The next morning, Tori walked out into the kitchen to find Shannon silent and brooding in the kitchen area. Her dark, almond shaped eyes were red, and puffy, as though she’d spent the entire night in tears. She didn’t look up as Tori came into the room, she was so lost in thought that it barely registered.
Barefoot, Tori trod carefully past the other girl, gently laying a hand on her shoulder to soothe her, “How you feeling?”
Shannon started out of her internal reflections, “Uh ... I’m okay I guess, just thinking all of this over.”
Rinsing her favourite mug in the sink, Tori collected the coffee percolator and took a seat on the stool next to Shannon. “I can’t believe they did this,” Tori muttered, “I can’t believe we’re in this situation.”
“It’s not entirely their fault, Tor, I mean, don’t you remember how screwed up everything was back then? Jayden would be dead if it wasn’t for those guys and what they did for him, do you not remember Tommy Caine? The guy gave me the creeps,” she muttered, “And I have a really high tolerance for that shit. Jayden did what he had to, and it doesn’t look like they’re still involved in this – he couldn’t have known what would happen, babe.”
“Of course he knew,” Tori argued, “Why else would he be so worried to get Davies involved like he did?”
“Babe, Jay would never deliberately put you into any danger. He adores you, it’s probably all just got out of hand. I know it’s ... hard to understand for you, but he’s a good guy, really he is. Maybe he was just being his usual arrogant overbearing self, and then shit just sort of ... hit the pan?”
“But what about what happened to you?”
Tori could forgive Jayden anything on her own part, she had – a billion times over – but how could she forgive him for what had happened to Shannon? She’d been through so much already – her parents, Nate, that photographer, and now Sebastienne as well. She felt completely responsible for everything that had happened last night – Nate crashing in, insulting her – none of that would have happened if it hadn’t been for her and Jayden and the way that her brother had found them together.
“It was nothing, Tor, really,” Shannon rushed out, “I walked into the wrong place at the wrong time, that’s all. I saw something I shouldn’t have at the club, and his security were just ... protecting themselves. But I have to take responsibility for going there, babe, nobody drove me to that. It’s just one thing in a long list of naive and stupid things I’ve done recently, I’m just not myself right now, you can’t blame either of them for that.”
“But ...”
“No,” Shannon broke in bossily, “I won’t let you torture yourself like this! We’re adults Tor, you keep telling them so, and yet, I really hate to say this, but you’re being kind of childish over everything. Take some responsibility, show them! I get that it’s all completely alien to you, but like it or not, it’s happened! You either pull yourself together and forgive them, try to understand it, or you move on and cut them out completely – you can’t torture them or yourself with ‘what if’s’ and blame.”
Tori slowly reached for her coffee, somewhere at the edge of her consciousness, she knew that Shannon was right, but she had so much new information that she had to struggle through, so many things that she didn’t understand even now. She felt as though they were strangers to her, she didn’t live in a world of gangsters and nymphomaniac psychopaths, she hadn’t even really been aware that anybody did! How the hell had all of this happened right underneath her nose and she’d not even noticed?
YOU ARE READING
Puppet Master
General FictionGRAPHIC and EXPLICIT! Tori's been in love with Jayden since she was twelve years old, but he's pulled away at every turn. Doubts, insecurities, and certain, ahem, preferences have been convincing him that she's the kind of girl t...
