Her Destiny by Monica Murphy Page B

I hit the brakes, sitting alongside the bus, watching her. She looks so damn pretty in her black coat, her blond hair so bright against the dark fabric, her eyebrows knit together as she chews on her lower lip, staring at nothing.
    “Look at me,” I whisper into the otherwise stillness of the truck cab, wishing she could hear me. “See me, Reverie. If you do, it means you still care.”
    She releases her lip from her teeth and presses her forehead against the window, closing her eyes. She looks like she’s in so much pain, as if she’s hurting and hell if my heart feels like it’s fucking cracking, knowing I’m probably the one to blame. I roll down my window, blinking against the raindrops the wind blows in and I say her name, yell it into the darkness.
    “Reverie!”
    She opens her eyes as if she can hear me, her gaze meeting mine and I wait, my heart lodged in my throat, the lump so big I can hardly swallow.
    Her lips part and she takes a breath, I see the movement of her chest as she inhales. She stares at me for a long, charge-filled moment and then she mouths one single word that splits my heart wide open.
    Sorry.
    Then she turns away, presenting the back of her head to me. The light turns green and the bus lurches forward but I don’t move. I’m too stunned that my girl just flat out rejected me while riding the city bus.
    I don’t fucking get it.
    A horn sounds behind me but I still don’t move. I can’t believe she turned away from me. Just can’t freaking believe it.
    I came all this way for nothing.
    Another angry honk blares and I hit the gas, my tires screeching as I burn rubber across the wet asphalt. I still follow the bus, it’s like I can’t stop now. Anger pulses through me, settling low in my gut, fueling me, driving me on. There’s no way I’m going to let her end this with a mouthed sorry and that’s it. We need to talk. I need to tell her what happened. Hell, she needs to tell me what happened.
    I track the bus, hanging back when it makes stops, keeping pace when it drives through the quiet city streets. When it stops in front of an apartment building and Reverie emerges, the relief that surges through me is almost overwhelming. Finally she’s out of that trap. Maybe now I can talk to her.
    I park quickly and practically fly out of the truck, following after her through the buildings, calling her name as I chase after her. It’s like she hears my voice and hurries her steps, glancing over her shoulder furtively before she launches herself into a full out run.
    Not deterred, I do the same, catching up with her fast, thank God. I grab hold of her arm, stopping her in her tracks and forcing her to look at me.
    “What the hell are you doing?” I ask her, out of breath. Furious at her reaction, at the crappy weather, at the circumstances we’re in now. I wish we could go back to the past. Return to last summer, when everything was new and tentative and exciting. When I could sneak a kiss with her in the stables and no one was the wiser beyond the horses.
    “Go away, Nick,” she says, her voice stern, her expression blank. She jerks out of my hold, glaring at me as she rubs her arm like I hurt her or something. “There’s nothing between us anymore so just…stop.”
    “Stop what? Stop trying to talk to you? That’s all I want, Reverie. To talk to you.” I refuse to beg. There’s just no way I can do that. But I won’t back down without a fight either.
    I’m tired of rolling over and letting shit happen to me. I need to man up and take control of my life.
    “There’s nothing to say. We’re finished, Nick.” Her eyes look like they’re glistening, like she’s about to cry, but then she blinks and the tears are gone. Like they were never really there and I wonder if I’m seeing things. “It was nice, what we shared this summer, but that’s over. We’re over.”
    My blood runs cold at the sound of her voice, at the finality of her words. “Is that how you really