Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
“You’re okay?” she asks again.
“Yeah, just cold. They took most of my clothes, but I’m fine. O’Malley is sharing in my misery, so that’s a plus.”
“O’Malley is with you?”
“Yep.”
The line goes quiet. “You still there, space babe?”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” she asks. “Because nothing good ever happens when the Reverse-Flash is alone with the Flash.”
I smile. One night while rewatching episodes of Beneath a Strong Sentiment, I ended up telling her more about my dislike towards O’Malley, and she concluded that he sounded like the inverse of me.
She called him the Reverse-Paul.
“I promise I’m fine,” I whisper, but I can’t lie and say this night with Reverse-Paul has been really good. It’s been…eye-opening. Painful, almost. “I’m gonna get off the phone with you so you can call a bodyguard, alright?”
“I love you,” she says really fast.
It fills my lungs. “I love you too.” Keep it together. I rub my burning eyes. “Watch out for UFOs. Remind your extraterrestrial friends not to beam you up without me.”
“They’d be the enemy if they did that.”
“Yeah, I’d fight ‘em.”
“Me too.” Her worry hasn’t vanished. I hear it in her unsteady voice. With one last, see ya soon, we hang up, and I immediately delete the number off Kera’s recent calls. After I pass the phone back to her, O’Malley and I keep our distance from each other. Except for the one time he flashes me a page from Celebrity Crush.
Surprisingly, it’s not a photo of Sulli’s baby belly, which has graced nearly every headline with those paternity speculations.
It’s a pic of me kissing Luna outside of Superheroes & Scones. My hand is up the back of her purple sweater.
I come closer and swipe the magazine out of his clutch. The Hales, Meadows, and Cobalts—they’re like us! They read books. They love movies. They go shopping!
A text bubble on the pic reads, They kiss!!
The title of the headline: SEXY LIKE US
“Slutty was right there,” I joke. “Wasted opportunity, if you ask me.” I shove the magazine back in his chest.
“It’ll only get worse,” he warns.
“Yeah, I don’t care,” I say and brush a hand through my hair. “Life is worse without her.” I go back to the checkout and ask Kera if I can use the bathroom. She hands me a key. O’Malley is doing this thing where he’s scoping me out from head-to-toe and I don’t like it.
I’m getting the feeling he wants to ask me about Bridget or maybe even his ex-girlfriend who I can’t remember. I’m very close to a max threshold of sharing, and I gotta get out. So I spend about fifteen minutes in the bathroom, just perusing the graffitied walls and rewashing my hands.
Someone named Bob was here in 1992.
Jodie and Evelyn are together 4 ever.
I exit the bathroom to a mop of dark hair and piercing blue eyes. “You need to shit?” I ask him and toss him the keys.
“Just making sure you weren’t doing anything stupid,” he mutters.
“Like what? Getting high?” I glare. “With what?” I motion to our naked selves. “I didn’t shove anything up my ass. But you—maybe you put a fucking soul up yours. Why don’t you go dig deep and try to pry it out.”
He stares at the keys with a look I don’t understand, honestly.
I swallow a rising knot. “What?”
He slowly lifts his eyes to mine, and I must be high. I must’ve hit my head in the field. This must be all a simulation or I’m in a coma. ‘Cause the look he’s giving me can’t exist. And very quietly, he says, “I’m sorry.”
I just start shaking my head.
His eyes flit up and down me. “I never…”
“Never what?” I breathe.
“I never thought you’d want to be saved from that.” It’s the rawest thing he’s ever said to me, and I stare right at him into the great abyss of discomfort. He whispers, “I thought you were just one of them.”
He thought I was born a lost soul. I was born an addict. I was born to corruption and darkness. Why would someone like me ever crawl towards a light?
I nod a few times, and the only thing I manage to say is, “I don’t need saving.” I stop short of saying, fuck you, so I think I’m handling my anger alright.
Walking away, I peruse an aisle of jerky and Fruit Roll-Ups, thinking about Luna, and O’Malley keeps his distance, thankfully. Kera makes short conversation to pass the time, and I can’t say how many minutes pass before the bell dings and my superhero arrives.
Literally.
I grin as Spider-Man bounds inside. Her backpack is slung on a shoulder, and Luna’s spandex outfit conforms every inch of her body. Her round, delicate face is hidden behind the mask.
I take it back about not needing saving. I could be saved by Luna Hale every day. Just for this moment to exist.