Page 114 of Torn
Tell her I said hi. I love you, too. Sooooo much.
“Okay, Tor. I said smile, not look like the joker,” my sister teases.
I put my phone away and grin at her. “This is what she does to me. She says hi, by the way.”
“Tell her I said hi back when you talk to her.”
“I will. I should get going. I’m supposed to be at work.” I stand and push my chair under the table. “Thanks for the talk, Tess.”
“I’m glad you came to me. I love you a lot, in case you forgot.”
“I love you, too.”
“You and Kenzi can come here together anytime. I won’t tell anyone. If you just want to hang out with another person someplace safe… you’re both welcome here. Or if she needs someone to talk to, she can come to me. I haven’t talked to her in a while, but I still think of her as a friend.”
“Thanks. That might be good for her. Her friend Chloe is kind of unpredictable, so neither of us really trusts her to not accidentally slip up if she knew.” She walks with me to her door. “And don’t leave that much cash lying around in the open anymore,” I advise, still worried about that pile of money she’s got. I’ve seen people get stabbed for less money than that.
“Don’t worry, I’m taking it to the bank later.”
“Good. I’ll talk to you soon.”
CHAPTER 26
Kenzi—age two
Tor—age seventeen
Kenzi loves the park. Sometimes on the weekends when Ash and Ember want to get some alone time, I grab one of the dogs from my mom’s shelter and I take them both to the park to get some air and exercise.
The autumn air is crisp as we walk through the park. Kenzi and the dog are both enjoying kicking up the leaves and hearing them crunch under their feet. A pretty girl around my age with short blond hair is walking toward us with a small dog along the path that winds around the lake. As we approach each other, her dog starts to get all excited and runs to us, dragging the girl with her on a long leash.
Laughing, I kneel down to pet the tan wiggling dog.
“I’m sorry,” she says breathlessly. “She gets excited to see people and other dogs.”
“That’s okay, at least she’s friendly.”
“Your dog is much calmer. I think mine might need to go back to puppy class.”
“He’s not mine. He’s a rescue from the shelter, and he’s about ten years old. I volunteer there, so I take one out every weekend to get some exercise.”
She smiles at me. “That’s really sweet of you to do. I just moved nearby, so I’ll be here a lot on the weekends, too. Maybe I’ll see you again sometime.”
Kenzi giggles as the little dog moves to her next and starts licking her face.
“She’s adorable,” the blond girl says. “Is she yours?”
Standing, I take Kenzi’s hand. “Yeah, she is.”
KENZI
I’ve lost five pounds since Friday. Today is Monday. I don’t weigh myself often, but Friday morning the digital scale in my bathroom was beeping, so I weighed myself just to make sure it was working after I put new batteries in it. This morning I stepped on it again because I haven’t been able to eat and was just curious. I wasn’t expecting to see five pounds gone.
Ever since Tor and I slept together, I’ve been frazzled. Almost manic. My stomach feels like I’m stuck in an elevator that keeps going up and down randomly throughout the day and night. My heart suddenly palpitates and a wave of dizziness follows. Yesterday I sat at my desk to work on a request I received from a local poet who wants all her poems written in calligraphy to be framed for her office, and all I could do was draw pretty, ornate hearts of various sizes. And Tor’s name.
Thankfully, the poet isn’t in a rush. And thankfully, I have a lot of paper and ink since I wasted a lot with my daydream-induced swoony scribbling.
Sleeping is now reduced to two-hour increments, where I wake with a jolt several times throughout the night, covered in sweat, heart racing, my sex quivering and damp, and I’ll reach for my cell phone and reread all the text messages he’s sent me recently.