A Slave to Broken Hearts (A Slave to Love Sequel)

Chapter 34: Space

Never before had packing ever been so chaotic; I was tossing pretty much everything I owned into garbage bags and boxes, not caring about order or neatness or making sure everything fit just so. 

Lexi had promised me enough time, but what if Blade saw through her? What if he came home earlier than expected? What if Leo or Jordan noticed what was going on and called him? It felt like so many things could go wrong and like I had so many things to pack from my room considering the seemingly short amount of time I had to do it in.

In the days that followed our argument, my mindset shifted completely. I was done waiting around, hoping that I was wrong and that things would get better and we could figure out a way to move past this and be together again. I deserved better than bare minimum treatment and couldn't handle any more of this misery; I was going to learn to be apart from him, bond be damned, and I was going to do things on my terms now. He wanted to act like an insensitive ass and demand space? Fine. He was going to get all the space in the world.

Already we had barely spoken since, only the barest of words exchanged about food and my health and that was it. Ace and Lexi hung around even more now, as did Jordan and Leo, as if the presence of a larger group would make things less strained and shitty, though none were quite sure what had happened since I hadn't explained and knowing Blade, he hadn't either, but it was obvious to anyone with functioning eyeballs that things were absolutely not fine.

Mazey hopped off my bed and strutted to the door while I stuffed some shirts into a bag.

"Mazey! Get your furry ass back here, if you run off and hide I wont have time to-"

Eliza was in the doorway. Holding a purring Mazey.

We stared at each other for a long tense moment. No doubt she could hear my heart pounding in my chest. 

"Hi," she said, breaking the silence first, stroking Mazey's head, an awkward smile on her face. We had never officially met, I'd only ever seen her from far and I had been hoping to keep it that way, but my run of bad luck seemed to be continuing.

I nodded to acknowledge her, a reflex more than anything, then turned back around to finish filling my current bag, focusing hard on breathing normally, even though it didn't seem like there was any oxygen left in the room.

"Are you leaving?"

"What does it look like?" I muttered, pushing back escaped strands of hair off my clammy forehead. What the hell was she doing here anyway? Did Blade invite her over for a secret hang out and forget to tell her he had to leave?

Lexi had 'accidentally' let slip what had happened while talking to their parents and Talia had called immediately this morning to yell at him, forcing him to come home 'right this second' so they could have a 'stern conversation' about 'his unacceptable behavior', all perfectly orchestrated by Lexi so I could have a window of opportunity to move out without Blade knowing.

Lexi had also promised a diversion for both Leo and Jordan as well, because I didn't want them to see and be caught in the middle of either lying to Blade till I was out of here or telling on me and having him come home; it wouldn't be fair to them to have to choose or be a part of this mess anymore than they already had.

Though I didn't ask what the diversion was because I was truly better off not knowing and was frankly a little scared as to what she was going to come up with, but either way, Leo couldn't have let her in unless he had escaped whatever plan she had cooked up...so did she wander in by herself? Or did she already have free reign of the place?

All scenarios had my blood pressure rising just considering them.

"I take it you're better?" she asked.

"Excuse me?"

She seemed taken aback. "Blade mentioned you weren't well but were on the mend. I'm glad to see you're back on your feet."