Savage Vicious Heir: Part Two: A dark high school bully romance

6. Abigail

ABIGAIL

Aloud knock on the door startles me and I bolt upright.

It’s Saturday and I’ve been hiding out for two days.

Another knock has me shoving off my blanket and padding down the hall.

Maybe it’s Maureen bringing me more supplies.

Oh, who am I kidding? I know it isn’t Maureen. She called to check on me yesterday and I told her I was fine. Which means my options are either Tally or Elliot.

I resent the stab of disappointment I feel when I see a feminine silhouette beyond the stained-glass panels in the top half of the front door.

“Abi, it’s me,” Tally calls. “I know you’re in there and I’m not leaving until you speak to me.”

God, she’s relentless.

She’s also a really good friend.

Reluctantly, I unlatch the chain and crack open the door.

“Thank God.” Relief flits across her expression. “I’ve been going out of my mind with worry. How are you?”

“I’m fine.” My lips purse and she narrows her eyes at me.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” She peeks over my shoulder trying to get a better view of the house.

“I… Okay.” I step to the side and let her pass.

“What the hell is going on? You just up and disappear and?—”

“I told you, I needed some time.”

“You also keep telling me you’re fine, which is clearly a lie.” She gives me a pointed look.

“I don’t know what you want me to say.” I hurry down the hall towards the kitchen with shame nipping at my heels.

Tally got her happy ending. She got the boy and the huge grand gesture.

“How about you start with the truth,” she says, following me. “I know there’s more to the story than you’re telling me.”

“I…”

“Abi, come on. This is me. You can trust me.”

“It’s not that simple,” I whisper.

I want to tell her, I do.

She’s my friend.

But things are different now—an invisible line drawn between us. She’s my friend but she’s Oak’s girlfriend.

She belongs to an Heir now. And they’ll always side with Elliot, no matter how messed up things are.

“Fine,” she huffs when I don’t offer her further explanation. “Maybe a cup of tea will get you to open up a little.”

I’m hardly surprised when she moves past me into the kitchen and heads straight over to the kettle.

“I thought the house was almost ready to be sold?” she asks.

“It was. I mean, it is.” Her questioning gaze finds mine and I shrug. “I didn’t plan on coming back here.”

“You ran.”

Tally knows. She always does. I don’t know how she does it, but she can sniff out a lie like a hound scenting blood.

“Sit.” She makes the tea and I take a seat at the table. “Do you have milk?”

I nod, flicking my eyes to the fridge.

“Someone brought you supplies?”

“Maureen.”

“She was your father’s carer?”

Another nod.

“Here.” Tally slides the cup of tea towards me and takes the seat opposite. “The girls miss you. We all do. But I think Elliot?—”

“Don’t.” I flinch at his name.

“What happened, Abi? I know how the Heirs can be. They’re intense and determined and honestly, scary when they decide when they want something. But I didn’t think…” She trails off, giving me a sad smile.

“You didn’t think it was like that between me and Elliot.”

“I know there’s always been a strange connection between you. We’ve all seen it. But it’s Elliot, Abs. He’s different to the others. And you’re…”

“Weak.”

“No, God no. You’re one of the strongest people I know. But you’re good and pure and… innocent. You’re like night and day. Sunshine and darkness.”

“We’re more alike than you think,” I murmur, running my thumbs around the mug.

“Whatever happened, Abs, you can tell me.” Tally looks at me with nothing but gentle understanding.

“We… He and I, we’ve been…”

“Oh my God.” She gasps, startling me. “You had sex with him. You had sex with El?—”

“No. No. We didn’t… We didn’t do that.”

Her brows furrow and I shrink into myself.

“You didn’t… Oh. Oh.”

I nod again. “We’ve been seeing each other. Kind of.”

“You and Elliot…”

“Can you please stop saying it like that?” I sigh. “I know you think he’s too good for me but?—”

“Abi, God no. It isn’t that at all. It’s just we’ve all heard the rumours about Elliot. He likes to be in control…”

“I know.” Shame burns my cheeks as I glance away, trying so hard not to remember how good it felt to be with him. To have his hands on my skin.

“Wow, okay. So the two of you… Wow.”

“Forget it,” I rush out, standing. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“No, it’s me, I’m sorry.” Tally smiles. “Please, don’t go. I want you to talk to me about this. It’s just a lot. But I guess people might have said the same about me and Oak at first.”

“Oakley loves you,” I point out. “He would never hurt you.”

Her expression darkens as she considers my words. “What did he do, Abs? And don’t try and tell me Elliot isn’t the reason you’re hiding out here.”

Inhaling a shuddering breath, I try and figure out how much I want to reveal. How much I can trust her with.

But it’s too late to go back. Tally knows something is going on, and she won’t quit until I tell her.

“Ethan…”

“Yeah.” Her brows furrow. “What about Ethan?”

Panic rises inside me. I don’t want to repeat what he did, what they all did. It feels too embarrassing, too unbelievable. But not telling her will only drive the wedge deeper between us. And the truth is, I need to talk to somebody about this.

I need… I need a friend right now.

“If I tell you all this, you can’t tell anyone, Tally. Swear it.”

Concern masks her expression. “You can trust me.”

“Ethan never wanted to be my friend.” The words hurt more than they should. “He didn’t feel sorry for me, and he wasn’t interested in me.”

“I don’t understand. What are you saying?”

“Elliot paid him.”

“He… what?”

I nod slowly, fighting back the tears. “Elliot paid Ethan to befriend me. He’s been dating Lauren this whole time while we were…” A sob lodges in my throat as I remember the last time we were together, the lies that he whispered to me.

Tally rushes over to me and wraps me in her arms. “I don’t understand. Why would he do that?”

“Elliot texted me the other night to meet him, so I went into town.” The words pour out. “I was so nervous, I thought… I thought he wanted to take me out. Like on a date.” A small, self-deprecating laugh tumbles out of me. “But when I got to the pub he was there with Lauren.”

Tally frowns, holding me at arm’s length. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It was Scott. Scott must have texted me from Elliot’s phone and lured me there. Ethan showed up too. I’ve never felt so stupid as I did standing there, realising that everything that happened between us was a lie.”

“Wait a minute, Scott orchestrated it all?”

“I guess so. You should have seen the smug look on his face, Tally.”

“And what did Elliot do?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” she hisses.

“He was obviously annoyed at Scott for making a scene. But he acted like…” God, I can’t even say it.

I think that’s the worst thing.

Realising that the boy I’ve fallen for doesn’t exist.

“Like what?”

“Like I meant nothing to him.” I close my eyes, trying to blink away the tears.

“Abs, Abi, look at me.” Tally soothes. “It doesn’t make any sense. Elliot cares about you.”

“I thought he did too. But you didn’t see how cold he was to me. He just sat there while Scott embarrassed me in front of his girlfriend and Lauren.”

“Something doesn’t add up. Elliot?—”

“It doesn’t matter,” I rush out.

I don’t want to hear her try to defend him.

I can’t.

Elliot Eaton is the villain in my story now and I need him to stay that way if I’m going to survive whatever comes next.

“I just need a few more days and then I’ll be okay.”

“But—”

“No, Tally. I’m done,” I say firmly. “Promise me you won’t say anything.”

She stares at me with a mix of pity and surprise. But to my relief she concedes. “I promise.”

“Thank you. I just want to get through the last few weeks of college and then move on with my life.”

Not that I know what moving on looks like. I’ve missed so much college since my father died there’s no way I’ll be able to sit my final exams and pass.

“You will come back to All Hallows’ though, right?” she asks.

“I don’t see that I have much choice. I need to talk to Mr Porter and figure out a plan.”

“I know it’s complicated because I’m with Oak, Abs, but you’re one of my best friends. That will never change.” She hugs me tight and for a second, I want to believe her.

But as she pulls away, I know confessing doesn’t change anything.

Tally will probably want to knee Elliot in the balls for a little while but eventually, it will all blow over.

It’s just how it is with the Heirs.

“Do you need anything?” she asks. “I can bring you some things.”

“No, I’m fine. Truly.”

“Abi—”

“I promise. I just… I need some more time.”

Tension builds inside of me like a pressure cooker.

I need her to leave.

I need to be alone.

I shouldn’t have told her.

I hate that she knows—that she’s looking at me with so much pity and sympathy. It reminds me too much of life before I knew her and Liv, and Raine. When I was no one. Just the weird shy girl with scars on her face. The girl people laughed and stared and pointed at.

The girl who preferred to stay in the shadows.

I’m not her anymore.

But right now, I wish I was.

I want to hide. To let the darkness swallow me whole so I don’t have to face reality.

“Abi?” Concern shines in her eyes as she reaches for me.

“I’m fine.” I flinch. “I’ll walk you out.”

I need her to go.

“Oh, I don’t have to leave yet. I can stay. We can?—”

“I just want to be alone.”

Her expression crumples. “Oh, okay.” Tally gets up and I walk her to the front door. “If you need anything, you have my number.”

“Thank you.”

She opens the door and relief trickles through me. But then she pauses at the last second, looking back at me.

“I know you don’t want to hear it, Abs,” she says. “But none of this makes sense. Elliot cares about you, I know he does. In his own twisted way, he cares.”

“Maybe so,” I say, hating that she can’t just let it go.

Hating that her words will burrow their way into my heart and embed themselves there.

I give her a sad smile and whisper, “But he obviously doesn’t care enough.”