***
Those bitches.
Looking back, I can now see that it wasn’t really Lexi and Angel I was furious with. They were just scapegoats for my anger, which was really directed at my dad, my sad, pitiful life, and Travis for making me want things again. Want him.
I was a ticking time bomb ready to blow.
Unlike all the other gazillion morons shopping on the busiest day of the year, I just wanted to grab a white chocolate mocha from the coffee gods: Starbucks. Lo and behold, whom did I run across? None other than the two best friends—Lexi and Angel—joined at the hip.
I was on my way back to my house when I spotted Lexi’s little red car in the distance. Instantly, I pressed the pedal to the metal, and my SUV zoomed forward on the nearly deserted road. There was no explanation as to what came over me. One minute I was sipping my coffee, and the next I was driving with the worst case of road rage I’d ever felt.
Pulling up beside Lexi’s compact car, I revved my engine to get their attention, not that I didn’t already have it, but this was going to be a showstopper—literally.
When I was sure that I had the two of them shaking in their boots, I jerked the steering wheel in their direction, not thinking about anything but demolishing them. The impact of car against truck was more than I bargained for. It threw me back in my seat. My damn coffee sloshed over the rim, dripping all over my console and increasing my anger.
I was truly irrational today.
At this point, I wasn’t even conscious of what I was doing. It was as if some vengeful spirit of a bloodthirsty lunatic possessed me. I felt out of control.
And I hated it.
But I felt powerless to stop it.
It was the screaming of brakes skidding over blacktop that snapped me out of it. In my rearview mirror, I watched Lexi’s car halt. Wide-eyed in horror at the crunched-up car, I slammed on the brakes, needing to get my panicked breathing under control.
What had I done?
There was no time to dwell on the destruction I had just caused—not only to the cars, but to Lexi and Angel as well—because I was having a full-on panic attack. Kicking my door open, I stepped out of the SUV, greedily trying to gulp fresh air into my burning lungs.
The next thing I knew, I was being pinned up against my car with a very livid demon in my face. Her hands were around my throat, and I lost the ability to breathe, yet again. I didn’t fight her. It was more than I deserved after my latest performance.
Lexi’s eyes glowed amber with just a hit of aqua around the rim. She was teetering the line of losing herself to the demon, and when she spoke it had an eerie deep darkness to it. I wheezed as her hand squeezed my neck, but I did nothing to defend myself. Before my bulging eyes, I watched some of the lesser cuts heal on Lexi’s face, which looked anything but sweet and sugary.
Lexi angled her head. “My brother might be blinded by the past and what you used to be, but I’m a realist. I know what you are. I can’t believe we used to be friends,” she spat in disgust, and I couldn’t blame her.
The mention of Travis filled me with a longing and regret so intense that I had to bank it quickly before it got out of hand and I made a complete fool of myself. From the corner of my eye, I saw Angel run up behind Lexi with a look of astonishment at her friend. It was my guess that it wasn’t every day she got to see this side of her.
Lexi carried on. “Is there even a fraction of who you used to be underneath all that hate?” she asked in what I recognized as her last attempt to reach me.
I gave her no false hope, because honestly I could never be that girl again no matter how much I might will it. The sooner we all accepted it, the better. “That girl is gone. Nothing I can do will bring her back. I can’t turn the hands of time,” I replied in a scratchy voice that sounded nothing like mine.
Sadness and hurt laced her golden eyes. “No, I don’t suspect you can. But you aren’t the only one who has changed. My brother’s never been the same since you disappeared. He was crushed, frantic by your sudden departure. I want to ensure that he doesn’t feel that kind of pain again.”
“You want to kill me. So, what’s stopping you?” I baited, not caring anymore. This wasn’t a life worth living. I wasn’t afraid of death. I’d been taught to fear nothing.
“My brother,” she responded. “Unlike you, I care about him.”
“You don’t know jack about how I feel,” I hissed, immediately filled with rage, and I strained against the hold she still had on me.