"I want to love you again, but I don't know how. Maybe I'm not like the moon. The moon is pure, an incandescent light in the midst of bitter darkness.
I have never been that forgiving."
WARNING: This is Book Three. If you have not read "affluenza"...
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"WHAT DO YOU mean 'there's nothing you can do?' You're the goddamn police!" Nova shouts, pacing around the room.
When I woke up from my unconsciousness, I wasn't sprawled out on the street anymore but instead wrapped in a blanket in a tattoo parlor. The last place I expected to end up tonight. Nox was sitting on a couch across from me with cuts along his eyebrow and holding an ice pack that Nova offered for his stomach. I felt my own stomach sink with guilt.
"Well, sorry if I didn't have time to sketch out the cheekbones and jawlines of the creeps! I was too busy trying to make sure they didn't kill anybody!" Nova hisses, storming past us and pushing open a door to the back room of his parlor.
I frown at Nox, who was avoiding my eyes. "I know, I know. I'm an idiot. I'm so sorry, Lennox."
He shifts painfully so he can look at me better. "You're not an idiot, Braylen," he murmurs, chuckling softly. The sincerity of his tone makes me feel better—only slightly. "I'm guessing nothing like that has ever happened to you before?"
I shrug my shoulder and it sends a stab of pain down my arm. "No. Has something like that happened to you?"
Nox doesn't say anything for a while, just shuts his eyes and takes a long breath. "That doesn't matter. Just...I don't know. Sometimes, it's good to fight. And other times, it's better to run."
"But that's not fair."
Nox purses his lips. "None of this is fair. It's the 21st century and people are still ignorant assholes that can't fathom the fact that two dudes could ever like one another. But that's the way things are. You have to get used to it. You can't go all Hulk Hogan on every homophobe you meet."
I blow out a breath. I didn't want to talk about this anymore. I didn't want to think of this world as the unfair one that it was, one where I couldn't even walk around with a guy and simply exist without people hating me for it. Nox was right; I hadn't ever experienced that before. And I didn't want to, ever again. I didn't think that I should. "He's on the phone with the police?" I ask instead, nodding towards the door Nova disappeared out of.
Lennox nods before grimacing. "Yeah, but he called someone else, too. I thought I should warn you before he gets here."
My brows furrow. "No, he didn't."
Lennox's mouth opens to say something when the shop door is pushed open and an angry-looking Roman storms in. He was dressed in a wrinkled pair of jeans and a hoodie and I don't think I'd ever seen him look so mad. His eyes fall on Nox first, until he turns and locks eyes with me. "God, Braylen," he murmurs, shoulders crumpling. "You scared me to death."
"I'm fine," I breathe quickly, but he's already stalked over to the seat I was in and pulled me up into a bone-crushing hug. I wrap my arms around his torso, breathing in the scent of him and finally allowing frustrated tears to prick at my eyes. "I'm okay, Roman. I promise."
