One Day Soon (One Day Soon, #1)(91)

“Let’s see if we can find him,” I said.

Yoss started asking everyone whether they had seen Bug. No one had. Most people had already left, trying to find someplace warm to sleep.

The snow was falling heavier and my face was going numb. I couldn’t feel my toes and the shock of the evening’s events was starting to wear off.

“Yoss, he’s not here. The fire department is working to put the fire out and police are starting to round up people and send them to shelters. I think we need to get out of here,” Di stated after a few minutes.

“We cannot leave without Bug! He’s f*cking family, Di! He’d do the same for you!” Yoss shouted, shaking hard from the cold and trauma.

I wrapped an arm around his waist. I was worried he would collapse. “Di’s right, Yoss. It’s freezing out here. We should find somewhere warm. And we don’t want to deal with the police—”

“I’m not going anywhere until I find Bug. You guys can go. That’s fine. But Bug’s my brother. I won’t abandon him.” He looked down at me, his eyes bright. “I won’t, Imi,” he whispered.

I didn’t want to mention the very real possibility that Bug was still inside. That he wouldn’t be coming out again. Yoss wasn’t ready to hear that.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I told him. Yoss gave me a sad smile, framing my face with frigid hands. He leaned down and kissed me. Not hard. Just enough.

“Thank you, Imi,” he murmured against my mouth.

“Shane, Karla, and I will head to the bridge and try to find someplace we can sleep for the night. We’ll ask around some more. But Yoss, I think you need to prepare yourself for—”

“Shut up, Di!” Yoss snarled and she shut her mouth in surprise. She didn’t say anything else. The three of them left and Yoss and I did another sweep around The Pit.

Still no Bug.

“We’ll wait here. This is where he’d look,” Yoss said, settling down on the other side of the parking lot, far enough away from the building to be safe, but we could still see everything that was going on.

I huddled down in my thin jacket and pulled my hood over my head. The snow was cold underneath me as I sat beside Yoss. He took a pair of gloves from his pocket and handed them to me.

“No, you need them,” I protested.

“I’d rather you be warm,” he insisted, pulling them onto my hands. He pulled me into his chest and we sat there, looking for our friend. While the snow fell and we froze slowly.

“He’ll show up.” Yoss sounded so convincing.

I didn’t believe him.

And I knew that, deep down, he didn’t believe himself.





Present

“I have met your mother before,” Yoss said as we drove through Lupton.

“What?”

“A long time ago.” Yoss fiddled with the stereo, stopping on an oldies station that was playing an Alice in Chains song I hadn’t heard in forever.

“You need to explain that one, Yoss,” I said.

“It was after you graduated from college. You had just moved back to Lupton.”

My hands gripped the steering wheel, hardly able to believe what I was hearing.

“I don’t understand,” I murmured weakly.

“I saw you that day, unloading boxes from your mom’s car. I spoke to your mom after you had gone inside. She said you were doing well. That you had a job in the city.” Yoss picked at a spot on his jeans.

“Why didn’t you wait to speak to me? To let me know you were okay?” I demanded, my voice rising. I was in shock. Total and complete shock.

“Look, Imi, you were doing good. You had graduated from college. You had a job. You were smiling and laughing. I remember your laugh most of all.” He paused and glanced out the window. “I was still on the streets. Still making money the only way I knew how. But you—you had done something with your life. I didn’t want to f*ck that up.”

Yoss turned back to me, his eyes serious and stern. “Because I knew that if you saw me you’d move heaven and Earth to be with me. And the man I was then couldn’t allow that.”

I was so damn angry. Furious.

How could he have done this to me?

Why?

“You made decisions that had to do with me for me and that’s not okay, Yoss. I had no idea what happened to you. Where you went. If you were all right. Do you have any idea what that did to me?” I asked, my voice trembling.

Yoss’s brows furrowed. “I never meant—I thought—” He shook his head. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I really did. But it seems every time I make a choice with good intentions it ends up being a bad idea.”

I loosened my grip on the steering wheel, forcing myself to relax. I was torn between wanting to scream at him and wanting to cry. So much time wasted. So many years spent wondering.

I glanced at him and he was chewing furiously on his bottom lip, looking upset.

“It was probably the right thing to do,” I said finally, surprising both of us.

Yoss looked at me, confused. “It was? But you just said—”

“I would have followed you anywhere, Yoss.”

And we both knew that was the problem.

“I should have let you know I was okay though. I shouldn’t have made you worry for so long,” Yoss conceded.