Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 85616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
He swirled his half-empty glass of lemonade and took a drink. I hoped I didn’t come across as nosy. Making new friends was an art I wasn’t quite good at. I tended to be a loner when it came to my personal life. My prickly and closed-off attitude didn’t necessarily lend itself to being a social butterfly. It’s why I valued my friendship with Emmy so damn much. I was glad we were back in the same city together.
Dylan cleared his throat. “My family was always pretty tight. Everything seemed perfect. Christmas and Thanksgiving, hell, even Halloween was always an excuse for the fam to get together and hang out. Me and Benji were like brothers. Close in age, liked the same things. Super close. And then… well, then my dad cheated on my mom and the fallout from that completely fucked everything up. He was my cousin from my dad’s side and so when my scummy father disappeared, so did my cousin. I think my dad may have said some shit to him. Not sure, but I know that I haven’t talked to him since the divorce. Haven’t talked to anyone from my dad’s side, even my grandma.”
The pain was evident in his voice. Dyl had a way of exuding positivity—I could tell that even though we hadn’t interacted much—so it was a stark contrast when that usual ray of sunshine in his eyes was dimmed.
And I found that I didn’t like it. Not at all.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. Unfortunately I couldn’t offer him anything more than that. It seemed to be enough to bring back a little bit of that light, though.
“It’s okay. I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason. My cousin was my best friend, and I hate that I lost him. But I think that maybe if we had stayed close, I wouldn’t have moved away from my hometown, wouldn’t have found my way onto the Bobcats team, and wouldn’t have found my pack. I’m big on being comfortable. Sometimes a little too much. So that shake-up made me want to get out and push myself.”
“That’s a really good way to look at it.”
“Thanks. Credit goes to Cassandra Vivek, my therapist extraordinaire who is like a freaking anxiety-whisperer. Not that her whispers make me anxious, just that she can—okay, you get what I mean.”
Dylan started to chuckle, and I quickly joined in. “Imagine a therapist whispering to make their patients anxious so they never run out of clients. Wouldn’t that be wild?” Dylan said.
That had me laughing even harder. “Honestly, you might be onto something there. Could be a good business venture.”
My phone, which was sitting face up on the table, vibrated and pulled my attention for a moment. I was going to quickly swipe away the notification and pocket the phone, continuing to enjoy my time with my new friend—and friend only.
But something happened that made me freeze in place.
A random number appeared on my screen with a preview of the message attached to it. My chest clenched hard enough to snap ribs. It was as if the world was picked up off its axis and thrown three galaxies away. Everything violently spun. My stomach felt ready to empty itself.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, holy fuck.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Hi! Hope your move to Burlington is going well, my love. I know I’m going to enjoy the change of scenery myself.
Even though I didn’t have the number stored in my phone, I knew exactly who this message was from.
My stalker. Someone who had latched onto me from afar and made my life a fucking living hell the last four years. Someone who appeared to be completely untraceable and who was completely infatuated with me. So much so that they sabotaged any relationship I had, threatened me with a silver bullet to the heart whenever I blocked a number, sent me pictures of myself sleeping with an iron collar photoshopped around my neck, and called it true love.
It was one of the reasons why this Burlington move had come at such a perfect time. I could keep things as quiet as possible—only telling the people closest to me about it—and disappear into the night, starting a new life away from the shadow of this unhinged lunatic.
But it didn’t work.
They knew where I was.
They were going to follow me here.
Running from this problem wasn’t going to solve it.
Suddenly, a referral to Ms. Vivek’s office sounded extremely appealing.
Chapter Five
The End
DYLAN
I needed to have a serious talk with Chris after this. As my best friend, he should have been way more aware of my current situation and should have stuck around to prevent me from making a spectacularly bad decision.
Like blurting out that Miles looked like a god walking among men.
Or reaching out and playing footsie with him under the table.