Total pages in book: 185
Estimated words: 191421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 957(@200wpm)___ 766(@250wpm)___ 638(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 191421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 957(@200wpm)___ 766(@250wpm)___ 638(@300wpm)
I’m going to leave this town, college, fucking soccer, everything behind.
Because I’m a bandit, aren’t I?
A bandit who steals things.
Who stole their love once.
So it’s best if I leave and go so far away that I won’t do it again.
Steal her from him.
My best friend’s ex-girlfriend.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
This is hard.
I knew it would be but I didn’t know how much.
This is even harder than telling Jupiter about the breakup.
As in how it happened and what I did.
I finally came clean to her at the library this afternoon. I would’ve come clean to Poe as well but she was at detention with the principal. But anyway, I told her what I did and then I told her what I’m going to do now. As in, my whole plan of getting my ex-boyfriend back.
She kinda wasn’t happy about it.
Especially when I told her what he did, back at the party. The kiss in the backyard. But the thing is that she doesn’t understand.
She doesn’t get how this is my responsibility.
How I need to fix Lucas because I was the one to break him.
Which means it doesn’t matter how hard this thing that I’m doing right this moment is, I have to suck it up and do it: Climbing over the fence in my dress and heeled sandals.
Well, low-heeled but heeled nonetheless.
Last night, this was much easier — even though I think I slipped a couple of times — but then I had a pair of jeans and sneakers on. As it is, I think I’m going to fall.
I am.
I have to face facts now. My heel’s stuck in the gap between the bricks. My hem’s stuck also. In or on something, and my grip on the wall is all slippery and sweaty. And even though it’s probably been only ten to twenty seconds since I’ve found myself in this position, I don’t think I can hold on much longer.
It’s okay though.
It’s fine.
It’s only a few feet above the ground so it’s not as if I’m going to die or get horribly injured. I should let the wall go now.
Oh God.
I’m scared. I’m fucking terrified.
Do it, Echo. Just do it.
You can’t hang here for the rest of the night.
Think about Lucas.
Okay. Okay.
For Lucas.
I drag in a shaky breath and let go.
And fall.
Or at least start to.
My heart starts to plunge and go on a deep dive inside my body when I come to a jerking stop.
Because there’s a grip.
A strong and a firm and a tight grip.
On my waist.
It’s almost too tight actually. To the point of pain.
But I don’t care.
I also don’t care who it belongs to. Or that I could recognize it, the roughness of it, the heat, without anyone having to tell me. Well, given the fact that we were going to meet here, it’s only logical who it would be, but still.
It’s him.
It’s his hands.
And for once, I’m so thankful for them.
For once, I’m so thankful that he’s touching me. He’s got me.
He’s got me…
Just as the thought floats through my head, I’m being put on the ground and spun around. And I’m so dizzy from my near fall and his fast movements that I grip him back.
I clutch onto his biceps, my fingers digging into his hard muscles. “I didn’t… I didn’t need you to do that. I didn’t —”
“Yeah, you did.”
His whole body vibrates with the growl.
And I flinch.
He’s right. I did.
But that doesn’t mean it’s easy for me to accept that. That I need help from him.
Especially after how he rejected me two years ago.
Especially when despite that I’m still taking his help with getting Lucas back.
“I-I was fine,” I insist stupidly. “It was just my heel. It —”
“Fuck your heel.”
I flinch again.
At the venom in his voice. At the violence in his fingers that are flexing and gripping my waist.
I bet his face looks violent as well.
But since the night is dark and the trees around us cover the moon in the sky, I can’t really see, and thank God for that.
Swallowing jerkily, I dig my nails into his smooth skin. “A-and my dress. It —”
He digs his fingers into my waist. “Well, fuck your dress too.”
I suck in my belly at this. “It was only like a six-foot drop. You don’t have to growl at me like a bear.”
His nostrils flare I think as he bites out, “It’s plenty to break your reckless little dress-wearing ass. When you don’t know shit about climbing over things.”
I can’t help but scratch him at this as my voice drips with sarcasm, “Oh, I’m sorry that I’m not an expert at climbing over things. Like you are. I’ve only recently started doing this, you see. Ever since I got sent to this reform school. But if you teach classes or something, I’d be happy to take one. So you don’t yell in my face the next time.” Then, “And just for the record, we’re working together now. Colleagues, if you will. It would be really nice if you didn’t make me want to kill you every two minutes.”