Page 120 of The Darkest Note

“Age is just a number, honey. And you’re not going to be a minor for much longer.”

“Yeah, but—”

“I know for a fact that he wants to speak to you more often.” She points at my phone. “Didn’t you say he slid into your DMs?”

“All he said was ‘hey’.”

“Exactly! That’s basically a love confession.”

I roll my eyes. “Now you’re just being ridiculous.”

“I say forget about Dutch and move on to Hunter. The man gave you a punching bag.” She shoves a hand at it. “A punching bag. If that’s not boyfriend material, I don’t know what is.”

“You’re right.”

“So what are you going to do?” she asks.

“About what?”

“About Hunter?”

“I don’t know.”

“Text him back,” she says, swatting me.

“Ow! Ow! I’m injured,” I bawl out.

“Ooh. Sorry.” She soothes my hand.

I sigh heavily. “Maybe I’ll consider texting him back. Just to be friendly.”

Breeze blows me a kiss. “Atta girl.”

I smile as she fusses over my pillows and then turns on a movie. But my thoughts aren’t on the rom-com. It’s on a certain blond guitar player with a penchant for scowls and tattoos.

I know Breeze is right about Dutch being too difficult to deal with. And I know I should probably take her advice. Mom didn’t turn into a raging drug-addicted narcissist overnight. She started by falling for the wrong guy at the wrong time.

But there are flashes of moments when Dutch doesn’t seem like wrong guy. Especially when he’s goofing off with his brothers or charming old cafeteria ladies.

I think about the day he stepped in between me and the jock in the cafeteria. The day at the dance when I was able to have fun on stage, surrounded by an entire freshman class, just because he was by my side.

More than that, I saw flashes of the real him when he was with my other self.

After everything that’s happened, I can’t deny that there’s something dangerously volatile between us.

Especially when I’m in costume and I canfeelthat he’s interested in me.

Whether it’s as myself or as someone else, Dutch is the one I keep running back to. And whether he cares to admit it or not, there’s a part of him that keeps running back to me too.

One day, when we collide, it’s going to destroy us both.

What scares the hell out of me is that I don’t think either one of us will be able to stop it.

* * *

After the movie, Breeze leaves. As I’m walking her out, I notice a letter in our mail box.

My eyes bug when I take it inside and read it.