Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 174544 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 698(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 174544 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 698(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
But I am completely unraveling.
She shakes her head and blinks, her built tears falling down her cheeks. “You didn’t come to me.”
I feel awful. As good as dirt.
What was Original Luna thinking? Why was she so closed off?
My mom rubs her face. “But it’s okay. It’s okay, Luna. I’m not upset at you for that.”
“We’re not close?” I choke out those words, my whole world tilting on its axis. I can’t believe I shut her out of my life. She’s my mom. I told her about my crush on my imaginary boyfriend and how we had invisible kisses when I was little. And I know, as I’ve grown older, I haven’t shared everything, but why wouldn’t I confide in her on the things that matter most?
“We’re close,” she defends us. “You wanted to get on birth control, and I took you.”
She took me?
Okay, okay. I try to catch my breath. But we don’t talk as much anymore? I scramble for memories past my eighteenth birthday, but I have none. Did having sex change things for me? Did the world viewing me as an adult make me pull away from her?
I know the media treated Jane differently the moment she turned eighteen. Fair game. The same thing likely happened to me.
41
LUNA HALE
In the wee hours of the night, I sift through piles of printed manuscripts on my bed, the plastic tub emptied. “Which one should I read next?” I ask Orion beside me. He’s been chewing on a peanut butter filled toy, slobbering on an old fic titled When the Earths Collide. I wrote that one when I was fourteen, so it’s already catalogued in my noggin.
I’m mainly reading the ones I can’t remember ever writing.
Fairy lights cocoon my headboard, and the fan whirls with a rhythmic hum. I should bask in the solace of my space, but I find myself glancing at the bathroom.
Darkness lies beneath the crease of the door.
Donnelly. I keep picturing him flicking on the lights…and then coming in my room. But he never does.
He hasn’t in a while.
It’s been one week since my birthday, and we’ve given each other a whole lotta space. I’ve barely seen him, really. Both O’Malley and Donnelly were suspended for two days for fighting while on-duty. A lenient punishment, I heard. Since then, Donnelly hasn’t spent much time at the penthouse. Once back on-duty, he’s been busying himself protecting my younger brother, who’s returned to Dalton Academy.
I’ve been in New York hanging out with Tom and Eliot and reading my fics. With how much I wrote in the past three years, I’d need a solid month to catch up.
The longer I stare at the bathroom, Orion lifts his shaggy head and follows my gaze. He whines, then looks to me.
“He’s not gone,” I whisper to my Newfie. “He’s still in his room.” He’s just not with me.
Orion lets out a longer whine, not understanding why Donnelly isn’t around.
“You weren’t at the party,” I tell Orion. “It was…confusing. I’m still so…” Confused. Heat bathes my face, my throat swelling closed. But I manage to murmur, “I don’t know what’s real.”
I’ve just been following my instincts, and my therapist is saying they’re not to be fully trusted either. Trauma. Attachment. Obsession. I shut my eyes, then open them.
Orion paws my lap, and I scratch his furry head. “What if Dr. Raven is right?” I whisper. “What if I’m just latching on to Donnelly because he was one of the first people I saw when I woke up? He’s just a coping mechanism—I don’t really know him.” It punctures me, just believing he could be bad for me.
Since I woke up, he’s felt like a refuge in my mind. Why is that such an awful thing?
Then O’Malley scrambled my reality even more. I thought about asking Eliot if I know my old bodyguard really well.
Am I friends with O’Malley?
Do I like him?
But Eliot couldn’t verify much about my relationship with Donnelly, so it’s very likely that Original Luna could’ve had a secret friendship with O’Malley. Right?
It could be in the realm of possibility. A lot could lie in that realm, and that’s why I’m going out of my mind!
I sink back against my pillows and then reach for the nearest manuscript.
Human Him, Cosmic Her: The Light.
The continuation of my Thebulan series. In the last few chapters, a human crash-landed on Thebula and Zarek, the King of Planet Demos, has cautioned Queen Solana of Thebula from intermingling with the human species. He believes Vaughn, the human, should be killed or flown out of their solar system.
“Zarek is just protecting Solana,” I tell Orion, flipping a page. “He bound himself to her, so his best interests are her best interests.” I read a little more.
Solana has met with the human on Thebula. A lush waterfall splashes outside the cave dwellings where the human has been residing as a visitor.