Page 42 of Stag

“Jesus fuck, chill out, brother. I was just trying to speed your asses up. How much more is there?”

I turned to see Claudia watching us warily, and groaned. I didn’t mean to cut her out of this, but I was pissed at Rocket.

“He’s just hurrying us up. Can we get these boxes out of here? And that suitcase?”

She nodded slowly, turning to look at the remains of her room. She ran her fingers over a pile of books and sighed.

I caught her fingers and waited until she looked at me.

“You can bring those too.”

She was chewing on her lip again, and I either wanted to be the lip or chew it myself. Either one would be hot, but she was doing it because she was torn.

“Claudia, you want your books, I’ll take them outside.” There were about fifteen or twenty of them, and some were hardcovers with colourfully painted page edges, so they were probably expensive.

“Shelf trophies,” she said softly, pointing at the books. Shelf trophies? She grabbed a tablet, and what looked like an eReader, and nodded at me.

“These and those books, and I’m ready.”

I grabbed the pile, my arms groaning a little at the weight of them. Fuck me. I might have to embarrass myself and make two fucking trips.

“You want me to take some of those?” Ghost asked, reaching for the pile, because sometimes there is a god, and it means you don’t have to wuss out in front of your lady.

“Yeah, that’d be great.” I let him take about half of the pile, and then I paused to catch Claudia’s eye again.

“You sure? We don’t go until you have everything you care about.”

She nodded, eyeing the room one last time, like she was leaving behind stuff she loved. Jesus. I called Rocket and handed him the books, and grabbed the tech bits from Claudia, telling him to go careful with them.

I caught Claudia’s hands and lowered my head to stare into her eyes.

“What else?”

She sagged a little. “I mean, there are things I never considered. My pillows are amazing, and the bedding is my favourite, and then there’s the box over there, that has some of my older books in, and-”

“Okay, this is fine. We’re not rushing. I’ll grab the bedding and send the others in to help. We’ll strip the room bare if that’s what you want.”

And that’s pretty much what happened in the end. The van was way fuller than I’d expected from one person’s bedroom, but then there were things all over the other rooms that she had to grab, including a framed picture of her with her sister when they were younger, and another with their parents.

I patted the back of the van to send the guys on their way to Henley’s, and then I pulled Claudia into my arms, hugging her trembling form tightly.

I wished I could murmur things to soothe her pain, but with her face turned away from me, words were useless. All I could do was offer her the physical comfort, and hope it’d be enough to steady her for the ride away from here.

Claudia

Icast one final sad look at my twin, who sat in her car, practically screeching at the bikers who were physically leaning against her doors to keep her inside it. Whatever Grease and his girlfriend had been doing clearly hadn’t worked this whole time.

Stag tapped my shoulder, and eased the helmet over my head when I turned, fastening it securely for me, mouthing the word ‘okay’ at me. I nodded, and maybe cried a little inside that helmet on the ride to his friend’s place, but that was my secret. That was me letting go of the home I thought I’d share with Marissa for a long time yet. The place we’d decorated together, amid giggles and fruity drinks. The sofa we’d curled up on together to watch movies, with the subtitles always at the bottom of the screen. The bathroom we’d tiled together, which had its imperfections that we’d grown to love. Leaving there hurt like hell.

Henley directed people in with my stuff, sending the essentials to the room he’d assigned to us, or me, because that was yet to be decided. The less vital stuff was going into the spare room next door to the room I would be staying in.

He kept me updated, signing to me as he called out orders to them. It was such a relief to have someone with us who spoke fluently like this, so I could relax a little from the intense concentration it took to lipread, when I was so physically and mentally drained.

Henley’s girlfriend, Glory, had fussed over us, bringing drinks and offering snacks, but the thing that struck me the most was those moments when the two of them were in each other’s vicinity, the looks, the small smiles, the way they effortlessly fit into each other’s space. It was beautiful to watch, especially when he looked at her, and I could tell she was his whole world. What would it feel like to be that for someone? What would it feel like for someone to want me that much, to love me so completely that their happiness was contingent on mine, just as mine would be on theirs?

Stag was a real sweetheart, but was he looking for more than a brief fling? We’d kissed a few times, but nothing more, and suddenly we were moving in together, into a beautiful house that was fortified like a secure facility. Was he even now wondering what the hell he’d got himself into? Going from a kiss in a club, to a ride on his motorcycle, an innocent night spent together, and now this… that’d be enough to scare any man away. I wasn’t necessarily needy, but he’d had to adapt how he functioned, so he was including me in everything, and he had my insane twin to worry about too. Insane. Why would I call her that? She wasn’t insane. She was troubled. She was stressed. These weren’t things to judge. She possibly needed help. Maybe it was time to reach out to my parents and let them know what was happening. Maybe they could help her.

Marissa was my twin, the other half of me, so why were we in this situation where she was the person I was running from? Hiding from in this damn fortress of a house?