...
❝He was the poison I was dying to taste on my lips.❞
...
I was a coward.
The coward who wanted to leave behind the wreckage of her life for the man who had tormented her for as long as she could remember. The boy who had spit venom at me gro...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
september 2017 — age twenty-two
"I MISS YOU SO MUCH. When are you visiting?"
Faye laughed on the other end of the line, no doubt because I'd just sounded like a whining five-year-old. "I miss you too, but I doubt it will be anytime soon. I just got the internship for the autumn and it's going to last until Christmas."
"Did I tell you how proud I am of you for that yet?"
"Only twice in the last ten minutes."
"Well, I'm so incredibly proud of you. You deserve nothing but the best, and you've gotten it. Through nothing but your hard work."
"Thanks, babe." I could feel her smile in her tone. "How's the promotion going?"
"It's really going," I said emphatically. "I think it might stay going for the next few years."
"Gulzar still hasn't decided?"
"He's worse than a chameleon when it's changing colour, I swear to God. He changes his mind every few minutes because 'everything needs to be perfect' and it's driving me nuts."
"You'll get there. I have faith," Faye assured. "Oh, and oh my God, you'll never guess who I spoke to yesterday."
"Who?"
"Heira's brother."
"She has a brother?" I frowned. "Since when?"
"Since forever."
"Oh. What did he want?"
"He asked if I was still in Glésford or not because he wanted me to meet with Heira."
"Why couldn't she call you herself?"
"No clue," she said. "I told him I'd moved to Milan, and he asked if I could let him know whenever I was back in the country."
"That's so odd," I remarked. "Didn't they move out of the country?"
The last I'd heard from Heira was over three years ago and even that was before her family packed their bags and moved after something they'd perfectly hidden from town had transpired.
"I guess they're back. He said that she was attending university in London, and wanted her to catch up with some old friends."
"That doesn't seem like something she'd have wanted after the complete radio silence these three years."
"Can you blame her, though? She probably still thinks we're in touch with Kaiden, and after everything that went down, I'd want to cut all ties, too."
"Huh," I spoke. "We were friends too. That makes no sense."
"None of it does. They both stayed completely silent about it."
"Kaiden stayed silent. We haven't heard from Heira since." I shook my head. It was all so strange. "What did you tell him?"
