Chapter 6 #4
But why did they bring me here? Why were they not saying anything?
And why was Vail now looking so pissed off?
I’d been here less than a full day, and somehow I’d managed to offend him.
Being back here in their presence was hitting me like a sledgehammer, but I held it together on the outside to look cool and collected, while inside, I was screaming.
More seconds ticked by in awkward silence, and a little voice at the back of my head kept whispering, Where’s Shaw?
“What the hell do you guys want?” I said finally, hoping I seemed braver than I felt.
“Was there a reason you had to bring me to some storage room in the middle of class? And my legs aren’t broken.
I can walk, you know.” I narrowed my eyes at Vail, whose face remained impassive.
Damn it! He’d seriously perfected that mask, so I turned to Lee instead.
“And you ,” I crossed one leg over the other.
“Thanks for getting me into trouble on my first day. Math is already a nightmare for me. Throw in an ass-hat like Mr. Fortin, and I can kiss any hopes of sweet-talking myself into a passing grade goodbye.”
Again, the corners of Lee’s mouth twitched. Son of a… he was actually entertained by this!
“You two suddenly gone mute?” I looked back and forth between them, but when they remained silent, I decided I had enough and jumped down from the desk. “Fine. We’re done here-”
Two sharp raps on the door, followed by two kicks, stopped me in my tracks. Lee immediately opened the door, like that had been some signal he’d been waiting for, and a third person entered, head down, hoodie pulled up, almost entirely hiding their face in shadow. But I knew instantly who it was.
“Why I give a fuck who “Princess” is, I don’t-” he was muttering, his voice, which was once childlike and whispery, was now deep and raspy, as if he’d been screaming for hours on end. Shaw lifted his head, the light from the windows revealing his features to me, and my heart stilled.
Shaw was the smallest of the three, though, I wouldn’t say six feet was short by any means.
He was leaner than the other two, swimming in a black hoodie and jeans.
His blond, floppy hair was very much the same, only a bit longer as it fell over his dark blue eyes.
His skin was pale, his cheekbones high, and his face was masculine, features reminding me of a Viking.
And his beautiful, pouty lips I’d always admired parted a bit as he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of me.
“Casey…” he breathed, his voice catching in his throat as he whispered my name. He staggered for a moment, looking like he might fall over, but instead, he ran at me with surprising speed that had me crying out in surprise and retreating, only to be blocked by the damn desk.
The room erupted as Shaw grabbed me, and I found myself flying backward while both Lee and Vail began shouting and came at us. I could see their faces around Shaw’s arm, and they appeared terrified, which only added to my own shock and fear.
“Sh-Shaw?” I cried, trying to pull away. What the hell was he doing?
But as quickly as it started, it all stopped.
Lee and Vail froze, observing us, while Shaw crushed me to himself, his arms wrapped around me so tight that it almost forced the air out of my lungs.
He buried his face into the crown of my head, his lungs expanding like he was breathing me in.
He was hugging me. Shaw, who never liked to be touched by anybody, was holding me flush against his body and had turned me so that he was pressing me into a wall as if trying to shield me from everything else.
He and I held hands as kids, yeah, however it had been only twice since I’d known him where he had allowed me to actually hug him.
The first time was when I announced I was leaving, and the other was when I had left.
His breathing had begun to quicken, and the next thing I knew, his whole body seemed to shudder, and he sagged into me as though he was physically drained.
“Shaw? You ok, man?” Lee called over to us. Why did he sound so nervous? I tried to peer around Shaw again to see the others, but he had me completely immobile in his arms. For someone lacking in muscle like the other two, he was surprisingly strong. He didn’t let me move an inch.
“Let her go,” Vail snapped. His attitude was seriously getting on my nerves.
“No,” Shaw’s raspy voice broke again when he finally responded.
“You might hurt her-”
He practically snarled in response, “You promised!”
“I know I did, but we don’t know anything yet.”
I stood there, shaking in his arms, confused beyond belief, semi-terrified, and so overwhelmed that I had to fight back the tears. I reached up and lightly tapped his shoulder, his body twitching slightly at my light touch, and whispered, “Shaw?”
He pulled back just enough so he could look down at me. I could see how haunted he was just by staring into his deep blue eyes. He had dark shadows around them, and I knew then that he still suffered from the nightmares of his childhood. Fuck… goddamn it, Shaw.
“Why did you shut me out?” I whispered to him.
Shaw’s eyes tightened slightly at my words, and he vehemently shook his head, his hoodie still pulled up over his floppy blond hair.
“Why are you back here, Casey?” Vail asked suddenly, and I wanted nothing more than to march over to him and slap him across his face. The way he hurled those words out like he was genuinely disappointed to see me stabbed me right in my heart.
I gently reached down and retracted Shaw’s hands from my body.
At first, he refused to let go, but begrudgingly did at my gentle prodding.
He stepped aside yet lingered close, much closer than the other two, watching me from beneath his dark hood.
I faced Lee and Vail, reminding myself to hold my composure.
I wasn’t going to break down now, not with the way my old friends were glowering at me.
“I don’t owe you any sort of explanation whatsoever. To any of you.” I straightened and held Vail’s glare. “If it helps, I’ll ignore you, and you can go back to ignoring me. I just want to get through my final year in one piece.”
“You shouldn’t have come back, Casey,” Vail said to me. “It’s too fucking dangerous here.”
“Yeah, so I’ve heard. Jackals and Vendetta, right? Gotta pick a side or some shit?” I scoffed and crossed my arms. “I’m not getting involved with any of that crap.”
“It’s not like you’d have a choice,” Lee said, and I looked at him, brows raised.
“There’s always a choice. I choose to keep my head down, graduate, and then I’ll be gone.” I glared back at their asshole leader. “Just like you wanted.”
Vail rolled his eyes, his entire demeanor cold and distant as he moved away to sit on one of the old, abandoned desks. “Like Lee said, there’s no choice, darling.”
“Don’t call me that,” I told him, hating how it sounded coming from his mouth as he sneered at me. “Now, I answered your question, so are you going to return the favour?”
“Depends on what you’re going to ask… darling .”
I withered a little inside but chose to move ahead like I hadn’t heard it, “Why did you guys shut me out?”
Silence followed, and I could feel the tension rising in the room, especially from Shaw, who stayed behind me. I looked around at them all, but the only one who would meet my eyes was Vail. So I held it in and fought back the tears, but I could feel myself on the brink of cracking.
“Why? I needed you guys. I thought we were best friends? But the moment I left, it was like none of it mattered. Did it?”
Behind me, I could sense Shaw moving closer, and I saw how Vail’s hazel eyes flickered up over my shoulder to minutely shake his head, as though warning him off me. What, am I diseased or something?
“You know what?” I said after a minute of silence. “Fuck all of it. I guess that’s what it was. Nothing. I don’t know why you dragged my ass down here like this if you weren’t going to talk-”
“Why are you back in Harley, Casey?” Vail asked again.
“I told you already… I had no choice.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“And you didn’t answer my question. So I guess we’re at an impasse.
” I held my hands out at my sides before letting them fall, my frustration now getting the better of me.
Punching something would feel really good right about now.
“So here’s the deal. I’m going back to class, and we’ll walk by each other in the halls as if we don’t know each other.
Just like you want.” I walked to the door, but stopped to grab my bag and the books Lee had discarded on the floor, casting a warning look at him.
“You kick my shit again, and I really will take your fingers.” I opened the door and slammed it shut behind me, but not before I heard him chuckle.