Page 190 of Break Away
“What? I’m asking for situational awareness.”
Charm shifted onto her knees on the couch, fully invested. “He does look hot in an emotionally unstable way.”
“He always looks emotionally unstable,” I said, clutching the phone like it had personally betrayed me.
“Yes, but tonight he looks committed to the aesthetic,” Charm said.
Easton knocked again, harder.
“Aura,” he called through the door, his voice muffled but unmistakable. “I know you’re here. Just open, please.”
The please did what the pounding hadn’t.
It scared me.
I stood, the blanket sliding to the floor around my feet. Bliss and Charm immediately stood with me, which was deeply unhelpful because now all three of us were lined up in the living room like emotional support bodyguards in fuzzy socks.
“You don’t have to open it,” Bliss said, but her voice was already softer.
Charm crossed her arms. “You also don’t have to not open it. For clarity, those are your options.”
I looked at her. “That was terrible clarity.”
“I’m emotional.”
Easton knocked once more, but softer this time. “Clarke.”
That name through the door hit me in the ribs.
Not Aura. Not the name I had cried with in his apartment. Clarke. The one he used when he was trying not to hand me his whole throat.
“I don’t want another fight,” I whispered.
Bliss’s expression shifted immediately, excitement draining into something protective. “Then tell him that.”
Charm nodded. “And if he ignores it, we throw snacks and call Cade.”
“You’re not calling Cade.”
“Fine. Ryan.”
“You’re not calling Ryan either.”
Charm looked away a little too fast. “I didn’t say I wanted to.”
Bliss and I both stared at her.
She lifted her chin. “This is not about me.”
I exhaled, wiped under my eyes even though I wasn’t crying, and walked to the door before courage could leak out through my fuzzy socks. My hand shook when I turned the lock.
The second I opened it, rain-cooled air rushed in, carrying the smell of wet pavement and Easton.
He looked worse in person.
Not hurt worse. The bruising at his cheekbone had faded to yellow-green at the edges, and the cut at his mouth had started healing. His knuckles were still wrapped.
His eyes were the problem.
