Read Online First Came You (Fate #0.5) by Faith Andrews - Free Book Online Page A

me wishes he would leave me alone to wallow in my misery for a little while. I know it won’t help, but nothing else seems to be, either.
    Tommy’s bare feet thud against the hardwood floor as he stands from the bed. Without uncurling from my fetal position, I hear him walk around to my side. Kneeling in front of me, his face an inch from mine, his eyes plead with me. “Please, Gabriella. Please let me help you.”
    The noose around my heart grows tighter as I watch the anguish wash over his handsome, masculine face. He starts to cry, reaching out to touch my face, and my own tears seep out of the corners of my eyes.
    This is torture. My pain. His pain. This is hell on Earth. And I can’t bear another second of it.
    “I need you to leave,” I whisper, my voice trembling.
    “I’m not leaving you, baby. We’ve already been through this.” Tommy’s nature from day one has been to protect me. I can only imagine how hard it is for him to have that taken away. But my own broken feelings are at stake right now and I can’t worry about his. I don’t have it in me. I have nothing left.
    “Go,” I finally say, shifting in the bed and turning my back on him.
    “Why are you pushing me away, Gabriella? Why won’t you let me help you get through this?”
    “Because I don’t want to get through this. I want to feel it. And you and Gina and your parents, you won’t let me. I need to be alone. I need you to go.” I sob into the pillow swathed in the aroma of my father’s aftershave. Taking a much needed inhalation of air to calm the cries, my sadness morphs to anger. “Leave, Tommy! I’m telling you to leave! I don’t want you here. Go!” I bury my face back into the pillow, praying he won’t be in the room when I decide to uncover my face.
    Letting the cries roll through me like waves, I let go of all the pain and hurt and frustration into that pillow. I feel Tommy’s hand at my back and a final kiss on my head, before he whispers I love you.
    When the door to my parents’ bedroom clicks shut and the room is finally quiet and dark, I welcome the peace and the solitude.
    Suddenly, being left alone is a huge relief.

School resumes today. My first day as a senior—a day I couldn’t wait for only a few months ago, and now—I’m just going through the motions.
    Gina drops me off in front and gives me the look. This new look that is so odd coming from her because it used to belong to my mother.
    “What?” I ask, wondering what she’s worried about this time.
    “You up for this? I’ll let you play hookie if you’re not.” She winks and a small smile creeps across her pink-glossed lips.
    It’s nice to see her smile. I think I need to see more of that. Maybe it will help. Should I feel guilty for wanting those tiny joys? God, when will I ever feel normal again?
    Leaning over the console to kiss her bronzed cheek, I smile back. “I’m good. I think I’m finally ready to be around other people. You know? The kind who don’t suffocate me like you and Tommy.”
    Focusing on the other students crossing in front of her car, Gina’s hands tighten around the steering wheel. “I’m sorry, Gabby. We’re just worried about you.”
    “I’m a big girl. I don’t want to be treated like a basket case anymore. I need to get this day over with—all the sympathetic stares and shallow condolences—and then I just want to try and be a normal teenager and enjoy my senior year as much as possible.” It sounds convincing, but the person who needs the most persuading isn’t buying it. And that person is me.
    “Okay, if you say so, sis. I have class until three today and then I have the review course for the bar tonight. I won’t be home for dinner. Will Tommy be around?”
    “Does a bear shit in the woods?”
    Gina giggles but then shakes her head. “I don’t know why he loves you, Gabby. But you’re lucky he does.”
    I open the car door and she puts the car in drive. Looking over my shoulder, I blow her a kiss