Revive Me, Part One: The Act (New Haven, #2)

by J.L. Seegars

Those ugly truths are mine and mine alone, which means I’m going to have to plaster on a fake smile and power through a party that will feel like my own personal hell.

NEVER suffer in silence

Oaths made with bloody, wounded palms pressed together under the light of a full moon.

Huh?

“Ugh.” I move past him, heading back into the party, so I can finally finish cutting the slice of cake I know my Aunt Mary is waiting for. “Your friend should learn how to mind his business.”

Girl you were just hoping he’d walk into the room

“Right, so you might have to go look for your phone on your own….sorry I don’t think I caught your name.”

Excuse fucking you??

“You think I need you to fight my battles.”

She has been INSUFFERABLE the majority of this book and it’s aggravating!!

“Yep,” she says, pushing up from her seat and grabbing the plate off the table. “I have to get to class.”

I’d just end this whole facade. She’s cold, mean, and standoffish to someone who genuinely cares about her wellbeing and all she can give him in return is her ass to kiss

The artful lines of her arms and legs reflecting the love of dancing I suspect lies deep in her history.

So she’s the ballerina in book 6. Got it

“Byeeeee!” She sings, holding the note long enough to draw the attention of everyone in the gym but capturing Hunter’s most effectively. He glowers at her, and then rolls his eyes when she sticks her tongue out at him.

So Hunter and Rae?

my stalker of an ex who won’t stop writing me asking to meet up.

Girl you could just block him

Somewhere along the way—between our first kiss, that night at Curly’s and him witnessing the aftermath of my nightmares—he got it in his head that I was weak.

She is INSUFFERABLE

I want to come out of this feeling stronger and more powerful than I have in a long time, and the only way to do that is to use Trent’s obsession with us to draw him out.

Girl… I just…

“I know that the way you feel about me and the way you’ve treated me ever since I started this program is rooted in misogyny and racism. And I also know that I wouldn’t be hard pressed to find another Black woman in this department that you’ve subjected to this same harassment.”

Yes, get him!

That stuck with me all day, making it close to impossible for me to focus on the words of the email Dr. Richardson wrote to the class announcing that he was leaving the department for personal reasons.

Goodbye and good riddance

“You’re welcome!” She yells behind me.

Girl croak

“Funny. You used to love to talk to me. I remember when you used to cry when I couldn’t call you, throw fits when I used to take too long to text back.”

She was a child you weirdo!

I drag myself off of the stool and over to the freezer only to find it empty except for an ice tray that has no cubes in it. Then I switch over to the fridge and let out a frustrated growl when there’s nothing useful in there either.

Just like a man to not have anything in his refrigerator

“I don’t like ice,” Chris says, eyebrows knitted close together as he applies some ointment on my knuckles. “The cubes make my teeth hurt.”

Same!

“He was drunk and angry because I wasn’t returning his messages⁠—” “Messages? I thought you hadn’t heard from him in weeks.” I can’t look at him because now I know that at least some part of the heat in his voice is for me. “I might have downplayed it a bit.”

Her inability to accept help, even when she needs it, has been one of the most frustrating parts of this book

And she’s right about me knowing already. I’d put it all together the second I saw her with Trent.

More tears fall, and her body shakes. “I told him I wanted to wait, but he was already on top of me. He said it was too late and then….he was inside me.”

🥺🥺

“You need a formal request to be my girlfriend even after I’ve had my face buried in your pussy?”

“Okay! Okay! Chris, I give.”

About damn time

“I’m not deflecting. I just need a little more time to figure out exactly what I’m feeling.”

So deflecting 😂

“You’re right. Any other man in my position wouldn’t be the least bit concerned about what you went through, princess. In fact, he’d be so lost in the way you smell, in the sounds you make he wouldn’t notice, or care, about you tensing up under his touch. He’d be so wrapped up in trying to get his dick inside of you that he wouldn’t bother to check if the position he has you in makes you feel powerless, if the things he’s whispering in your ear make you feel worthless.”

This is so inopportune

Apparently, she’s just as competitive as Mallory is and isn’t taking well to losing. A fact that has provided endless entertainment to Nic, who’s been snickering into his soda every time she rolls.

😂😂

He even mentioned that with all the time he’s been spending with Giselle, there might be a possibility of him being the son to make the Johnson-DuPont union everyone’s been dreaming of for so long a reality.

That’s why he was so eager to needle Chris. He wanted his ex for himself

What kind of father keeps the death of a loved one from their own son?

Either Chris’ dad and the nanny were fooling around and/or Chris may not be his mother’s biological child

“Only, that doesn’t make a lot of sense considering how you want to be the Johnson in the Johnson-DuPont union. Isn’t that why you’ve been spending so much time with Giselle, so you can finally have your chance at one-upping your little brother?”

Yes! Whack him again

When we were kids, he’d put down a toy and leave it for hours without so much as thinking about it, but the second I touched it, he lost his shit, crying and screaming to get it back.

Yeah… just like every other child on this planet

And she,” —he shifts, giving me just enough space to see Giselle smiling up at Chris who’s saying something to her father— “is the kind of woman he belongs with.”

I’d smack him right across the face

“Was this you and your dad’s plan all along? Separate us, orchestrate some scenario where I watch him with Giselle and start to doubt everything I know to be true about us? Let me guess, your whole ‘they belong together’ speech was supposed to be the final nail in the coffin, right? You were supposed to make me cry, storm out of here, embarrass Chris, and dishonor Margaret’s memory while your dad kept his hands clean?”

One of the things I love about Mal is her level of discernment. She sees right through people with bad intentions and reads them like a book

“And apparently neither does yours! Otherwise, you wouldn’t be standing here trying to free your brother up so he can marry the woman you love.” “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

Exactly! Keep whacking his weird ass

Him and Dad are weirdos, but Chris isn’t like them at all. He doesn’t subscribe to the patriarchal bullshit they do.”

Weirdos of the highest degree

Celeste was my best friend and the love of my life,

They were lovers?

“She wasn’t your mother, Chris, and you clearly didn’t think that much of her, or you would have made time to answer her phone calls.”

I really want him to jump off a damn bridge

“No matter how many times you wake up from your nightmares, crying for your mommy, you can’t change that I’m here and she’s not. Call me a shit father if you want, but I’ve done more for you than that woman has over the course of her entire miserable existence.”

Punch him in the face!

Because what I deserve is a partner who trusts me to decide what I want and how I want it.”

When I enter the living room, all thoughts of Trent’s arrest fall by the wayside, washed away by the sight of Reese Johnson Sr. standing in the middle of the floor. His eyes, which are so similar to Chris’ it’s eerie, narrow as they land on me.

Long, deep, and heavy negro spiritual sigh

Mallory once accused my father of orchestrating ambushes, and as I look around the dimly lit restaurant inside the hotel where he’s staying, making note of every familiar face at the dinner table, I can’t help but think about how right she was.

You think?

Ramona starts to stand but begins to sway almost instantly.

Ramona is good and lit

RJ and I spent time together, yes, but it was no more serious than whatever you have going on with Mallory. I’m willing to look past it, so we can build a life together.

Girl please go to hell

“When they see the video, I mean. Do you think Eric, Annette, Dominic, and Sloane will ever look at her the same? Or will they wonder the same things I did? Why didn’t she say no? If it was rape, why didn’t she go to the police? Why did she lay there in his arms for hours if she didn’t want it?”

Please knock him off and get it over with