our heads and quickly exits into the kitchen.
Liz puffs up her cheeks and blows out a huff of air. “That was really rough.”
Jay wraps his arm around Liz and looks over at me. “At least now they know.”
“I hate just springing it on them like that. The loss of our daughter still hits me hard every single day. I can only imagine what they must be feeling right now.”
Jay brings Liz’s head to cradle in his shoulder and rub circles on the back of her neck. “Me, too, babe.”
Wanting to give them some privacy, I shuffle off the couch. “I’ll go check on Mom.”
“Julien. I’m sorry I hurt you by leaving. I was always going to come back. I know I promised I would never leave you. I was in a messed-up place and I needed to get myself straightened out.”
I hunch my shoulders. “You did hurt me, Liz.”
“I know and I’m sorry. The night my memory came back—it was all so fucked up.”
“I’m not going to ask what that means. We can talk more once we get back to CU.”
“We will?” she asks, her face full of hope. “I’ve missed you. Both of you.”
“We’ve missed you too, princess,” Jay tells her while lifting her face up to his. He leans in like he’s about to kiss her, but she pulls back slightly and turns her face so that his lips meet her cheek.
I don’t know what is going on with everyone, but I guess I’ll have to wait until we get back to CU to find out. Jay told me and our parents that he and Liz were back together. He said that as soon as Liz regained her memories, she came back to him, just like he and Elijah predicted. That surely didn’t look the case yesterday when Ryder and Fallon were here. It looked to me like she was with Ryder, and then I got even more confused when I saw how she acted with Fallon.
Jay thumps me on the shoulder. “We’re going to the Fields later. Want to come?”
“Might as well,” I answer. I have nothing better to do and hanging out with Ry is always fun. Add Fallon to the mix, and tonight should be hellraising.
Before I’m able to go check on Mom, she comes out holding a tray with several steaming cups of tea. At the same moment, Dad walks back inside. His eyes are red and his face blotchy, but we pretend not to see it. We all spend the next hour huddled together on the couch listening to Mom talk Liz’s ear off. And during that hour, if my knee somehow finds its way to press against Liz’s and my fingers brush up against her wrist, we never acknowledge it.
“Holy moly! This place is packed!” I exclaim as Jayson parks his truck along a field furrow.
Jayson offered to drive us to the Fields. Julien is sitting shotgun in the passenger seat up front while I’m in the middle of a Ryder-Fallon burrito in the back. I’ve been thumb-wrestling the both of them and have beaten Ryder four times with my left hand and Fallon seven times with my right hand. Julien remained silent the entire time, but Jayson was uncharacteristically chatty. He’s spent the entire drive asking me questions about my trip with Fallon and Ryder. As soon as we turned onto the dirt road that led up to the Fields, I was astonished at how many people were here. When we would come out to watch Ryder, there would be maybe a hundred people. Tonight, it was more than double that amount.
Julien says something to Jayson and then hops out of the truck and walks off.
Jayson notices my crestfallen face. “He’s getting there.”
I hope so. Having Julien not only mad at me, but also not talking to me is torture.
Someone shouts Fallon’s name. “Looks like a lot of us are here tonight,” he says, tilting his head at several guys we used to know from school. I guess that’s why it’s so busy tonight. All the college kids are back home on break on top of the high school kids who come out here anyway. “I’ll catch up with you guys in a minute,” Fallon tells us and saunters off toward a group of guys.
The revving of car engines coming up the dirt road has me looking around. Two identical Mustang GT500s, both blue with white stripes down the middle, and a cherry red Camaro, make their way toward the track. The Camaro slows down to a crawl next to us, but the dark-tinted windows aren’t enough to hide Marshall’s scowling face as he sneers at me. He guns the engine, causing me to jump, and spins his back wheels so that they pepper my legs with dirt and small rocks. Thankfully, I’m wearing jeans, boots, and a long winter coat.
“What the fuck, asshole!” Jayson yells at the Camaro’s taillights as it drives away.
“Babe, are you okay?” Ryder asks as I wipe the dirt off my boots with my gloves.
Seeing Marshall has me wanting to get amnesia again. I hate him with the passion of a thousand suns. Marshall went to Highland High with Fallon and Elijah, but caused a lot of problems for me, Jayson, Julien, and Ryder. When Marshall played on the Highland High soccer team, he purposely tripped Julien and rammed his cleats into Julien’s calf, shredding it to pieces. Julien was in PT for months afterward and still has scars. Marshall also tried to pick a fight with Julien at one of Fallon’s high school parties by saying some very nasty things about me. That night ended with everyone getting into a knockdown fistfight. Jayson beat Marshall so badly that he was in the hospital for a couple of days. Then, Marshall tried to run Ryder off the track here at the Fields during a race. That night, it was me who punched Marshall in the face and broke his nose. If it weren’t for Fallon jumping in, Marshall would have punched me back. Seeing him here, tonight, does not bode well for our evening. However, I’m not the timid, meek Elizabeth anymore. I can hold my own against that douche-twat.
“It was Marshall,” I say with a small growl.
Jayson huffs out a breath of disbelief. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me? Out of all the nights.”
