Parachutes Book Three: The Impact

by Takerra Allen

He thought losing Tahli was hell. No…the devil said, “Hold my beer,” and went and dug up good old boy, Drew.

“That’s right. Don’t fight it,” Vin advised, high on the adrenaline. “Makes it worse.” He hadn’t choked someone out in years.

“He’s my fiancé, first of all.” “He’s your emotional support dog,” Vin corrected, calm and disrespectfully.

“You had to be all Teacher Tahli,” Paige joined in. “Carry yo’ ass down to the courthouse like, there will consequences for your actions,” Paige imitated a strict teacher voice, making Abby laugh. It didn’t make Tahli laugh.

“It was…suffocating,” he decided on. “In all ways. Like dying a slow death. You’re forced to see how little you matter to people. Stripped of everything, even your name. Just a number,” he muttered, transporting to the second darkest time of his life. The third being losing his pops. Fourth, maybe losing the son he never met. Number one? Losing her for sure.

“It makes you that much easier to forget as a human being. And of course. No excuses…we all did our shit to be there. I’m not saying we didn’t. But whoever designed the system was an evil genius, because what it does to the mental, darling…is way beyond the years of your life you cough up. You watch the world go on without you and know that it can. You don’t matter. Everyone can keep living without you.”