Chapter 19: Penny
The closer I get to one, the harder it is to keep my body moving.
My feet ache
A deep, burning pais radiating up through my calves from hours ni pointe and milet walked.
My arm throbs with every heartbeat, a deep, bruised arbe that frols like it ́s sinking into the bone.
My eyes sting from crying, my throat cow and tight from screaming, from holding back all the words I didn’t know how to say.
By the time I reach my porch, I’m trembling so hand that my keys slip through my fingers the first time I try to fit them into the lock.
I clench my jaw, blinking hand against the hot flood of tears, and try again.
The key misses the hole, scraping uselessly against the doorframe
The third time, I just…. stop.
1 lean my forehead against the cold wood, squeezing my eyes shut, letting the sobs finally rip free from the tight cage of my chest.
Tears spill over fast and hard, soaking my cheeks, my sleeves, my skin
It’s too much
It’s all just too much.
The exhaustion, the fear, the heartbreak-
It crashes down over me in one massive, crushing wave, and I can’t breathe through it, can’t think through it, can’t hold it back anymore.
I don’t even hear him until I turn to wipe my face and-
“Jesus Christ,” I gasp, stumbling back, heart lurching into my throat
Asher is standing there.
Bight there.
A shadow under the porch light, huge and solid and silent like he’s been carved out of the dark itself
“What the hell.” I shriek, swiping at my wet face, “how do you even move like that? You’re a giant. You’re supposed to make noise.”
He doesn’t answer.
Just stands there, watching me with that unreadable expression that somehow makes me feel even more exposed.
“And why are you even here?” I snap, my voice pitching higher, more hysterical.
Something breaks loose in me.
1 slam my palms against his chest–hard.
He doesn’t move.
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Chapter 19: Penny
Not an lech.
I shove him again, îmational, desperate, furtous with him, with Tyler, with the world, with myself,
I throw myself at him, pounding my lists against his chest, trying to push him off my porch, out of my head, out of my life.
He fast stands there.
Unbothered.
Finally, when all the energy drains out of me and I sag against the doorframe, gasping for breath, he says in that low, calm, infuriating voice-
“Are you done?
I let out a shaky, broken breath.
“Yes,” I mutter, defeated.
I wipe at my eyes again, sniff hard, and glare up at him.
“Why are you here?” I demand, hating how wrecked my voice sounds.
Be studies me for a long moment, something unreadable flickering behind his eyes.
“Making sure you got home safe,” he says simply.
I scoff, turning back to the door, fumbling with my keys again.
“Why do you
even care?‘ I mutter.
“I don’t,” he says. “It’s just the right thing to do. When a woman’s walking home alone at night.”
“Barely eight o’clock, I shoot back bitterly.
“You saw what kind of dickheads are out at eight o’clock, he counters without missing a beat.
The words hit harder than I expect, and I shiver, the memory of rough hands and mocking voices crashing back too fast.
He must see it in my face, because without warning, he steps closer and grabs my wrist-
Not hard.
Not painfully.
Just firmly enough to make me look at him.
Without saying a word, he plucks the keys from my shaking fingers and unlocks the door himself
He holds it open for me.
Doesn’t step inside.
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Chapter 19: Penny
Ocesn’t hand the keys back, either.
I slip past him into the dark hallway, bugging myself light.
I tom, my wice tight and vary.
“What are you doing?”
“Someone needs to take a look at your am,” he says flatly.
“It’s fine,” I argue weakly.
“Trobably,” he says. “But it still needs to be checked mit.
“And then what? You’ll leave me alone?”–
He nods once
Silent. Unreadable.
I hesitate because I’m exhausted, because I don’t want to argue anymore, because part of me… part of me doesn’t want to be alone just yet.
I nod toward the halhray.
“Bathroom’s this way.”
He follows quietly, the floor creaking under our feet, his presence filling the small space like a storm cloud.
In the bathroom, I switch on the light, blinking against the sudden brightness, and peel off my bolero.
The bruise looks even worse now,
A deep, angry blossom of red and purple spreading across my upper arm, faint crescent cuts from fingernails just beginning to swell
I grimace, my reflection crumpling
“What can you even do to check a bruise?” 1 mumble.
Asher steps closer, reaching out without hesitation.
His fingers close around my arm–rough, careful, deliberate.
His touch is never gentle, but it’s not cruel, either.
He turns my arm slightly, inspecting the damage, frowning harder.
“I think there’s nail marks too,” he says, voice w
I bite my lip hard, the pressure making my eyes sting again.
He grabs a clean cloth from the rack, runs it under warm water, and wrings it out with military precision before pressing it gently against
bruise.
The warmth seeps to my skin, making me shudder.
For a moment-
Chapter 19: Penny
A long, stretched–out moment-
I forget to breathe.
I look up at him,
Prally look.
His black hair is messy,
falling into his forehead, damp with sweat from whatever run he took before all of
There’s a scar cutting through his left eyebrow, another faint white line just barely visible along the strong column of his throat.
His jaw is sharp, dusted with dark stubble, his mouth set in a grim line of focus.
And his eyes—
God, his eyes.
Sharp. Dark.
But not cruel.
Not right now
ப
He’s watching the bruise like it personally offends him.
e world with his bare hands to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Like he’d tear apart
the
I realize too late that I’m crying again.
Silent, helpless tears sliding down my cheeks.
He notices.
He stops moving.
For a second, neither of us breathes.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, voice cracking.
The words tumble out, one after another, too fast to stop.
“I know you think I’m entitled, and a princess, and–and maybe I am compared to all the things you’ve been through,” I sob, gripping the sink like it might keep me standing. “But being in control, keeping everything perfect–it’s the only way I know how to keep my life together.”
I shake my head, feeling the shame burn hot under my skin.
“I was so happy today.” I whisper. “More proud of myself than I’ve ever been. And the way it ended- just–I lost it. I acted irrationally.”
my f
I wipe at my face uselessly, feeling smaller and more pathetic by the second.
I got so scared out there,” I whisper. “I didn’t
n’t know what to do. 1—”
I break off, hiccupping another ugly sob.
He says nothing for a long moment.
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Chapter 19: Penny
I finally dare to lift my head, lookling at him through blurry eyes.
His expression hasn’t changed much,
Still hand. Still sharp.
Put soller, fo
Just enough.
“I shouldn’t have yelled at you,” he says, voler low and graft. “And I don’t know enough about you to call you entitled.”
I let out a broken laugh, wiping at my nose with the back of my hand.
“Oh, sure,” I mutter. “Now you’re taking pity on me. Now that you know my parents ditched me, my boyfriend ditched me, the bus ditched me, even the Uber drivers ditched me.”
He smirks.
Just barely.
The tiniest twitch at the corner of his mouth.
“Something like that,” he s
says dryly.
I stare at him for a long second, feeling something loosen painfully in my chest.
teps back suddenly, dropping his hands to his sides.
he steps
“You gonna be okay alone?” he asks, voice rough again.
The thought makes me shiver, but I force a nod
“Yeah, I le
He nuds once, short and sharp, and turns to go.
I follow him down the hall, the floor creaking under our feet.
At the door, he hesitates, glancing back once.
“Asher,” I call softly.
“Thank you.” I say
For everything.
For showing up.
For not leaving me.
He just nods again, almost awkwardly, and steps out into the night.
I watch him walk down the steps, into the shadows, the dark swallowing him up.
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Chapter 19: Penny
On impulse, 1 call after hims
“Try not to get stabbed on the way homer i shen
He doesn’t answer.
Pot just before he disappears into the dark, 1 swear I see him shake his head-
And smile.
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