Fighting Silence (On the Ropes #1)(47)

“Hey.” I dusted off my jeans.

“What are you doing?” he asked, drying his red eyes.

“I was waiting for you.” My mouth told Quarry, but my words were for Eliza.

She rolled her eyes and looked away, but not before I saw the moisture glisten from behind her lashes.

“Sorry. For you know . . .” Quarry trailed off weakly, snapping my attention back to him.

“Don’t worry about that. We’re good.” I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him against my chest. He was far too much of a man to hug me back, but he didn’t fight me either. “I swear to God I’ll make this okay for you. I can’t fix it, Q. But I will make it okay.” I felt his shoulders softly quake, and it was all I could do to keep mine from joining him.

“I’m going to bed,” he announced, quickly walking away.

I stared at Eliza while we listened to his footsteps as he made his way upstairs.

Just before the door to my apartment shut, he called out, “Thanks, Eliza.”

“Anytime, Q,” she replied, holding my gaze.

“Can we talk?” I asked her.

“I don’t know. Can we?” She smacked the sketchpad against my chest.

“I miss you. I really need you right now, Doodle.” I took a step toward her, but she stepped out of reach.

“Well, you know where I’m at, Till.” She shoved her door open and backed into her apartment. “You want to come inside?” She tilted her head.

We both knew what it would mean if I crossed that threshold. Even above my ridiculous superstitions, it would mean forever.

“Doodle, please.”

“That’s what I thought.” With the flip of her wrist, she swung the door shut—once again.

“Shit.” I fisted my hair.

I dragged myself back to my room. As soon as I crashed into bed, I opened the sketchpad. I knew what I would find, but I would have given anything for it to be her softly curved eyes inside instead of my own.

But I was wrong on both accounts.

Quarry’s were the first to meet me, followed by Flint’s a few inches below. It was pages upon pages of the boys’ eyes with a few of my own scattered throughout.

It sucked for me to not have her, but I’d completely forgotten that she was all alone.

“You can see them any time you want, you know. Even if you don’t want to see me. You don’t have to ask,” I said out loud, knowing she could hear me. “How about tomorrow? You can pick them up from the gym and I’ll make an excuse why I have to stay later so you can just hang out for a few hours.”

She didn’t reply.

“Not me. Just them.”

Her emotion-filled voice broke the silence. “Okay.”

It was a single word, but it cut me to the bone. I was losing her faster than I could figure out how to make it right, and it was terrifying.

“I love you,” I choked out, but she remained agonizingly quiet.



“I love you too,” I whispered inaudibly to the ceiling with tears streaming from my eyes. “I love you too.”





“YOU STUPID SON OF A bitch!” Flint yelled as he charged through the front door.

My eyes swung to Quarry as I tried to figure out what he could have possibly done to warrant this kind of explosive reaction, but when I turned back to Flint, his rage had homed in on me.

“Are you talking to me like that?” I asked, dumbfounded.

I’d seen Flint lose his cool before, but never like this. That just wasn’t who he was. Me or Quarry, sure. But with the exception of when he’d lost it at the gym on Derrick Bailey, Flint was pretty chill.

“You’re an idiot. You f*cked us all!” he screamed, stopping only inches from my face.

I wasn’t sure what the hell kind of Freaky Friday bullshit had happened that had transported Quarry into Flint’s body, but clearly, something unnatural had taken place. I was so confused that I couldn’t even formulate a stern response.

“Me?” I asked one more time just for clarification, causing Quarry to laugh beside me.

“What the hell is wrong with you? You couldn’t get your shit together, so now, she’s dating Derrick.”

“Who?” I questioned even though I knew the answer. But my throat had suddenly closed, and it was the only word I could force out.

“Eliza!” he roared, shoving my chest with both hands.

I stumbled a few steps, but it had less to do with his physical push and everything to do with her.

“No.” I shook my head, rejecting his statement.

“Oh yeah. I just passed them strolling arm in arm to his Mercedes.” He stepped back into my face. “Why? Why? Why!” he screamed.

“Why what?”

“Why can’t you get your shit together? Goddammit, she’s going to leave us! He’s a f*cking piece of shit who hates you. You might as well have wrapped her in a pretty, red bow and handed her to him.” He stepped away and started to pace a familiar pattern. “Till, he’s rich. He’s gonna take her to nice places and give her nice things. She’ll get a taste of that life and won’t want to come back to us. She’ll be gone. ”

He was irrational, yet I hung on his every word.

“He’s gonna charm her into believing that he’s something he’s not and then take her away.”