COMING SOON

He tilts his head toward the bathrooms, and my heart somersaults. I’m just about to nod, but he’s already looking away. He doesn’t need me to confirm it. He can still read my mind, it seems. He knows I’ll follow him. 

After the dance ends, he says something to his date, who nods and heads for the bar. I walk toward the bathroom, feeling his eyes on my back the entire time. It takes an extreme amount of effort not to look back at him. 

We’re discreet. This isn’t our first time sneaking away to be alone together. We know how to get away with it. 

When I get there, I check the stalls are empty before pacing back and forth, waiting for him.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘮 𝘐 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘮? 

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦?

The door opens, and I spin toward it, coming face to face with my stepbrother, the boy I’ve wanted for what feels like forever but can never have. 

He’s so close, I can smell him. He smells like soap and champagne and…me. He smells like the cologne I wear. I don’t get to think about that for more than a second before he’s reaching behind him, distracting me by snapping the lock into place. Leaning back against the door, he slides his hands into the pockets of his pants. He’s wearing a black tuxedo, and he knows he looks good in it, his light brown hair longer on top and shorter on the sides, his blue eyes holding mine, his lips tilted up at the way I’m looking at him. Always so confident. 

𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴.

I remember the way he looked at me the day I left, the way he cried, fought, begged, and all the breath punches out of my lungs. “Easton,” I whisper.

He quickly closes the distance between us, and I startle. Just when I think he’s about to hug me, or kiss me, or shove me back against the wall and demand to know why the fuck I haven’t been home in three and a half years, he punches me in the face. My head jerks back, and I stumble backward, cupping the blood as it leaks from my nose. 

Huffing through my mouth, I nod. I deserved that. 

When I look up at him from beneath my lashes, ready for him to lay into me with his words this time, all I can see is the back of his head before the door swings shut behind him. 

𝘏𝘦 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘦. 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘮.