Page 23 of The Other Side of Green

“And Lyra, don’t forget to come by. I want to give you your Grammy’s box.”

“Sure, sure. I’ll come as soon as I can.” What I meant was I’d come as soon as my heart stopped hurting. She drilled me with a stare.

“I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

Luca and I glanced at one another. Looked like we were being adopted.

Patience shuffled her way to the back door, nodding in appreciation at the fact we’d managed to keep the kitchen spotless doing our endeavors of hosting Grams’ mourners and respect payers. Believe me, the skin on my hands might never be the same again.

She turned at the door and stared hard at Luca. “Look after your sister,” she repeated.

Luca shook his head. “As if I’d do anything else.”

“Hmmm.” She opened the door, and I breathed a sigh of relief that the day was finally over. My bed called to me. All I could hope was that exhaustion would allow me to sleep. “Now would you look at what we have here.” The old lady bent down, leaning on her stick. When she stood back up, she handed me a black case.

My heart officially stopped.

“Looks like you’ll be playing after all.”

I took the violin case, my hands shaking.

Jack.

Jack had followed me.

Jack didn’t know the truth. Didn’t know the awful reason why I ran.

“Looks like it,” I muttered, speech thick from a serious case of dry tongue syndrome.

She went down the steps, leaning heavily on her stick, other hand on the rail, leaving Luca staring at me. I clutched my violin tight to my chest.

“You can stop glaring like that, Luca Lennox.”

A vein started to pulsate on his forehead as his lips stretched into a grimace. “I told him I’d ruin him,” he ground out through clenched teeth.

Luca couldn’t know I had the hoodie that he’d kept as evidence. He sucked at this cloak and daggers thing. I sighed, my body almost melting to the ground, weary to the marrow of my bones. I already knew I wouldn’t get any sleep. “Luca. You can’t ruin him. We’ve already ruined one another. Because of you. Now go home and leave me to lock up.”

He snorted, rather like an angry horse. “You think I’m leaving you alone? You’ve got to be kidding.”

“So stay, whatever. But you can’t stay here forever. This isn’t your home anymore.”

A dark expression flashed in his eyes. I turned, still holding my violin case, and walked away, leaving him to torment himself with his demons in whichever way he needed. I had enough of my own.

Every step of my feet on the worn carpet of the stairs took a hundred years. I walked past Grams’ room, unwilling to look in on the place she’d spent her last hours.

Black of night cloaked my room, pulling me into dark shadows. I jumped as one shadow moved, peeling itself away from the wall.

“How did you get in here?” My legs trembled as he stepped toward me.

“Same way I always have.” He looked beyond breathtaking: black t-shirt stretched over his chest, faded and ripped jeans low on his hips. Staring at him was like stepping through a mirror into the past.

“Jack. You can’t be here.” I tried to step away, forcing myself into action, but his hand reached for my wrist, holding me still, while his other hand slipped around my cheek pushing into the space between my curls and skin. And damn myself to hell if I didn’t lean into his touch. His face in the darkness shadowed.

“You ran from me, Lyra, the one thing you promised not to do.”

“I didn’t run from you, Jack.” I ran from something far, far worse… I couldn’t tell him though; it would destroy him completely and the Lennox siblings had done enough of that already.

Guilt and fear pressed into me, suffocating, pushing the life out of my lungs until a sob tore from my throat.