The Boy and His Ribbon (The Ribbon Duet, #1)(121)

Perfect explosion.

But you know what I’m most mad about?

I’m mad that neither of them came to face me. That they didn’t ask for my side of the story before they jumped to conclusions, figured I was boning my brother, and spread gossip loudly enough to get the principal involved.

So yeah, dying my hair blue was stupid. But at least it landed me in detention right next to Tina, who smirked and asked if I’d been summoned to the principal’s office lately. I waved the slip in her face and she giggled. She told me to expect a certain brother waiting for me, along with a few other people who wanted to discuss our ‘family dynamics.’

I’d bolted from detention without gathering up a stitch of my belongings. My backpack left opened on the floor; my pencil case on the desk, and my notebook on the page of my current homework assignment.

I left it all behind as survival instincts overrode everything and I hopped onto the nearest unlocked bike in the bike shed and hoofed it over to Tom’s neighbouring school.

There, I’d yelled his name until someone pointed me in the right direction. The moment I found him in after-school woodworking, I grabbed his wrist and dragged him to my campus, all the while telling him the truth.

The only person I ever told the entire truth to.

I held nothing back. I told him my last name was Mclary, and I’d been rescued from monsters. That Ren wasn’t my brother. That he was the reason I wasn’t dead in a ditch somewhere. And that yes, I was in love with him, but it was fine because he wasn’t in love with me and nothing inappropriate was going on. Not that it was any of his business because Ren and I weren’t related, so even if we did get together, the only law being broken was the fact I was a minor and he was not.

And once I’d spilled everything, dragging my ex-boyfriend to fix what I’d broken, I made him swear to secrecy. And because I didn’t trust his vow never to breathe a word, I added a threat. One that would surely put me in hell because it was yet another of the seven deadly sins. Lying. Or, at least, I think it’s a deadly sin. If it isn’t, it probably should be.

Doesn’t matter.

The point is, I told him I’d spread a rumour how he’d fucked me against my control. How he’d gotten me drunk at that party, had his wicked way with me, then spread a different kind of rumour about me to take the heat off him.

His eyes filled with hatred, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was ending this nightmare before it ruined everything.

You see, I only had one year left of high school.

The next time Ren and I ran, I wanted it to be for good. I never wanted to have to tie Ren to a new place so I could go to school. I never wanted him to feel as trapped as I did. I wanted to be free because maybe, just maybe, away from people and rules and constant reminders, Ren might slip enough to realise he loved me, too.





CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX





REN



2016-2017




FOR TWO MONTHS, our packed backpacks rested by the door ready to grab at a moment’s notice. I’d never opened a bank account as I had no identification to appease the paper pushers, and the cash I’d diligently saved was hidden in a small box under the rickety floorboard beneath the couch—ready to be snatched and taken.

I’d wanted to run the day we got home from the principal, but Della had picked a fight and we’d argued well into the night. Her reasons for staying were she didn’t want to move schools when she was so close to finishing, that she’d fixed it so the rumour would fade and the teachers would chalk it up to stupid teenage drama, and that I was too flighty.

I’d roared at that one.

Flighty?

How about fucking wary that even though Della was more adult than kid these days, she could still be taken away from me. Excuse me for not caring about anything other than her. Running meant abandoning my work and our apartment, but I would gladly give up everything over and over again if it meant she stayed safely by my side.

But even in the wake of my temper, she’d won in the end—just like she always did.

I bowed to her pleas to stay, just for a little while, and gamble with time to see who was right. If Tom kept his mouth shut, we would be free to stay. But if he didn’t, it might be too late to run next time.

I hated it.

I hated that I didn’t just grab her and leave rather than listen to her debate and bow to her conclusions. But something else made me agree and not just her excellent arguing skills.

I agreed because of the rumour that’d called me in to the principal in the first place. The rumour that Della was in love with me.

My heart had stopped and hadn’t beaten correctly since. It was just a silly rumour, but I agreed with Ms. Sapture: truth lived in rumour, and if such a thing was said…

Could it be true?

Who had started it?

And how could they screw up my mind by making me fear that my love for Della wasn’t pure, after all. That it was tainted and no longer black and white.

I withdrew even more from her.

I stopped using her nickname.

Whatever physical contact still existed between us, ceased all together.

She obeyed me and stripped the blue from her hair but that was about all she obeyed me in.

We became strangers living in the same apartment, and I couldn’t stop it because every time I looked at her…I wondered.