103

Piper

Ripped And Torn Apart

The car eased to the curb and the conversation died down. June adjusted the rearview mirror to get a look at me.

"Ready, Piper?" she asked.

"Here's the plan." Zariah leaned forward. "We're the Romans, right? All three of us hang out in front of her on the walkway, like the shield, legion thing. We ring the doorbell and just keep shuffling so he can't see her."

Kassie shifted back in her seat. "Z, is that Romans? I thought that was the Spartans."

"Well, fine, we're also the Gladiators. So…we need some spears."

"Romans had testudo formulations," I explained, glum. "You could apply the legion formation."

"I love our geek." Zariah beamed until her smile faltered. "So, we're doing the plan?"

"No…" I hesitated. "I have to do this alone."

Everybody turned with surprise on their faces but nobody was as surprised as me. It was the truth though. I needed to be the one to get my stuff back, I needed to be the one to face up to my fears. No more shrinking away from things.

Slowly, I unclipped my seatbelt and opened the door.

"Do you want me to keep the car running?" June called after me.

"Yes." I sighed. "This should be quick."

Let this be quick .

My first knock on the front door was too small to hear. I took a deep breath and rapped my knuckles harder. It was difficult not to check out the place. I had so many memories here, high school and college.

Footsteps echoed behind the door and I clasped my hands together, trying to stop them from shaking.

The door yanked open.

"What the fuck do you want?"

I cringed. Part of me wanted to apologize for what happened at the rodeo but that wouldn't be honest. That was just me wanting to apologize for everything. The truth was, I wasn't sorry.

I cleared my throat. "I want my stuff back."

"What?" Thomas leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest. His face was a collection of old bruises and a few new bandages. "Did you come to apologize? Tell your boyfriend to eat a dick."

For a moment, I didn't say anything, I just stared at him. This was the same Thomas Sullender I went out with? It was. Of course it was. But the longer I gazed at him, the more confused I was. This was the guy I'd been wrapped up with for years? A blonde football player with an anger problem?

He'd been everything to me but looking at him now…he was just some guy.

Adam was right.

I rolled back my shoulders and straightened up my back. A little braver. "I want my stuff back."

"What stuff?" He sneered.

"You know what stuff."

Thomas didn't say anything in reply, he just walked away from the door. It sat open. I didn't dare walk inside. Past the living room, I could hear him rifling through some boxes. And then there was the jingle of keys.

He walked back with a cardboard box, full of everything I'd been missing out on.

But Thomas strolled right past me to the driveway and I was forced to follow after him.

"He got me a suspension, Piper," Thomas threw behind his shoulder.

With a turn of his hand, the cardboard box crashed to the driveway and I hurried to pick up things before they rolled down to the road. I didn't need to. The CDs were broken, the stuffed animals were ripped apart, and the postcards were in pieces. My heart pounded in my chest as I picked among the leftovers.

"You two deserve each other," Thomas snapped, yanking open his car door. "A vulture for a vulture. Fuck, Piper. It's fucking pathetic. You're nothing more than a bleacher bunny that I stayed with for too long. You did nothing but drag me down."

The San Juan Island postcard at the bottom was torn apart. I slipped them into my pocket and felt the pepper spray.

"I should've cut it off with you a long time ago," Thomas said, shutting the car door behind him.

With slow movements, I pushed myself up to a standing position and walked over to Thomas's car. He gave me a hard look through the window. I rapped my knuckles against the window, harder than I'd been at the door. Thomas narrowed his eyes and rolled down the window two inches.

"What is it?" he demanded.

"Thomas?" I took a deep breath and flicked off the top of the pepper spray behind my back. "You can go fuck yourself."

His mouth fell open. " What? "

I pressed the nozzle of the pepper spray to the two-inch space and sprayed the inside of the car. Thomas flew into a rage of curses and tried to shove the door open but I sprinted away. I scooped up the cardboard box and yanked open the door to June's car, barreling in.

"Holy shit! " Zariah sucked in a breath. "Piper, did you just pepper spray that dude?!"

"Drive, drive, drive!" Kassie shouted.

June slammed on the accelerator.

The girls were ecstatic but I stayed silent in the backseat. The adrenaline kept me up for a few minutes. Then the farther we drove past Thomas's house, the more I looked into the box of things. The box of stuff I had wanted to show Adam.

"You didn't come up with this yourself, did you?" I asked softly.

"Kassie invited us." Zariah bumped my shoulder with hers. "If I would've known, girl, we would've come a long time ago. It could've been a weekend project for Elijah."

June turned a hard right. "Yeah, why didn't you tell us?"

But Kassie was quiet in her seat and I knew what that meant. Adam told her I needed this. And maybe I did. But it was time to play that horrible game Adam's dad taught him. What was he trying to accomplish with this? What did he want?

I brushed away another few tears and gazed out the window.