Page 129 of Darling Venom
Dread slithered up my spine. My heart bottomed out, sinking further by the second. I clutched my phone and jabbed nine-one-one just in case, angling the device forward like a weapon.
The light died.
Shoe squeaks echoed down the corridor.
A flashlight turned on. Inches away from me.
I screamed, charged forward with a battle cry, and thrust my phone into something hard.
Above us, the light came to life again.
I found Jonah against the wall, clawing his stomach.
“Jesus, Jonah.” I helped him up. “You scared me. Why were you standing in the dark in the middle of the night?”
“I was waiting for you.”
That dread returned, nipping at my gut.
“Did something happen?”
“I asked Leah out.”
My whole body sighed. “She turned you down.”
“Told me if I asked her again, she’d move.”
Oh, boy.
I knew it was bad, but I didn’t know it was this bad. That she’d uproot us just to escape a crush.
We weren’t suffering financially compared to eight years ago, but I didn’t think we could afford anywhere else. At least not without trading our perfectly safe, albeit small, two-bedroom for a cockroach-infested Petrie dish on the bad side of town.
“Leah and I are not moving,” I promised.
“She sounded serious.”
“She was scared.”
That was Leah.
Scared of her own shadow.
Or, more specifically, people seeing anything but her shadow. I was convinced that, despite the burns, if Phil had stayed, she would’ve made it out with her confidence intact.
That fucking asshole.
“Tell you what.” I patted Jonah’s arm. “I’ll talk to her and sort it out.”
“I don’t think it will help. Not tonight, at least. There was a moment after I asked that I really thought she would say yes. She looked so damn happy, Charlotte. And then a kid stared at her face too long, and something switched.” He straightened, so huge, yet gentle. “Until she learns to see herself as we do, there’s no chance she’ll say yes. You can’t love someone who doesn’t love herself.”
He was right.
Of course, he was right.
And I felt helpless. Without answers.
The weight of too many lives overloaded my shoulders.
