Chapter Sixteen
Jinx
I’m lying on the couch with one of the many magazines the girls have bought for me, with my casted foot propped on a pillow when Winter comes into the room and sits in one of the recliners.
“I need to talk to you,” she says.
I can’t sit up because the glue and staples in my stomach still pull, so I close my magazine and put it on the table they’ve moved near the couch for me. They’ve made it clear I’m to spend the day down here, and they will move me to my room at nights.
Watchful eyes, they say.
Surprisingly, I haven’t had another panic attack.
It’s baffling, but I’m not complaining.
“What’s up?”
“Braxxon is sending us away.”
I pick my head up off the pillow and immediately regret it. “Who is he sending away?”
“Me, baby Lana, Storm, and Miracle, we’re being sent to Arizona. It’s a quiet chapter, and we’re not coming back until it’s safe.”
I put my head back down. “I see his reasoning, Winter.”
She sniffles. “I know, but this is home.”
I reach for her hand, and when she laces it with mine, I squeeze. “We’re good, Winter. I’ve already forgiven you. I know that’s why you’re here.”
Winter hiccups. “I’ve been a bitch.”
“You’re trying to make up for it.”
Winter gazes around the room and leans in. “I’m happy she’s alive, but angry with my husband for keeping it from me, and I’m sorry I fucked things up with you and Pyro.”
Oh, boy.
“Winter, she was your best friend, although your actions were shitty, you were hurting too. As for Pyro and me, we were only messing around. I’m still healing, and I admit, it was so easy with him, but we’re friends,” I say. “I think. He hasn’t spoken to me since I was laying on the closet room floor with a knife in my gut.”
She gazes around the room again. “Don’t tell Pyro I told you this. He was at the hospital every night for a few hours.”
I let go of her hand, my arm going numb. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, he would watch you sleep.”
“He’s all over the place,” I mumble.
“Wouldn’t you be?”
If I had a dead boyfriend come back to life, hell yeah. “It was so easy to open up to him, to let him touch me, and he said we’d still be friends, but he won’t talk to me.”
“Pyro was never good with emotions, and when he finally opens up, Lana fucks him over, and then he grows close with you, and you get hurt,” she whispers. “If I know Pyro, he’s a volcano, waiting to explode, and even though I don’t want to leave, I’m glad I won’t be here for it.”
I nod to my pain pills and Winter opens them for me. “It’ll be bad, huh?”
“He doesn’t care about much, but when he does, it consumes him.”
I swallow my medicine and put the water back on the table. “I shouldn’t take the not speaking to me thing to heart then?”
“I’d appreciate it, if you wouldn’t fuckin’ gossip about me,” Pyro grumps from the stairway.
Shit!
“I need a minute with Jinx.”
Winter’s eyes go wide, she gets up without a word and leaves the room.
“You got somethin’ to tell me,” Pyro demands as he sits on the coffee table. He’s so close I can smell his cologne, and I don’t miss the hickey on his neck. Pyro stiffens when my gaze stays on the red mark.
My heartbeat picks up, and I use all my strength to tear my eyes away from the love bite.
“Are you fuckin’ leavin’?”
Crap.
“Not for a while,” I admit. “I’ve got to heal first.”
His eyes narrow and go cold. “You promised you wouldn’t leave,” he grits out. “You fuckin’ promised.”
I gulp. “I meant like disappear, Pyro. I would never leave without saying goodbye. I don’t hurt people.”
Pyro gets up, pushes the table away from the couch, drops to the floor on his knees. “I’m not good with this shit.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want you to leave.”
I sigh. “If I don’t, we’ll most likely hurt one another,” I whisper. “Is that what you want.”
Pyro takes one of my hands in his. “I’m fuckin’ drownin’ here, Jinx.”
I reach up with my left hand and push his hair away from his eyes. “You need a haircut,” I murmur. “We haven’t really spoken since Lana came back and I was hurt.”
His thumb makes circles on my hand. “I don’t care about my fuckin’ hair.”
“I know you’re drowning, Pyro, but I’m not you, I can’t tell you what to do. I can be here as your friend, but you have to figure out your path on your own.”
“When do you plan to leave?”
I run my thumb on his bottom lip, mesmerized. “Not for a few months.”
Pyro sucks my thumb into his mouth with a bite, then releases. “I have a few months to change your mind then.”
“Determined, huh?”
“Look at your progress, darlin’, this shit would have sent you runnin’ months ago.” Pyro motions to my stomach and foot.
“What do you want from me?”
He leans his forehead against mine. “I don’t know,” he croaks. “What I do know is, you’re the only person I trust right now, and I can’t lose that. I can’t.”
I close my eyes. “I’m getting drowsy.”
“Shortcake?”
“I’ll give you the few months to change my mind,” I tell him with my eyes closed. “But you’re giving me mixed signals. I’m cool, but if those mixed signals keep happening along with more love bites from Lana, I probably won’t stay.”
I can feel his body stiffen when I mention his hickey. “I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for, we aren’t a couple,” I mumble through my sleep haze. “I’m not mad. I just want it clear that I’m not your backup, you can’t use our easy nature as revenge, either.”
Pyro sucks in a breath. “I would never use you, Jinx.”
I mumble, half asleep. “Not purposely. You’re drownin’, remember?”
“I’ll let you sleep, darlin’.”
“Mmmkay.”
∞∞∞