Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72154 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72154 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
It was loud as fuck. I would’ve woken up even if I’d been on the good drugs.
Kayla, though. She didn’t even notice.
Which made me frown in worry.
What the hell was it about this girl that made me feel like this?
I sat and stewed in my bed, my eyes going to the clock on my nightstand.
Four o’clock. Again.
I winced.
Yesterday it wasn’t a problem that I woke up at this time. I’d gotten a solid four hours. Today, I hadn’t been able to fall asleep because of my own nightmares.
Nightmares that were frequent and hit hard when I least expected them.
Tonight’s had been about my mom. It was one that replayed in my mind often.
Her begging and pleading with me not to join that gang.
The kicker was that I hadn’t even wanted to join the gang.
Honestly, I’d wanted to stay as far away from it as I could, but my sister was already in it neck deep, and I didn’t want to leave her behind.
Look at where that got us.
Disgusted, I threw the covers off and went to the bathroom, bending over the sink and scrubbing my face as I stared at my reflection in the mirror.
I studied my eyes.
They weren’t the nice, clear eyes of a man who was happy or content. They were dark, bleak, lackluster and devoid of life.
The hazel green looked dull, almost muddy, to me, and the redness in them made me look even less approachable than I already was.
Not that I cared.
When people stayed away from me, it was easier to hide.
“Please, God no!”
My hands gripped the sink so hard that I feared it would break under the pressure.
“No, no, no, no,” she moaned.
I lifted my hand and slammed it down so hard on the sink that the attached mirror cracked. I watched as the crack traveled up the center of the mirror before taking a sharp left as it seemingly traveled right across my neck—almost as if I’d slit my own throat.
And that was when I backed away, disgusted.
In myself, mostly.
I’d never, not ever, be good enough for her. The idea that I would ever be was almost laughable.
Just the thought of her over there crying out in her sleep made my heart hurt, though. Like a goddamn rusty knife that’d been buried for thirty years slipped through my ribs and pierced it.
But as I looked at myself, and heard her cry out one more time, I realized that I didn’t fucking care.
I was a selfish bastard.
I couldn’t listen to her cry another night.
I had to know why, and I had to fix it.
Tonight.
Chapter 9
When your boss asks what’s wrong, apparently “I need a nap and some dick” isn’t the answer you should reply with. Who knew?
-Text from Kayla to Janie
Kayla
I was either having another nightmare or was just waking up from one, I wasn’t quite sure.
As I stared at my ceiling, my heart pounding, I tried to decide whether I should be afraid of the man that was in the room with me.
Then he said something.
He didn’t scare me. Though, maybe he should have.
I blinked and turned my head to see the silhouette of him standing over my bed.
“Peter Parker Penn?” I asked in confusion.
“Must you address me by my full name all the time?” He sounded exasperated but also somewhat relieved.
“Yes,” I said matter-of-factly. “Why are you in my apartment?”
“Because your never-ending cries of terror keep waking me up in the middle of the night, and I already don’t get enough sleep as it is,” he answered honestly. “Are you awake now?”
I swallowed, slightly horrified that I’d kept him up with my nightmares.
I knew I had them. I always remembered all of my dreams, nightmares included. However, I hadn’t realized that I was having them and crying out in my sleep. That I felt bad about.
“I’m sorry, Parker,” I murmured. “I didn’t know that I was keeping you up.”
He grunted something. “Move over.”
“Uhhh,” I choked. “Why?”
In response, he moved me over himself.
“Because I don’t like getting into the cold spot,” he answered as he pushed me over to the ‘cold spot’ in question.
I giggled when his hands found my ribs, then slightly flailed as he moved me some more until I was where he wanted me.
“What are you…”
Then he got into my bed and took over the use of my pillow.
“Go back to sleep,” he ordered.
I almost laughed at him.
Here it was, four o’clock in the morning, and I was not going back to sleep. Not ever. Or, at least not tonight anyway.
Not with Parker in my bed.
I was practically vibrating with excitement.
I was fairly sure that he could tell, too.
“Take a chill pill and go back to sleep,” he ordered harshly.
I snorted. “Parker, I’m fairly sure that you know me at least semi-well by now. Do you honestly think that I’m the ‘chill’ kind of person?”