Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 78732 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78732 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
"Sounds miserable," he says.
"I was just as guilty, I guess. A friend would tell me something and I'd whisper it to someone else." I pull in a deep breath, having confessed that for the first time. "I was part of the problem that I slowly began to hate about everyone else. My friends knew about me losing my virginity before I could tell them, because my boyfriend at the time started running his mouth before I even went to bed that night."
"Piece of shit," he mutters, sounding genuinely mad about what Troy had done.
"He's a class act, let me tell you."
"Tell me," he urges. "I want to know everything about you."
His words make me freeze, because there's such sincerity to his tone that I could almost make myself believe that he's telling the truth.
"Please?" he begs after a long silence.
"I'm not a very interesting person."
"I don't believe that at all."
I pull in a deep breath, ready to give him the CliffsNotes version of my life.
"Small-town life was also very rural. I'm sure people in the city would've called us hillbillies. My family didn't have enough money for large animals like horses or cows, but I took every chance I could get to go to my friends' houses who did." I pause to smile, thinking back to the times before puberty, when life was just so much easier. "I wanted to be a veterinarian so badly."
"Why didn't you become one?" he asks, as if such an expensive endeavor was as easy as showing up at a major university and telling them my full name and date of birth.
"I didn't really have the grades for it," I say, shame heating my cheeks. "As much as I wanted to help animals, I just didn't care about school. It felt like a popularity contest that always ended with me being picked last. I think those repeated hits to my self-esteem was how I was so easily manipulated by Troy."
"The piece of shit," he adds.
"Yes," I say with a chuckle. "Troy, the piece of shit."
"What did he do?"
Instead of just blowing off his question, I pull in yet another deep breath and lay it all out for him. I tell him how easily the guy coaxed me into the bed of his truck. How he had pretended to be my boyfriend, like we were in some stupid teen movie, only I was the joke and the popular guy didn't actually fall in love with me.
I tell him about keeping my job at the local discount store despite the whispers I endured every day from people who only came there to make fun of me.
I even confess to being so low at one point, that years after he married and temporarily split from his wife, I let him right back in, convinced that we were destined to be together. The blips that occurred along the way were just something we would tell our grandchildren someday.
I end my story with how I finally got brave enough to leave town, only to end up here with only one friend and no social life to speak of.
He doesn't interrupt. He doesn't give me advice on how to live a better life. He simply listens, and for the first time in my life, I feel heard.
It's just one more thing I'll have to miss about this time together.
"See?" I ask with a self-deprecating smile. "Not much to know about. Definitely nothing interesting about my life."
"If you have his address, I can easily go whip his ass for you," he says, instead of feeding my insecurities.
I huff a laugh, not pulling away when he reaches out and swipes his thumb across my cheek.
"Tell me about yourself," I whisper, hoping he'll reciprocate.
He pulls in a ragged breath, and for a second I think he's going to deny me, but then he tells me about his own childhood and how being raised by parents who considered him and his siblings as props led to him joining the Marine Corps and not returning to his hometown when he got out.
"Cerberus called me up one day and offered me a job. I liked what they did, that they helped people in some of the worst situations, so I told them yes."
"As easy as that?"
"As easy as that," he agrees.
"You seem to make some really hasty life decisions."
I can hear the smile in his voice when he speaks.
"I'm starting to think my craziest decisions are going to be the best ones I've ever made in my life."
Chapter 27
Heathen
Last night, lying in bed and talking to her for hours, feels like a dream, and it feels even more unreal when I wake up in bed alone.
I grumble my annoyance, gripping my erection with a rough hand. As nice as the conversation we shared was, my dreams weren't as innocent, and it has left me wishing she was still beside me.