Like Rapunzel, but Not Really ✔

Chapter 19

The ride home was uneventful, which was shocking, considering how much crap that had been pounding at us the past 36 hours. The only thing that prevented me from fully relaxing was the presence of the dark haired boy beside me in the back seat.

I kept glancing over at Tristan and every so often, he would catch me, his eyebrows raised in questioning, and I would divert my eyes away as fast and as inconspicuously possible. I kept shifting in my seat as if Hunter's custom leather seats were pins and needles. In my head, I kept rehearsing on how I was about to broach the subject but each time, it just never sounded right.

So, finally, I decided to just go to hell with it.

"Tristan, I need to talk to you," I blurted out as Hunter parked his car into the empty parking slot in front of the club.

Hunter, Liam, Tristan, and I had carpooled back to Somewhere Downtown. I had insisted on riding the car with Hunter. But since Tristan insisted he wanted to keep me on close watch, he abandoned his motorbike at the hospital.

Liam, on the other hand... I was not too sure why he insisted on riding with us and frankly, I think all of us were just too exhausted to argue or give it much thought.

Tristan turned his attention to me and motioned with his eyes to let me continue.

"Alone." I clarified, before pointedly looking at both Hunter and Liam in the front seats to signal them to go out. Hunter wiggled his eyebrows suggestively but I ignored it and just pointed him to the door with my head again.

Once they had left the car, I cleared my throat to buy time for myself to think about how to word the things I needed to tell him. But when I opened my mouth to just say it, he cut me off.

"I'm not leaving."

My mouth, slack jawed, hung open as I was rendered surprise by his statement.

"How did you know what I was going to say?" I squeaked out, after barely regaining my composure.

He crossed his arms in front of his chest and shrugged. "After all those messages in the house and the strange way you have been acting all day, it's pretty obvious." He stared at me with his steely gaze.

I bit my lip as I contemplated on saying more. "You need to know, he-"

"He threatened he was going to kill me?" he finished my sentence.

Again, I found myself staring agape at his shrewdness. "Okay, how did you know that? Did Penny tell you?" I scowled. Dang, that girl and her mouth.

"No," he said slowly. "But now I'm a little offended that you told her and not me." His scowl matched the one I had on. His petty rivalry with Penny would have been more amusing weren't it for the circumstances.

"Wait, if she didn't tell you then how..." I gasped as realisation sinked in. "Has he been making threats to you directly?"

His silence was enough for me to affirm my suspicion. Immediately, a sunken feeling started to envelop my insides as I realised just how deep I had dragged Tristan into my mess.

"Tristan -"

"Don't apologize." He cut me off before I could. "It's not your fault. I chose to get involved. So stop trying to say goodbye to me," he looked at me so seriously that my breath got caught in my throat. How was it that he was answering all these things I wanted to ask or say but never even voiced out?

And then his lips curved upwards, just a tiny bit, while his eyes softened ever so lightly. "And I won't die so you don't have to worry about my ghost coming back to haunt you, okay?"