Grey

Chapter Two

I was running through the woods in nothing but a big t-shirt that was stained with mud. My hair was in a tangled mess around my shoulders and my eyes were still heavy with sleep. I was dodging trees, tripping over roots that stuck up from the ground, but I wouldn’t slow down for anything. Breathless and with raw feet, I seemed to know where I was going.

Finally, I emerged from the woods and down an abandoned paved road. My brother’s car was a mangled mess, wrapped around a tree and ripped apart like it’d been through an F5 tornado. Across the street lied a tractor trailer in a ditch that barely looked touched. Just the front bumper was torn. A scream tried to force itself up my throat but got caught.

Grey broke out the window with his fist and fell out, moaning and coughing. He grabbed onto the trunk of the tree and helped himself up. The skin above his eyebrow was cut deeply and his lip was split. He limped around the side of the car. I almost breathed a sigh of relief until I realized Rowan wasn’t out of the car. I ran to the passenger side.

I screamed bloody murder at the sight of my brother. His eyes were wide open, focused out. A huge branch from the tree they had ran into had lodged itself in his stomach. Fresh blood still leaked out of his mouth and I fell to my knees, pounding on the ground, sobbing so hard I couldn’t breathe.

Grey walked around the side of the car, tears leaking down his face and onto the dried blood on his cheek. “I’m so sorry, Violet! I’m so sorry!” he apologized, holding onto his bloody shirt.

“What did you do?! What the fuck did you do, Grey?!” I screamed, anger flooding through every vein, every pore in my body. “You killed him! Are you happy? You killed my brother!”

I sat up, panting and sweating, tears streaming down my cheeks as I fumbled for the sheets around me to cover my bare chest. It was just a dream. I dropped my head into my hands and sighed, wiping my cheeks. That wasn’t how it had happened, not even close, but I still had that dream every now and again.

It dawned on me that Grey wasn’t in my bed. I didn’t shake my head, didn’t cry or curse him like I had in the earlier stages of our relationship. It was my own fault, right? I just let him get what he wanted every single time. Getting out of bed, I slipped on some sweats and a white tank top. I was in desperate need of a cup of coffee, so I left my room for the kitchen. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw Grey sitting at my kitchen table with a mug in his hand looking out the window. “Jesus, Grey, you scared me,” I said, walking over to the coffee machine. Warmth engulfed me silently. He stayed.

He smirked at me from across the room. “I woke up just about an hour ago. You were still asleep and I didn’t want to bother you. Trust me, I checked for your parents before I got comfortable,” he replied casually, getting up from his chair.

My parents never forgave Grey and they still hated him for what they did to their son. They burned the childhood pictures of them together, returned his clothes he always left over here in a box in his driveway, and deleted his number from the emergency contact list. They had no use for him anymore. He’d torn their hearts out.

I grabbed a mug from the cabinet just as he wrapped his arms around my waist. I fought a smile. “You stayed,” I whispered, pouring the coffee into my mug. Silently I ripped open a sugar packet and sprinkled it into my coffee.

Grey pulled his hands back so they were braced on my hips. He turned me around so fast I didn’t even have time to think. The sugar packet flew out of my hand and I laughed as he sat me up on the counter. Grey roughly took my face in his hands and kissed me. He tasted just like sweet coffee with a hint of mint toothpaste. I balled his shirt in my fists as I pulled him closer. 

He slid me off of the counter and I wrapped my legs around his waist, my arms tight around his neck.

~