Addicted After All (Addicted #3)(155)

“Wait,” I say quickly.

He freezes by the door, halfway turned.

“What do you want?”

He grinds his teeth like he has trouble producing the words. “Your boyfriend…he offered me and my friends a job.” Garrison rolls his eyes. “It’s f*cking stupid anyway. Everything is.”

“Lo told me about that,” I say, swinging the door wider open. “Do you want to come in?” My stomach does this nervous flip thing, but it stops the minute his reddened, surprised eyes lock on mine.

“What?” he says in disbelief.

“If you want a job, you have to come into the store,” I tell him. “Although…” A light bulb flickers in my brain. “It’d be kinda cool if we had a superhero mascot out front. Do you want to be a mascot?”

“No,” he shakes his head like I’m half crazy and half a godsend. No one has really ever looked at me like that—the godsend half. I’ve been plenty crazy before.

He slowly walks inside, his hands in his jean pockets, more nervous, I think.

Garth blocks him though. “I need to pat you down.”

I think Garrison is going to put up a fight. But he spreads his arms out, and Garth pats his pockets and checks the hoodie handhold thing. When he finishes, Garth nods to me like he’s good.

“So you want a job?” I can’t believe he’s taking Lo’s offer. I honestly didn’t think any of them would bite.

Garrison can’t stop staring at me, his emotions surfacing, ones that he probably meant to suppress. “You’re not even going to ask me where I was that night? Or what happened?”

Oh. Maybe I was supposed to start with that. I just didn’t want to scare him off, after I saw how much it took for him to come here. “Where were you?” I ask, reluctant to hear his answer.

He stares up at the ceiling in thought, shaking his head. “I’m not a good guy. I never told them to stop. I knew that they planned to break in and scare everyone, and I didn’t do anything. I just let them leave.” He chokes on another laugh. “And now they’re all looking at a year in prison. And I’m standing free.”

He doesn’t look free to me. “What made you stay back?”

His gaze drops to the carpeted floor. “Everything your boyfriend said…f*ck, I don’t know. It just didn’t feel right, scaring girls and babies…I know one of you has PTSD…”

I go rigid, and my mouth falls. “Wha…?” That has been a fact we’ve all kept secret from the public.

“I didn’t tell anyone,” he says quickly. “I promise. I can’t even remember who let it slip. Either Ryke or Loren shouted it at me. No one else was around.” He hangs his head again. “I think…you should know that I planned to go with my friends.”

He bites his lips to keep more emotions at bay. A lump lodges in my throat. I see my best friend, a young Loren Hale who has so many muddled and warring sentiments swirling around him. The pain of living. It’s in Garrison’s eyes.

“I literally could not move my stupid feet,” he finally says. “And there’s a part of me that wishes I was with them. That I got caught too.”

It’s just guilt. I swallow hard and say, “You did the right thing.”

“Did I?” he asks and shakes his head again. “I can’t even say I’m sorry because it feels f*cking stupid. Like…” He runs a hand through his hair. “Like it’s not enough, you know? It’s not at all.”

“This was enough,” I tell him softly. “I promise, it was.” I can’t even imagine Lo finding his way here at seventeen, saying these guttural, painful things to absolve himself.

Loren Hale walked in agony for another half decade.

He’d be happy to learn that he saved someone from that today.

Garrison rubs his eyes with the sleeve of his black hoodie, and then he exhales deeply and scans the store like Willow had previously done.

“Here, I’ll introduce you to Maya, the store manager. She’ll have a better idea what positions need to be filled.” I lead him over to the counter where Lo’s little sister and Maya stand behind the register.

“Hey,” Garrison greets the girls with a head nod.

As soon as Willow hears the male voice, she somehow knocks into the cash tray. It overturns and clatters to the floor.

“I’m so sorry,” she says, her skin paling. The opposite of my embarrassed red flush. She sheepishly smiles at me, avoiding direct eye contact with Garrison. She bends down to collect the money while Maya fiddles with the computer.

“I can help,” Garrison says, squatting to gather dollar bills and quarters.

Oh jeez. I watch the way he furtively glimpses at Willow while she clumsily scoops the cash. I know that look. It’s one that says you’re pretty and interesting and I want to get to know you all wrapped in one.

Before any flirting occurs, I do what Lo would want and slip between them. “Okay, now you’ve met Willow and Willow you’ve met Garrison. Meet-and-greet has ended.” I’ll have to text Lo to see if I should maybe put them on separate shifts.

While I’d like Superheroes & Scones to be a geeky match-making facility, Willow is off-limits. Lo said to keep an eye on any “creepy guys” and mentioned that if a Captain America fanatic hits on her, he’s clearly not good enough. Willow deservers Scott Summers and above.