He plasters a cruel sneer on his beautiful lips. “For the rest of the school year, it’ll cost you fifty thousand dollars. Don’t get me wrong, you’re a halfway decent fuck, but it’s a job, right?” He gives me a lackadaisical shrug as if he ate the last donut in the box instead of ripping my beating heart out of my chest.

My stomach’s one giant knot. I’m physically ill. I might throw up.

“I’m not delusional. I know you’re not in love with me or anything. I just thought…” He’s not looking at me. He’s watching something over my shoulder. Someone. I turn to see the leggy brunette across the room smiling at him. He gives her his trademark sexy smirk. My smirk.

I want to disappear. To spontaneously cease to exist. I’m torn between the desire to run as far and as fast as I can à la Forrest Gump or to slink away into a dark hole where I wallow away the rest of my life muttering about losing my precious like Gollum. I make a list of the pros and cons of my two potential futures, Gump vs. Gollum.

“I…I thought there was something…real…between us.” My voice is a broken whisper. Having him so close and yet completely unattainable forces the first tear to roll down my cheek. He turns back to me, but he doesn’t see it. He doesn’t see me. I’m invisible.

“There’s nothing between us. Never was. Never will be. If you want to keep playing this weird little game of house, it’s going to cost you. Nothing in life is free.”

Gump wins. I turn and sprint out of the library as fast as my feet will carry me.

Run, Elizabeth, run.

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Austin

The same nightmare has been torturing me all week. I’m seven years old again, reliving the worst day of my life.

I try to be a big boy, take care of myself. I make my bed, change my shirt and brush my teeth before school. Ms. Kathy asks me why I don’t have any lunch again today. I don’t want to get Mom in trouble. I shrug and say I don’t have it.

Ms. Kathy keeps me after school so she can talk to Mom. Only, Mom never comes.

My butt falls asleep in this stupid orange plastic chair. I sit on my hands for a cushion and kick my feet to wake it up, but it doesn’t work. School’s over. It’s dark out and quiet. I wonder how I’m going to get home.

I want to go home.