The Coincidence 05 The Certainty of Violet & Luke (13 page)

It ends up being the cops, wanting to tell me that they didn’t find the person, but that they filled out a report.

‘A report.’ I lean against the doorframe and give them a cold, hard stare. ‘Yeah, that’s going to help a lot.’

‘It’s better than nothing,’ the taller of the two male police officers replies agitatedly while the other one jots something down on a clipboard.

‘No, it’d be better if you would have caught him before he came into the house.’ I clench my hands into fists, feeling that rage that lives inside me, the one that rises whenever I think of my mother. But this time it’s about Preston.
I want to fucking beat the shit out of him so badly I can’t stand it.

‘Kid, lose the attitude,’ the shorter officer says as he scrawls something else on the paper. ‘We’re doing the best that we can.’

‘Clearly that’s not enough,’ I snap. ‘Since he made it into the fucking apartment before you realized something was up.’

They look just as annoyed as I felt, but continue on with their bullshit protocol. They show me this silver bracelet they found on the lawn, asking me if I can identify it. It’s Violet’s, the one that belonged to her parents and that she was confused about wearing or not. When I tell them that, they explain to me that they have to hang on to it for evidence, but will return it when they can. Then they give me a rundown of how they plan on upping security, but it’s all bullshit. This is the second, maybe third time Preston has been here and he’s getting braver. The annoying thing is, I’m not sure what he wants. To torture Violet? No, I think there’s more to it than that. The thing that really gets to me is I don’t think it’ll stop until the police catch him. I know how sick and twisted people work, having lived with it for years.

When I get back to the room, Violet is still sleep. She looks peaceful, always does when she sleeps, until she wakes up screaming. I wish I could see her like that when she was awake, wish I could find a way to just give her peace in her life for all the peace my mother took from her.

‘Who was that,’ she murmurs, half out of it as I climb back into bed.

‘Just the police,’ I whisper as I pull the blankets over us and scoot toward her. I think about informing her of the bracelet, but decide to wait until she’s fully awake.

‘Did they … find him …’ she asks, although clearly she’s out of it.

‘No, but you’re safe.’ I kiss her head, shut my eyes, and inhale her scent. ‘I promise I won’t let anything happened to you.’

‘I know you won’t,’ she murmurs, nuzzling against me. ‘But Luke …’

‘Yeah?’

‘I think Preston … I thought I heard him say he was there that day … that I almost … drowned … I think he really did put the bracelet on me which means he’s been in the apartment before.’

Every muscle in my body winds tight like a knotted rope. Not just because he was there the day she went into the water, but that he’s been in our apartment before. Fuck, I’m so angry and tense right now, I’m about to ram a my fist through the wall just to make myself feel better, but then Violet scoots closer to me and it reminds me that I’ve got to be more stable than that right now. I’ll try to let it out at the gym or something tomorrow, at least as much as I can.

‘Thank you.’ Violet says, pressing a kiss to my chest.

The fire in my chest simmers down. ‘For what?’

‘For …’ She yawns as she traces a circle on my chest, right over where my heart is beating. ‘For not leaving me.’

My heart clenches in my chest as I smooth her hair back and study her face, the way her eyelids keep fluttering, the way the sunlight hits the studded diamond in her nose, the way her lips are slightly parted. So fucking beautiful and so fucking tough, whether she realizes it or not. She’s a survivor of so much shit that a lot of people will never even begin to comprehend – the lucky ones.

Only when I know she’s fast asleep do I dare whisper the truth. ‘I would never leave you,’ I whisper. ‘Because I love you.’

The next day I wake up from the strangest nightmare, if you can even call it that. I’m not even sure what the hell it is or means. In it was my mom. She was standing in front of her grave with her arm outstretched to me and I was frozen at the edge of the cemetery, unable to step foot on the grass and go to her.

‘I can’t,’ I’d cried. ‘I just can’t.’

She’d finally lowered her hand and smiled at me. ‘I’s okay, Violet my baby girl. You can do it. Just let me go.’

That’s when I’d awoken, gasping for air, not necessarily terrified but confused. A confusion that’s still whirling around inside me. And that confusion amplified when I remembered last night’s events.

I still agree to go to the gym the next day, even though Luke gives me an out, saying that either we can stay home if I want or that I don’t have to come after what happened last night. I can tell that he wants me to go with him, though, and honestly I don’t want to stay in the apartment after what happened. The worst part about this whole thing is I don’t even know why Preston is doing this or what he wants from me. In the past, I’d always know – deal drugs for him and sexual favors. But now it feels like he’s playing some sort of game with me where I’m left wondering what the hell will happen next. It’s been so quietly lately too that I’d started to let my guard down and almost forget he was still lurking around. I can’t do that, but I also don’t want to live my life in fear anymore.

I want to be fearless.

I want to be free.

I just want to be me.

Trying to shake thoughts of Preston the best that I can, I get dressed to go to the gym, putting on a pair of tight shorts and a tank top topped with a hoodie. Then pull my hair up, the entire time pretending everything’s okay, that I wasn’t shaken to the core last night.

I feel exhausted, but Luke looks even worse than I do. When I ask him if he slept at all, he says, ‘enough,’ but the dark circles under his eyes contradict his words.

We’re headed out the door when Greyson comes bouncing up to me from the kitchen with way too much energy for six thirty in the morning. ‘Happy Halloween!’ He offers me a cupcake in the shape of a pumpkin. He’s dressed in shorts, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes, ready to hit the gym. How the hell he manages to get ready and cook cupcakes already is beyond me.

‘Thanks.’ I take the cupcake with great appreciation, then lick a huge mouthful of orange frosting, savoring the sugar rush I get.

‘We’re heading out,’ Luke tells him, slinging his bag over his shoulder. ‘You and Seth coming?’

Greyson nods, returning to the kitchen and starts putting away the rest of the cupcakes he cooked. ‘I am for sure. We’ll see about sleeping beauty. He hates exercise.’

‘Sounds like a brilliant man to me.’ I bite the cupcake and nearly have a foodgasm, the buttery frosting and cake melting the moment if touches my tongue. ‘Jesus, this is good.’

Luke watches me with a lustful look as if watching me lick frosting is the sexiest thing he’s ever seen. ‘Yeah, I can see that.’ It takes him a moment, but he manages to blink his gaze off my mouth. ‘Just tell him he can hang with Violet,’ he says to Greyson. ‘She’s not too into it, just coming to keep me company.’

‘Okay, that might get him to be more agreeable.’ Greyson pops the lid on the case he put the cupcakes in then rounds the kitchen with another cupcake in his hand. ‘One for the road?’

‘What do I look like? A sugar junkie?’ I ask, but then take the cupcake anyway. ‘Thanks.’

Greyson shakes his head at me with a smile touching his lips. ‘See you in a bit, sugar junkie.’

I wave goodbye to him then follow Luke out to the truck, feeling my guard go up the moment I step out the door as lasts night’s events race through my mind. As if Luke senses my panic, he threads his fingers through mine and holds onto me tightly until we’re safely in his truck.

He drives down the road as I munch on the cupcake, staring at the houses and stores lining the roads. Everything is splashed in oranges, blacks, and purples. Fake witches and skeletons and cobwebs cover the inside and outside of buildings.

‘I’ve never been into holidays,’ I divulge to Luke as I take another bite full of frosting.

‘Really?’ he asks me, although he doesn’t seem too surprised.

I shrug, peeling the paper of the cupcake down lower. ‘It’s probably because I’ve never celebrated them. I never had costumes for Halloween, unless I wanted to make them on my own, which I never did because I never had anyone to take me out to get candy. I did the Thanksgiving a few times, but family dinners were usually awkward for the outcast and nonmember of the family clan. Then Christmas … I hate Christmas. There was nothing jolly about it all when I was younger … I mean after my parents …’ I swallow hard as I pick at the cupcake and emotions well inside me, so I have to clear my throat. ‘Yeah, but I can remember getting a single present one time from one of the families, that actually seemed great when I opened it. A pretty silver ring ornament with a violet stone that was surrounded by these little onyx gems. It was so beautiful and was perfect for the fourteen year old gothic version of me.’

That gets Luke to smile. ‘I can totally picture you all dressed in black and covered in studs.’

‘Yeah, I pulled it off pretty well. The ring would have looked totally kicks ass too, but yeah, about five minutes after I got the ring, Mrs Fairly informed me that she’d given me the wrong present, took it away, and gave the ring to her daughter. My real present ended up being new socks.’ I stop talking, my heart knocking inside my very long confessional. ‘Yeah, sorry about the sad, pity party story. I don’t know what got into me.’ I glance down at the cupcake. What the hell did Greyson put in this thing? Truth Serum?

Luke’s continues to drive down the road, mulling over something. ‘I hate holidays too,’ he admits, flipping his blinker on to turn off the main road. ‘We never really celebrated them right. For Halloween, we’d usually clean the house, although Kayden and I did go out trick or treating a few times. For Thanksgiving, if I was lucky, she’d let me and Amy cook a good meal or I’d get invited to one of my friends, but that’s when I was older. And Christmas …’ His mouth snaps shut, his knuckles turning white as he grips the steering wheel. ‘Let’s just say that Christmases were the worst.’

I feel like he’s giving me something in return for sharing my story, even if I really didn’t mean to. Stuffing the rest of the cupcake into my mouth, I slide across the seat toward him and hold my pinkie up. ‘You know what we should do? We should make a promise not to make a big deal of holidays.’

He considers what I said, glancing from my pinkie to my face. ‘You’ve never dressed up for Halloween and gone out trick or treating ever?’

I shake my head. ‘I’m sure I did when I was still with my parents, but the memories are too foggy to remember it – most of them are anyway,’ I say, my heart constricting in my chest at the painful reminder.

Instead of giving me a look of pity, determination fills his expression. ‘Then how about this? How about we celebrate the shit out of all the holidays. Every single Goddamn one. Every single year.’ When he stops at a stop sign, he turns to face me in the seat and lifts his pinkie in front of me. ‘What do you say? Are you in?’

I know his words have much bigger meaning than just celebrate a few holidays, but I’m not sure if I’m promising them to the full. Still, what he’s proposing sounds like something I’ve always wanted, but never let myself want, since I was about five years old. So I hook my pinkie with his and decide to give it a try. ‘Okay, Mr. Stoically Aloof, I’m in.’

‘Oh my God, I think I’m going to die.’ I breathe through my nose because the smell of the mat I’m lying in is more pungent that spoiled eggs left out in the sun on a hot, muggy day. Seth is lying next to me, something he did after he declared he wasn’t a gym person either. Greyson, however, is, at least the kind that loves to run on treadmills, but I’m not too surprised, considering how cheery he was this morning about going.

Seth and I are hanging out on the mats, lying on our backs, staring up at the ceiling, the sound of clanking and grunting surrounding us. Callie’s doing some sort of kickboxing class, and Greyson’s on the bikes. There’s this super poppy song, with an upbeat beat and lyrics playing, and it makes me want to find the stereo and break it.

Nope, I’m not a morning person, something I’ve known for a while, but it’s been made clear to everyone that is graced with my presence today.

‘Give me some of your coffee,’ Seth playfully demands, reaching over me to steal my iced-latte.

I swat his arm. ‘No way. Get your own damn coffee.’

He lets out a frustrated grunt as he lies back down on the mat. ‘Greyson wouldn’t let us stop to get one. He said we were running late and that it was my fault therefore I had to go without coffee.’

‘Dude, he’s so hardcore,’ I joke, because Greyson is anything but that.

‘Totally,’ Seth agrees sarcastically.

Sighing, I sit up and offer him a sip of my coffee. ‘But don’t drink it all or I’ll have to kick your ass.’

He shoots me a doubtful look as he takes the coffee from my hand. ‘I highly doubt that. You may act a badass, but you’re so not.’

I eye him over purposefully. He’s wearing a plaid shirt with the sleeves fashionably rolled up to the elbows, dark jeans, and his hair is tousled and has these blondish highlights that look like he spent some time in a salon to get. But now I live with him I know that’s not the case, that they’re a-la-natural. He looks very Hipster, which would be fine except we’re at the gym. ‘Look who’s talking. You look like you’re getting ready to go to a concert instead of going the gym.’

‘Oh, speaking of concerts.’ Seth takes a long drink of the coffee then hands it back to me. ‘There’s an awesome one playing tonight at The Silver Moon Grill. No one huge or anything, but there’s a pretty good lineup. Plus, it’s freaking Halloween and it has a theme and everything. You should come.’

I look at him suspiciously. ‘Did Luke tell you to invite me?’ He seemed so set on getting me out of the house more that I have to wonder.