Seth grabs the tape from the dresser and hands it to me. “You told us the other night at Red Ink.”

Me and my drunken mouth. “Well, I’m good now.” I pull a piece of tape off and stretch it out over the box.

“Good living with Violet?” He exchanges a disbelieving look with Greyson and Greyson sighs. “Come on, you seriously want to live with her?”

“Maybe.” My chest constricts as I say it because I do. “I can’t just leave her with nowhere to go and she’s got a job and everything so she can pay half the rent.”

“She can get her own place,” Seth says as I tug the gray shirt over my head.

“No, she can’t,” I reply, running my hand over my hair. “She needs help.”

“Obviously.” Seth rolls his eyes. “She’s scary as hell.”

“I’m scary as hell.” I pick up my cologne off the desk and spray a little on me before adding it to another box. It seemed so hard to pack before, but it seems easy now that I know I’m not going back home.

“No, you just think you are.” Seth roams around my room, collecting my watches and sunglasses I have lying around, along with loose change. He hands them to me and I add them to another box I have open next to the foot of the bed. “Just crash with us. We can split the rent three ways and Greyson knows the guy running the place and he gave us one of the furnished apartments for cheap.”

“How cheap?” I clasp a leather band on my wrist that says redemption on it.

“Six hundred bucks for a two-bedroom and you’ll get your own room.” He smiles like it’s the best deal ever.

It’s about the same price as the Oak Section, yet much nicer and it has furniture. Shit, it’s tempting. Way too tempting. Plus the bills would be split three ways. I fold my arms, my jaw set tight as I dig out my old self that’s been hiding for days, the one that thinks of himself first because no one else ever has.

“All right I’m in.”

Violet

I’m trying to keep it together and not run out into that road. Cars crawl by at a snail’s pace so it wouldn’t do much good throwing myself in front of them anyway. But everything’s crashing over me; opening my eyes to an unfamiliar room, Luke witnessing me spastically waking up, and the fact I’m officially alone in the world. I don’t even have Preston anymore. The one person I could ever consider family is gone and now I’m standing out in front of a building, not a single person in sight. All I want to do is pick a fight, stand on the ledge of a tall building, drown in a dark pool of water. Push myself to the brink of death and maybe this time just let it take me over. Maybe it’s time. To let go. Give up. Because I’m so God damn tired of struggling to hold onto life.

I tug my hands through my tangled hair and glance around the grassy area surrounded by trees, searching for something dangerous that might give me the numbness I so desperately need. My gaze scales up to the roof of the loft dorm building, and I angle my chin up. The sun stings at my eyes but I don’t blink as I observe the thin trim of the roof. How do I get up to it?

“Violet.” Luke’s voice flickers the tension inside me down a notch, enough for me to stop thinking about the roof.

I lower my eyes to see him walking across the grass and the tension pretty much fades away. He’s wearing black shorts and he’s got a shirt on, covering up his chest and tattoos and he has that leather band on his wrist that he always wears, the one that says “redemption.” I open my mouth to say something to him that will maybe put an end to this little attachment I’m developing toward him, but for once I can’t find anything to say.

“Hey,” he says when he reaches me beneath the canopy of the trees.

“That’s three ‘heys’ in the last twenty minutes.” I force a smile, but it hurts.

He smiles, but his looks strained, too. “I guess that’s my go-to word.”

“I guess so.”

The dorm building’s doors swing open, the windows reflecting in the sunlight. Seth and I think his name is Greyson walk out, laughing about something. Seth narrows his eyes at me and shoots me a dirty look.

Luke stuffs his hands into the pockets of his shorts. “So, I have to tell you something.”

“Okay…” I try not to get nervous, but I do, which makes me want to run, but I don’t because I want to be near him.

“It’s about the apartment.” He pulls his hand out of his pocket and massages the back of his neck tensely. “Seth and Greyson were going to go to Seth’s place for the summer, but some stuff happened and now they’re going to stay here… and they want me to share a place with them on Elm.” His arm falls to the side as he waits for me to respond.

As it clicks, my face falls, but I quickly pick myself up and my fake smile that hides the crushing disappointment rises up right on cue. “Elm’s a nice place.”

“Yeah, it is and I think Greyson knows the dude who owns it so he’s giving them a furnished one for cheap.”

“Sounds awesome.” Still smiling, all rainbows and sunshine even though I feel like a fucking rain cloud on the inside.

“Yeah.” He glances over at the parking lot where Seth and Greyson are climbing into a sleek black car parked near the front door. “So I was thinking,” he looks back at me, “That you could stay with us, too.”

My heart skips a beat, but I shove it down. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, but thanks for the offer.”

“More ridiculous than panda bears giving you drugs,” he jokes but then sighs. “Look, I know Seth’s a little intense, but I asked him and he said he was okay with it.”

“I don’t care if he’s okay with it,” I tell him, backing across the grass. “I’m not a charity case. I can find my own place to live.” I spin on my heels and start walking across the grass, my blood pressure rising with each step. Stop it. Stop. This isn’t right. I shouldn’t be feeling this upset over the fact that I’m walking away from some guy or that he just ruined our plan to live together. I never wanted to in the first place, yet my inner voice is laughing at me, loud and shrill. I feel like running, but I don’t. I take even strides, one by one, like I’m in no hurry to get anywhere.

“Violet wait.” Luke chases after me and grabs my arm, jerking me to a stop. “I know you’re upset but—”

“I’m not upset.” I laugh, but it sounds sharp and off pitch. “I just need to figure out where I’m going to stay.”

He reels me in toward him by the arm. “Just stay with us.”

“I’m good, but thanks.” I tug back, but not hard enough to get me anywhere. Instead I’m drawn closer and closer to him, his brown eyes blazing like embers beneath the sunlight.

“Stay.” Is all he says as the space between us disappears. I can feel the heat from his body and maybe my own as he lures me closer until our chests brush. Jesus, I think my nipples just got hard. “It’ll work out… we can share a room and I—”

“You’re going to share a room with me? Seriously.” I shake my head. “Didn’t you get enough of that this morning?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean my crazy wake-up ritual. I wake up like that every morning.”

He scans my face for something, but he’s not going to find it, whatever it is. “I can handle a cranky Violet. I’ve been doing it for weeks.”

“Yeah, but you get breaks,” I say, confused. I don’t get why he’s being so nice and determined to help me. It doesn’t make sense, not unless he wants something. “This time you wouldn’t. I’d be there twenty-four/seven, while you’re sleeping, eating, taking a shower.”

He stifles a grin as his hand slides up my arm to my shoulder. “If you get too bad, then I’ll leave the house for a while,” he says and I get a whiff of vodka on his breath.

“You’re drunk.” It’s making sense now, why he wants to help me. “I get it now.”

“First off, I’m not drunk. I barely took a swallow and trust me I have a high fucking tolerance for alcohol,” he tells me. “And second, what do you get?”