TWENTY-EIGHT

Elsie had tears in her eyes when I was done, then she starts to get angry. I didn’t tell her because I wanted any form of sympathy from her. For years, I blamed myself because of what happened to Jayce. I’d spend nights crying and wishing those rogues had attacked me instead. I never had any real friends, except for Layla, so having someone I could tell about my past was a huge burden off my shoulders.

“I’m sorry you had to go through all that, ” Elsie wiped the tears before they dropped from her left eye, then a frown crosses her face. I shrug.

“I mean, I just needed to get it off my chest, ” I say.

She got to her feet too and placed her left hands on my shoulders. With her heels on, she was taller than me, so I had to look up to meet her eyes.

“It wasn’t your fault. You had no hand in Jayce’s death, you were a kid, there wasn’t anything you could have done at that point, ” she says