Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 160041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
She hisses when I graze past it with my thumb.
I pause, hovering over her skin while searching for approval, but if I keep waiting until she’s less pissed off, nothing good will ever happen. I have to help her.
I get up to pull the first-aid kit off the shelf in the corner, open it, then take out the bottle of alcohol and some cotton. I sit back down again and set all the supplies beside her on the tub.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
“Your wound needs disinfecting,” I say.
I dip the cotton in the alcohol and bring it to her skin, glancing up just once to make sure she won’t try to stab me with the many weapons she carries everywhere she goes.
C’mon, Xavier. You can do this.
I dab the wound, and she hisses in pain, nails digging into her thighs. I clean out the gash as best as I can. It’s quite deep, and I’m pretty sure it’s from a knife of some sort.
I pull back the cotton and stare at her blood, while mine begins to thicken with a rage I’ve never felt before.
I leer up at her. “Who did this to you?”
She tilts her head, a lopsided smile briefly appearing on her face before it’s gone again like it never even existed.
“No one.”
My nostrils flare, and I grab the next piece of cotton. Every one of my touches elicits a reflex of jolts and twitches in her body, but the longer I continue, the less frequent they become. I chuck all the cotton in the bin beside me and stare at the bleeding wound for a second.
“It’s too deep. That’s going to need stitches.”
“I can’t go to the hospital. It’s not safe.”
“I know.” I grab a pair of gloves and put them on, then pick up a needle and a thread from the box. “It’s going to hurt.”
“I can handle it,” she says.
I swallow again before I bring the needle to her skin and pierce through, trying to go as slow as possible so I don’t anger her further. I know she’s on edge, and it probably has everything to do with her current condition.
Something’s gotten her spooked. A surprise attack by an enemy?
“Whoever you’re protecting doesn’t deserve it,” I say, slowly looping the thread through her skin.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” she replies.
I pause and look up. “They hurt you. I can’t let that slide. They need to be punished.”
Her brows furrow, and she seems genuinely surprised that I’d say that.
“I … It was a mistake. That’s all,” she says.
“Being stabbed is rarely a mistake,” I reply, finishing up the sutures.
She sucks in a breath. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
I cut the thread and tuck the scissors away. “Won’t or can’t?”
She narrows her eyes at me again, and I get it. She doesn’t like prying eyes, but all this avoidance isn’t helping her one bit.
In a moment of brazen courage, I place my hand on top of hers. “Let me help you … please.”
With widened eyes, she leans back as her lips part, eyes darting between my hand and me.
Suddenly, there’s a knock on the door, and Sunny immediately retracts her hand. I turn my head the second the door opens.
“Um, sorry for interrupting, but Mom’s asking who was at the door, and I don’t know how to answer her without lying to her face,” Aspen says. “I’ve been holding her off for now, but it won’t be long until she starts searching the house.” She looks at Sunny and a know-it-all smirk slowly forms on her face. “Hi, by the way.”
Sunny just raises her brow. That’s it. No wave, no hi, no nothing.
Aspen tilts her head and glances at the wound I just sutured. “Are you okay? That looks gnarly.”
Sunny swiftly pulls her tank top back down. “I’m fine.”
“Please don’t tell Mom about this,” I say.
Aspen makes a locking key symbol near her mouth. “My lips are sealed.”
“Thanks,” I say.
“As long as you give me all the details later, of course.” She winks.
“No,” Sunny says resolutely. “Absolutely not.”
“It’s sensitive,” I add. “Please, Aspen. Just do this one thing for me.”
She sighs. “Okay, fine. But don’t ask me to lie to my family.”
“I’ll see myself out as quickly as possible,” Sunny says. “Don’t worry.”
“All right, don’t forget your pizza downstairs, Xav.”
“I won’t.”
Aspen winks. “Good luck.”
We both wait until Aspen finally closes the door to breathe out a sigh of relief.
I swear, if we weren’t twins, I would’ve probably killed her a dozen times already just out of the sheer embarrassment she puts me through just because she’s sniffed out a possible love-match.
As if that could ever happen.
Sunny is amazing, but a girlfriend? No, she would never agree to that, not with anyone, and definitely not … me.
She clears her throat and gets up from the tub, straightening herself.