Home > Here Loves a Sociopath (Here Lies #3)(4)

Here Loves a Sociopath (Here Lies #3)(4)
Author: C.L. Matthews

   She’s gross.

   I’m not cute.

   The door opens and Cass stands there smiling. “Please say you’re here to save me?”

   We chuckle and he lets us in. Running upstairs to where we know his room is, we hear Destiny yell, “No correr!” Which we know means no running in Spanish. It starts another fit of chuckles.

   “So, why didn’t your sister live here before now?” Ten immediately asks, and I smack his arm. “Ouch,” he grumps. I glare at him. He’s always so nosy.

   Cass goes from toe to toe. “She’s lived here our whole lives,” he mentions. “But every summer, they take her to someplace and she comes back different.”

   It doesn’t make sense but all of us stare at him, waiting for his explanation. We’re all around the same age, Just and Pru being the oldest. Then there’s Jordan who pretends to be his older brother, Maxim, sometimes. He’s weird. This neighborhood, filled with messed up kids, overwhelms the strongest of people.

   “What do you mean?” Rossy asks. His cheeks are red from the question. He’s so shy, but it makes sense; his parents parade him around like a prize. It would suck to have famous parents.

   “Well, Col is my best friend.” I stare at Cass for a moment, trying to think of a single time he’s mentioned her, and can’t. “But my moms don’t let her out all that often.”

   Is she like a monster or something?

   “I don’t understand,” I whisper, feeling uncomfortable. Rubbing the back of my neck, I try calming the discomfort inside my chest. My mom always told me that comfort was important. And right now, I feel the need to hide or run away.

   “Me either,” he finally states. “She and I have so much fun. We play games and watch movies. But every year she leaves and comes back, she’s different, like a factory reset version of herself or something.”

   “Is it aliens?” Len asks, his eyes as big as saucers. “It’s aliens, isn’t it?”

   Pru hides his head. Much like Rossy, he scares easily. But I question the validity of aliens all the time. Can they really teleport? Do the beams really take you up or is it some type of magic?

   I don’t understand the world.

   “Can we meet her?” It’s Jordan who finally speaks. I smile because he’s always so quiet. Cass looks at him and nods. “Let me go sneak her in here.”

   He runs off and a moment later, she’s following him, and they’re both shutting the door behind them.

   “Hi,” she singsongs. And it really is melodic. Her hair, much like Cassidy’s, is this pale white. It reminds me of ice cream that’s somehow shiny. I like it.

   But when she looks directly at me, her eyes silence all the thoughts in my head.

   Blue.

   All I can see is blue.

   But it’s not quite blue, is it?

   “Wow, you’re pretty,” Ten loudly compliments her. Her cheeks go red fast and she hides her face.

   “T-thanks. I’m Colton.”

   “Still a boy name,” Len comments, and I want to hit him for making her smile fall.

   “You can call me Colt,” she says and tries not to be as shy.

   “Let’s be friends,” Rossy offers, and we spend the whole day learning about her.

 

 

Chapter Three

   Colt

   I don’t know what he wants. He comes in here, while I’m showering, no less, and demands answers to questions that are not his business.

   No, Lux doesn’t hurt me.

   These marks? They’re mine. Intentional. I didn’t know how to hide them, and sometimes when I put them on my back where my hips meet, they bruise the tissue.

   But he can think the worst since he’s a caveman and an asshole.

   He hasn’t spoken a single fucking word to me since my wedding night. He can get fucked and stay fucked.

   “Is there a reason you’re here other than to waste my time?”

   There’s something confusing about Bridger Clemonte. It’s not even just his lack of communication skills, it’s more to do with his absence of expressions and evasiveness to answer anything.

   But it’s also to do with fuzzy memories that feel more like dreams. Him calling me Starless moments ago hurt worse than a knife in my skin. That’s what I’ve been subjected to these last few days.

   Escaping through pain.

   Don’t know how to feel? Use a knife.

   Don’t know how to cope? Cause blood.

   Don’t know how to cry? Hurt to induce tears.

   You’d think with all the scarring on my skin, my mothers would put me in therapy. But no, they seem to think it’s a phase.

   It’s not. I want to die. Something like this doesn’t change with time, it only worsens. Cass got my dream. Now, I want to see him again in the worst way.

   Being unfeeling is the worst state of mind for me. It puts me in danger of being vulnerable, it also gives others some invisible go-ahead to try and dick me around.

   It’s not working, but it’s surely pissing me off.

   “We need to leave.”

   No explanation, just those four words. He stands with his hands in his pockets, his hair messy in a charming way, all while he’s dressed as if he’s planning to go to a funeral rather than school. That’s where we’re supposed to head, back to school, to the monotony of life, pretending my brother and Yang weren’t murdered and I’m not married at seventeen.

   “I am leaving already?” I nearly question myself, wondering if I missed something. There isn’t a single thing here I want to take back. The uniforms are unsaintly and the lack of black is unnerving. While someone like Lux or Mel could fit in with this plain style, I cannot simply tolerate the heinous crime of this any longer.

   So, I wonder how little time it’d take me to actually pack.

   Seconds, maybe? The only salvageable stuff is my lingerie. Even then, it’s fancy in a non-Colt way. He stares at me. And it triggers a dream… I think.

   “Tell me why you want me,” I demand, walking back and forth. Our eyes meet and his black ones take my breath away. He’s so handsome. His lips taste like licorice and hopelessness, and I’m addicted to the way it draws me in.

   But his goddamn inability to talk to me. Use words to help me understand. To not stumble over his lies and secrets to be honest, it kills me.

   “You’re supposed to be mine, sweetheart. Mine.”

   My heart races at whatever that fuzzy plot point was. When did I have that dream? When did dreams start coming in the day? What the hell is happening?

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