The Coincidence 03 The Destiny of Violet and Luke ARC (26 page)

“Violet,” I jump at the sound of a voice… my dad’s. I leap to my feet and rush around to the other side of the bed. He’s sitting up, with his hand clutching his chest, blood streaming down his arm as he breathes too loud and I can hear the pain in it.

“Daddy.” I sprint to him, clutching my bear in my hand. “You’re okay… you’re okay…” Before I can reach him, his breathing stops.

And I’m alone all over again.

Chapter 10

Luke

I’m screwing my whole system up, the one I worked hard to create. I spent years and years under my mom’s control, cleaning up after her, listening to her rant, staying inside when she told me she was too nervous to be alone. I missed school when she asked me, listening to her play the guitar and sings songs when all I wanted to do was hang out with my friends. There were a few times when she’d let Kayden come over and I’d get to go over to his house, but they were few and far between and she’d always make me spend extra time with her. Thankfully, Kayden never saw one of her more intense episodes, but he could tell something was off, just like I knew that sometimes his dad hit and yelled at him. It was our silent agreement. I’ll keep your secrets if you keep mine.

And we did, continuing to live under our parents’ hold. But once I could leave the house on my own, I was done. With it all. I partied and fucked girls and hardly ever came home, sleeping in my truck most nights. I loved the taste of freedom and found it often in the endless amount of drinking and meaningless sex. It was my system. Drink and screw. Go to school. Play football. Get good grades. Excel in the important parts and cover the cracked and fucked-up parts of life. The broken parts no one’s seen, the ones I buried in alcohol and doing what I do best—taking control of a girl and fucking her until I know she’d do anything for me, then walking away.

Every instinct I’ve engrained into my head is telling me to do that to Violet—fuck her and run. But the thing is, if I did try to, she’d probably not give in to me and since I’ve never experienced rejection from a girl I’m not sure how that’d go over. I worry I’d be left with the ugliness of my need for control swarming inside me. I’d be weak, like I was when I was a kid. And I hated myself when I was a kid—I hated life.

As I lie awake in my bed staring up at the ceiling, contemplating the mess I’ve gotten into, the sun rises outside my window. Violet’s sleeping beside me on the bed, her feet are next to my head. We were laying side by side when we fell asleep, but she must have moved in her sleep. Her skirt’s ridden up and I can almost see all of her long legs and her hair is down and spread out around her, the diamond stud in her nose glinting in the sunlight. I can hear the faint sound of her breathing and I find myself comforted by it and her body heat. I don’t understand it. My interest in her should be gone. She told me she wasn’t suicidal and I believe her, which should mean I can let her go. Yet the more I talked to her, the more it seemed like her life was as screwed up as mine and that’s making me even more interested, not just to fuck her but to get to know her. I want to find out who she is, why she does the crazy things she does. Why she looks so detached most of the time and what causes the few rare smiles and the sadness I see in her eyes.

I continue to stare at the ceiling until daylight fully breaks. I start to roll out of bed to get dressed and go get some coffee, when all of a sudden Violet starts flipping out. She sucks in a deep breath, her body arching as she opens her eyes to the ceiling. She blinks and gasps repeatedly as she comes out of her daze. I’m halfway sitting up when she spots me looking at her. The detachment that’s normally in her eyes is replaced with so much panic and fear I almost throw my arms around her to hold on to her. But then she quickly rolls on her stomach, shaking her head as she presses her face into my mattress. Her shoulders heave as she balls her hands into fists and screams into the mattress. I don’t know what to do, if I should make her move before she smothers herself or let her get whatever the hell she’s releasing out of her.

After a lot of deep breathing, she carefully turns back over and sits up. Her cheek is still a little puffy, her pupils are dilated and glossy and she looks like she’s high, no emotion evident in her expression. How can that be possible, when just a second ago she looked scared out of her mind?

“Are you okay?” I dare ask and then place a hand on her knee, needing to touch her for reasons I’m still trying to figure out.

She frowns down at my hand. “I’m fine.” She scoots to the side and my hand falls from her leg to the mattress.

I’m not sure whether to press or not. I know I wouldn’t want to be pressed if I’d woken up like that. “Are you sure?”

She nods and gets to her feet, stretching her hands above her head. Her back arches as she yawns, her black and red hair a tangled mess running down her back. All I can think about is how much I want to grab a handful of her hair and guide her to my lips, not to conquer but to comfort. “So when are we going to head down to the apart—” She’s cut off as someone knocks on my door.

My brows dip together as I get up and open the door, wondering if I’m getting kicked out. Seth comes strutting in, with Greyson at his heels, then does a double take when he sees Violet, who does nothing more than stare at him, looking bored.

“Okay, I’m so confused.” He stares at Violet like she’s some strange endangered species. “What is she doing here? And why does it look like you both got your asses kicked?”

Violet lowers her hands to her side and turns to me. “I’m going to leave… catch up with you later, maybe.”

I stick out my arm as she tries to walk forward. “We have to get down to the apartments. We’ll be lucky if we can still get one already.”

“Wait a minute,” Seth says, elevating his hands in front of him as he gapes at me. “You’re living with her?” Seth is a very blunt person and I usually don’t care because I can be that way, too, but aiming his bluntness at Violet right now doesn’t seem like such a good idea.

“Yeah and it’s not a big deal.” I glance at Greyson, the more levelheaded of the two, for help.

Greyson steps forward and puts his arm around Seth’s shoulder. He’s a little taller than Seth and a little more casual when it comes to clothes, wearing darker colors like grays and blacks while Seth wears brighter ones because I think he likes to stand out.

“Relax,” Greyson says to Seth. “We’re all friends here.”

“Not really.” Seth eyes Violet up and down. “The only thing I know about her is that she can be a bitch sometimes to Callie, always making her stay out of the room when she ties that damn red scarf around the doorknob so she can have her way with helpless men.”

“ ‘Helpless men’?” Violet asks, crossing her arms over her chest, an amused twinkle in her eye. “Are you insulting your gender?”

“No, I’m saying you’re a vixen, who bosses people around,” he retorts and Greyson notably cringes.

Violet moves forward, tilting her head to the side. “So what if I’m a slut? It doesn’t make me a vixen.” She gives me a fleetingly glance that carries caution for me to keep my mouth shut about her virginity secret. A secret I tried not to think about all night, yet it was impossible.

“Yes, it does,” Seth snaps. “You’re mean and bossy and you don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

“Hey Seth, lay off her,” I tell him, shooting him a warning look.

Violet targets a death glare at me. “I don’t need you to stick up for me.”

“Yes, you do,” I assure her, which is clearly the wrong thing to say. Her eyes darken and Greyson gets a little worried, leaning back like Violet’s about to attack us all.

Seth unfortunately doesn’t pick up on the vibe, though, walking out from under Greyson’s arm and crowding Violet. “Yep, you don’t need anyone, right? You’re perfectly fine bossing people around.”

She unfolds her arms and steps forward, decreasing the space between them even more. I want to believe that she won’t do anything, but I’ve seen her do too many crazy things to make any assumptions about Violet Hayes. I decided to step forward and again I mentally curse myself for being so drawn to her.

“Hey.” I position myself between the two of them and look at Violet. “Let’s go get some coffee and get down to the apartment.”

“You’re fucking crazy if you’re going to live with her,” Seth says loudly and seconds later I hear a slap, probably from Greyson slapping him on the arm or something.

Violet stares up at me without so much as blinking and her lips are set together in a firm line. I can hear the soft intakes of each uneven breath as she fights to breathe soundlessly.

“Get out of my way,” she says evenly.

“Why?” I ask. “Are you going to go after Seth or try to leave?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes.”

She blinks, speechless, but then shakes her head. “I’m going to leave.”

I shake my head and keep my feet planted. “Then I’m not moving.”

“Okay, then I’m going after Seth,” she says with a mocking attitude as she shuffles to the side. “Now please move out of my way.”

I mimic her move and she glowers at me through her thick eyelashes. “Luke…”

I lean in, lowering my voice. “I’m not going to let you out of here when you’re obviously upset and irrational.”

“I’m not irrational,” she argues and then swallows hard. “And what does it matter if I am?”

“Hitchhiking.” I count down my fingers the many reckless things I’ve seen her do over the few weeks I’ve known her. “Stepping into a bar fight, dealing drugs, jumping out of windows, letting some dude get rough with you.”

“I do those things when I’m rational,” she mutters.

“What? That doesn’t make any sense.”

She glances over my shoulder at Seth and Greyson. “Yes it does… now let me go.”

“Were you having a bad dream?” I whisper. “Is that why you woke up panicked?”

“I’m fine,” she hisses back, sucking in a slow breath. Her eyes water over and I get lost in her emotion, my hand drifting to her cheekbone to stroke her skin. She flinches against the contact as I spread my fingers over her cheek. “Please, just let me leave.” She begs. “Please, I just need a moment.”

Fuck.
I want to kiss her so badly right now, pull her against me and just hold her. I could try and blame it on the fact that she looks so vulnerable and I just want to seize the opportunity to touch her when her guard is down, but it’s not like that. I know it the moment I step back and let her go by simply because she said it was what she needed at the moment. Nothing else.

She doesn’t thank me as she hurries by me and I don’t turn around to watch her go. I just did something solely for someone else, tossing all of my own needs aside, and I have no idea what to do with it.

Once I hear the door shut, I pull myself together before I turn around, pretending like nothing happened.

Seth immediately shakes his head at me, flabbergasted. “What the hell was that about?”

“Nothing.” I head over to my desk to clear it out. With each item I put in the box, the lighter I feel because soon I’ll have some place to live and it’s not back home. “She just needed a place to crash for the night.”

He strolls up and leans over to catch my eye. “Not that. That weird little moment you two just shared.”

“I don’t share moments with anyone.” I glance out the window, keeping an eye on the yard in front of the building for her to step outside.

“So you say,” Seth says. “And I’ve never seen you do anything that would contradict that, until just now.”

“Seth, maybe we should just let him be,” Greyson says, leaning against the door.

I gather my pens and notebook out of the desk, along with the leather case that carries my insulin and needles and place it into a box. I relax when I spot a girl with dark hair and red streaks hiking across the grass down below. “Yeah, please drop it. I don’t have enough alcohol in my system just yet.” I back away from the desk toward the mini fridge. “Speaking of which.” I bend down and open the fridge, taking out a bottle of vodka, hoping it’ll drown out what I just did.

Greyson sits down on the bed and shakes his head disapprovingly as I tip back my head and down a much-needed shot. Seth snatches the bottle from my hand and takes a large gulp himself.

“You two are such alcoholics,” Greyson says. “Seriously, this isn’t normal.”

“Normal is overrated,” Seth jokes, handing me the bottle.

I put it back in the fridge and shut the door. “So not that I’m not super thrilled you guys randomly showed up way too early in the morning, but why are you here? I thought you were headed to your house,” I say to Seth.

“Well, we were,” he replies, sitting down beside Greyson. “But then I got a lovely call from dear old ma a few days ago, saying that she’d changed her mind and that she wasn’t comfortable with Greyson and me staying with her, so now we’re crashing in town for the summer.”

“Why don’t you just go to Greyson’s?” I ask, crossing the room to the closet.

“Because his parents live all the way over in Florida,” he tells me. “And we don’t want to drive that far. Besides, I got an offer to work at the clinic and I really want to do it, being a Psychology major and all.”