With a shake of my head, I whisper, “I can’t do this again with you.”
He tries to salvage the situation by reaching for me and saying my name, “Wren,” but I artfully dodge his hand and don’t let the scratchy, low timbre of his voice sink into me. I also have to avoid looking at him, otherwise I’d see the hurt on his face, and I don’t think I could take it.
It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and the words come out like knives in my throat, cutting all the way up, but I manage: “Please leave.” It’s all I can say, all I can do. If he doesn’t leavenow, then… I don’t know what’ll happen. I don’t know where we’d go next. With someone like Logan, what kind of a future does a girl like me have?
He’s all declarations of love now, but he’ll get tired of me. He’s never been in a relationship before, he said so himself. He likes to play the field, go home with different girls every weekend. Why give a life like that up for me? It doesn’t make sense, and I like to think I’m not as naive as I used to be, so there’s no hope inside of me that he can change.
People don’t change. The seasons do, but people don’t.
Though I’m not staring at him, I can feel the hurt radiating from him, the utter melancholy. The air itself turned sour and heavy, but I don’t linger on it. I can’t. I know he wants to say more, wants to try to convince me not to make him go, but he must sense my determination, because he doesn’t say a word.
No, the only thing Logan does is leave through the back of the house, the same way he came in, and though he leaves without saying another word, I’m already changed by that single encounter.
My heart doesn’t want to get under control. My mind is a whirlwind of thoughts all at war with each other. And my lips? They tingle with the memory of his mouth on mine, the way his stubble scratched my chin, the ghostly sensation remaining long after he’s gone.
I let out a sigh and sink down onto the couch, every part of me suddenly so tired.
Oh, Logan. Why now?
Chapter Six – Reese
Well, that was enlightening. I sit in my office at my house, at my desk, staring hard at the computer screen. I don’t often get the chance to watch her live, usually I have to scan the camera footage late at night, but for some reason, I felt the urge to watch her tonight—and when I tuned in, I found her saying goodbye to Sloane and Elias. What I assumed would be an hour or two by herself turned into something else.
Logan Crew.
There was a time when I used to think he was done with Wren, but the past few months have proven that he is far from done. The cameras in his place caught everything. How he wallowed. How he moped around like a lovesick puppy. I almost felt bad for him, but every time that silly sense of empathy threatened to emerge, I reminded myself he was the reason Wren got hit by that car in the first place.
If it wasn’t for him, she never would’ve been out that night, in that exact spot. She got hurt because of him.
So, yeah, when I saw him stroll in, I knew I had to watch. I had to listen. I had to see just what his endgame was, showing up out of nowhere—and now I know.
He still wants her. He wants her to forgive him. He recognizes the fact that he hurt her, that he caused all of this, and he still wants to try again. They are fire and ice, two totally different beings, but I can’t judge him too harshly because of that. After all, Wren and I aren’t alike, either. I’m the shadow and she’s the bright daylight.
Opposites do attract, it’s true.
I thought I made a blunder by approaching her at that party. It wasn’t the smartest thing, to show up to a college party, butonce I heard the theme of said party, I figured it’d be easy to blend in without disclosing my identity. And it was easy.
And Wren? She melted into me like she was always meant to.
I might’ve taken things a step too far with what I did, how I touched her, but I’ve been a man obsessing for the last five months, and I could not hold back anymore. I needed a taste. I needed something. And even though she couldn’t see my face, she felt the same connection I did. Someone like Wren didn’t let just anybody stroll up to her and touch her like that, Logan notwithstanding.
She had me from the very beginning. Soon enough I’d get her to run for me, but first thing was first: I need to take care of Logan, and I believe I owe the girl a date. The date will come first, and then I will put my focus onto Logan Crew, where I will find out if he has what it takes to survive one of my mazes.
He’ll make it through, or he won’t. That’s the beauty of my mazes. Like trapped mice, they don’t know where to go. Around every corner could be their demise. Ultimately, saving themselves is on them, and unfortunately for Logan, no one has ever made it out of one of my mazes alive before.
Being a Scott has its perks. Money and knowledge of certain things, such as the disposal of bodies, are in our blood.
I don’t have high hopes for Logan, of course. If he’s proven anything, it’s that he is one giant fuck-up, something even he admits now. He certainly does not deserve Wren.
Watching them kiss… it was enough to boil my blood. I had to resist every impulse to get up, go over there, and pull them apart. It was good that I didn’t, because Wren came to her senses and pushed him away shortly after, but the damage, so to speak, was already done.
Logan would either surprise me, or he would fail and disappear from both my and Wren’s life. Honestly, I would be aliar if I say I’m not hoping for the latter. I don’t think he has it in him to pull through and surprise me.
I go to sleep that night thinking about Wren and the date I want to take her on. Dinner and a movie? Or is that too old-school? Too cliché of a first date? I’ve dated in the past, yes, but never someone I actually cared about, someone I actually wanted. I never put much pressure on any dates or any woman before, because none of them could ever truly understand me.
Wren? We are opposites, yes, light and dark, but she’s seen me in my mask and she craved me as much as I craved her. I’m pretty confident she could be the one. She could be mine forever.
Such a silly thing, the notion of forever. I never understood it, not until her. I never got the urge to have someone like that, to claim their very soul until the end of time, but Wren and I… if we weren’t forever, then everything in my life is a lie.