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You need not be sorry for her. She was one of the kind that likes to grow up. In the end, she grew up of her own free will a day quicker than the other girls. —J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan
“Abuse can feel like love.” I blinked, the voice so close that my ears tingled. Slowly, I raised my eyes to look at the side of Damon Torrance’s face, his shirt wrinkled, and his tie draped around his neck. The whole class fell silent, and I glanced at Will next to me, seeing his eyebrows pinched together as he looked at the back of his friend’s head. Mr. Townsend approached. “‘Abuse can feel like love . . .’” he repeated. “Why?” Damon remained so still it didn’t look like he was breathing. He looked at the teacher, unwavering. “Starving people will eat anything.”
Me anytime damon speaks: 🙇♀️
I smiled small, but my hand shook as I picked up a forkful of lettuce. It wouldn’t stop shaking until he left for work in the morning.
I mean, I did do her literature assignment for her. Did she have any idea how hard it was to try to sound like an angry teenage girl with zero sense of humor?
“To just pretend we’re in control of everything happening to us,” he told me. He blinked a few times, his demeanor completely changed, a troubled set to his brow. My chin trembled. “Until you can’t remember who you were before you started lying even to yourself,”
“There’s not much that’s bad for you, done in moderation. Some water is necessary for plants to thrive. Too much kills them.”
“I am not scared,” he repeated. “I am the eye of the storm. The calm in the madness.”
“Nothing is ever a surprise,” he said. “Always act as if you knew it was coming the whole time. Pretend it was part of the plan. You move with the storm, Emory. Calm, quiet, patient, and then . . . Then you happen to him.”
Aidyn my love 😭
“You’re Lilith,” he whispered against my skin. “You can’t be burned if you’re the flame.”
I stared at him, the challenge clear, but while I would’ve mouthed off or walked out ten minutes ago, I felt roots sprout from the bottoms of my shoes, keeping me steady. An oak. The eye of the storm.
I squeezed his neck, gentle but possessive before sliding to my knees and drawing my claws down his chest and then his thighs.
The calm in the madness. The quiet in the chaos. The patience for my moment.
“Does Will know?” he asked, rubbing my blood between his fingers. “No.” He lifted his gaze to mine. “Because he’s the one pure, beautiful thing untainted by ugliness,” he repeated nearly his exact words from the shower. “And we love him for it.”
Damon stood up and pulled up his jeans. “I’ll be in the showers.” He sighed. “Again.”
Damon youre the absolute best
What was this place like in the summer? An image flashed in my mind of me sitting on the balcony with a book as the water fell in the distance.
Them living there… 👀
He chuckled as I handed one slice to Alex and pushed the other plate over to Will. But Will shot out, slapping the plate and the pan, sending them both flying onto the floor.
Hes so drama omggg
Fuck him for demanding of me what I couldn’t even give myself.
Correct
I wasn’t a grown-up. He was wrong. I never grew. I was always this pile of dead leaves, blowing in the wind and letting the seasons, whoever they were, come in and change me and walk on me, and I never fought for anything.
I’d rather eat my hands than see her do that to herself.
Weird comparison but ok
none of us ever hated Rika when we were stealing her inheritance, kidnapping her family, and burning down her house. The diseased mind only sees its own intentions, and everything they did and everything we did justified the end.
SURE
A hand took mine, and I closed my fingers around Alex’s slender ones.
My lovelies, just forget about the men
But then I heard Damon’s voice. “I need to talk to him.” I shot my eyes up, seeing him loom over Misha and trying to squeeze past. “I’m trying to fucking leave, if you would move,” Misha spat out.
Love these interactions
“We set Rika’s house on fire, Kai,” he said. I turned and looked at him as he stared at his friend. “Stole all her money,” he continued. “I kidnapped her, and you forced Banks to marry you. I tried to kill Will . . .” “We made mistakes,” Kai argued with him. “We would never do that again.” “Speak for yourself,” Damon fired back. “The role of the villain is only determined by who’s telling the story.”
YEA
Sitting up, I climbed over Rory’s body and gently stepped out of bed, looking down at the two beautiful guys and their sleeping forms. A serial killer on one side, and the son of a terrorist on the other. Man, my parents would be proud.
“I don’t want to grow up anymore,” I told him. “Take me back to Thunder Bay.” Back to Neverland. I’m ready.
“You know they might start without you if she wizens up,” I told him. “Remember when we kidnapped her mom, stole all her money, and burned down her house? That was good times.”
CRAZY
But Michael scoffed, defending himself. “Damon suffocated her with chloroform, threw her over his shoulder like a sack of flour, and took her to sea!” “We were bonding,” Damon retorted. “You’re just jealous.”
YES WE ARE
The crystals above that I saw earlier were chandeliers. A dozen of them, hanging in the trees, coming to life and lighting up the leaves, their branches, and looking like a whole other world up there. Emmy sucked in a breath, and I looked over at her, seeing her chin tremble and a tear hanging at the corner of her eye. “Oh, my God,” she murmured. She seemed to love chandeliers, didn’t she?
A chandelier fan girlie
“Michael and Erika,” the officiant started again. “Damon and Winter. Kai and Nikova. William and Emory.”
AAHSGSUDJJD
I had brothers who cared about me now. Aydin, Rory, and the beautiful Micah,
The way she always calls him beautiful 🥺
Happy people don’t fear death, because there’s nothing more they want out of life than what they have right now.
“Live for your love,” the judge said, “love your life, and raise hell.”
A plastic bag with the necktie, the Ride-All-Day bracelet, and the empty box of Milk Duds from Will’s and my first date.
We were all on the same road up in the quiet, haunting sea cliffs of Thunder Bay.
We want what we want.
