Chapter 32
R en
There was no telling what Vicky was up to, but she’d been far too quiet and polite all week.
I took a shower, got dressed and did my hair.
Vicky was waiting on her bed when I emerged from the bathroom.
She didn’t say a word to me, which was kind—considering our usual banter—and waited until I said I was done before she walked in and turned on the shower.
I kept looking at the door as I packed my bag, waiting for her to jump out and yell psych bitch , while ranting about Nash or something, but she never did.
I didn’t trust it, and my normal anxiousness about what she would pull next had ratcheted up.
Maybe freaking me out by doing nothing was her plan. If it was, it was working.
Putting on my backpack, I picked up the valentine I’d made for Myles and opened the door.
I gave the bathroom one last look and then memorized everything on my side of the room, just in case.
I’d put in another room transfer request, but still hadn’t heard anything.
I would’ve stormed the Dean’s Office, but with my luck, he would tack on more community service hours with Nash. Hell no .
“Hey there.” I jumped at the sound of Blake’s voice.
I closed the door as I watched him walking toward me, and of course, my heart took off like it was at the races.
He looked sexy in his charcoal grey pants and white shirt that was open at the top.
His blazer and jacket were lying over his arm.
He was ready to model, not attend classes.
“Hey. What are you doing here?”
“You can stop with the cold act. I know it’s not really you.” I pressed my lips together and crossed my arms, annoyed that he was calling me out. “I know that Theo spoke to you.”
“Okay. And?”
“And it means you can stop avoiding me.”
My resolve was melting, looking at his sad face and bright green eyes. I stepped around him and walked down the hallway.
“It changes nothing, you know. What he said wasn’t wrong. I never should’ve gone to your house. It only complicated things, and I will never be able to forgive myself if I had anything at all to do with what happened at the party.”
Blake grabbed my arm and forced me to stop walking as we stepped through the doors. We were alone in the short throughway.
“No, you aren’t doing that.”
Blake let go of my arm, but I held still and looked up at him. “Doing what?”
“You are not taking on any of what happened at the party. What I did was on me alone. We all make choices. I chose to use and paid the price. It’s not your fault or Theo’s or anyone else’s. It’s my own.” Through the glass of the next set of doors, I watched a guy stepping out of the elevator.
“Fine, even if we take that off, this is still not right. Feelings are all messed up, and I’m with Myles, and…
honestly, Blake, it’s easier for me to keep my distance.
I shouldn’t have any feelings for you, but I do, and I’ve owned that with Myles, but it doesn’t make it right.
” He cupped my cheek, and more of my resolve slipped away.
“Please don’t make this harder,” I whispered.
“We are both better off staying as far away from one another as possible.”
“No. I won’t do that, and I’ve told Myles that as well.”
I stepped back so his hand fell from my cheek. “You did what?”
“I told him that I wanted to be in your life, as more than friends.”
My mouth fell open. “Have you lost your mind? No, no, no.” I held up my hands and backed away.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not going to be caught between the two of you and become a cliché in the middle of a love triangle.
I can already see the book title, Caught Between Them .
No. I get a say in this, and I refuse to play any part in ruining your friendship with Myles. Forget it.”
I turned to push through the doors, but Blake moved quickly and wrapped his arm around my waist. I knew he was definitely feeling better when he pushed me up against the wall. My stomach flipped with a double dose of nerves.
“Stop it, Blake. Let me go.”
“Do you have any idea how unique you are?”
“No, I’m just a decent person with morals, which I do understand is strange inside this school, but where I’m from, it’s common.
Now, please let me go.” I placed my hand on his chest and winced as a quick image flashed across my mind.
It was like a short movie of the night at the party and the last time my hand was on his chest. I quickly removed it and looked away from his searching green eyes.
“Of course you get a choice, that wasn’t what I meant. You won’t come between Myles and me. You can date both of us.” I searched for any sign on his face that he was joking.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Date both of us. I spoke with Myles, and he said we’d talk if that was what you wanted.”
I smirked and then laughed. “It’s February, not April.
You can stop this now. I need to get going.
” Blake wouldn’t let go and stepped in closer to me, making me heady with the scent of his cologne and the warmth of his body.
All I could hear was the rapid pounding of my heart as my stomach clenched into a tight ball of knots. “This isn’t funny, Blake.”
“Do you honestly think I’d create such an elaborate joke?” He ran his thumb over my lower lip.
“I don’t know what to believe, but there is no way that Myles is okay with this.”
Blake shrugged. “Talk to him yourself if you don’t believe me.” He finally let me go, and my head cleared some. I smoothed down the uniform blazer, giving my shaking hands something to do.
“You’re serious?”
Blake pushed open the door and held it for me. “Yeah, let’s go. You’re meeting him this morning, right? You can ask him if I’m making this all up.”
I looked at him like he’d just said he was the next coming of Christ. What the hell was going on with everyone? Vicky was being civil, and now this. Who slipped what into the water, and what the heck was going to be next? Nash apologizing?
“Are you coming, or are you going to stare at me all day? I mean, I know I’m sexy, and you can’t keep your hands off of me,” he teased, his eyes shining. It was good to see him happy like this. I almost didn’t want to ask Myles if Blake was lying, just so that he didn’t lose the light in his eyes.
“Funny. Turning into Nash now?”
“Why? Do you want me to spank you?” Heat flushed my body, and my face instantly went hot. “You really are adorable when you blush.”
“I can’t even with all of you,” I said, holding up my hands in surrender as I walked past him.
“And no, I do not want to be spanked,” I said, just as a guy walked out of the boy’s side.
He looked at me and Blake, then turned around and walked back into the dorm.
Blake burst out laughing while I wanted to crawl into a hole—worst timing ever.
“Oh, my chest, but that was worth the laugh,” Blake said as we stepped into the elevator.
“At least one of us finds my awkwardness amusing.”
He flashed me a smile, and there was something different about him. Maybe he was telling the truth, but could I really ask that of Myles? The moment I stepped out of the elevator and spotted Myles in the foyer with an armful of baby blue roses while he talked to Nash, I knew I couldn’t.
Myles looked our way and smiled wide, and for the second time this morning, my heart stopped and restarted.
For all the reservations and sadness that moving here had cost me, I couldn’t be upset about meeting Myles.
He’d become part of my life in a way I couldn’t have imagined, and my day felt incomplete if we didn’t talk at least once.
My thumb ran over the ring he gave me, and I bit my lip as he took a step in our direction.
“Eek! There ya are!” A girl shrieked excitedly, and it echoed in the foyer.
The scene unfolding before me felt unreal as if I’d been dumped into a dramatic soap opera.
The pretty brunette raced across the floor directly for Myles.
He turned his head, and his eyes grew wide a moment before she leaped on him and planted her lips on his.
The flowers he’d been holding fell to the floor along with my heart.
He stumbled back, and his arms went around her.
I looked away, but that didn’t help as I watched Nash laugh.
“Oh shit,” Blake said.
My eyes flicked up to Blake and then back to Myles as he hugged and kissed another girl. It was like someone had reached inside my chest and squeezed my heart, crushing it to dust. The pain made it hard to breathe.
“Who is that?” My voice squeaked as I fought back the pain and tears that wanted to form.
“Um…I’m not sure it’s my place to say,” Blake said, his eyes sad and guilty.
I didn’t care if it was his place. I wanted answers, and if I marched over there, I was liable to kill whoever this girl was, and it shouldn’t be her that I murdered.
It was obvious that Myles knew her and knew her well enough to kiss her.
“Blake, if you truly care about me, then you will tell me who that is right now.”
The girl had stopped assaulting Myles, and he was talking to her, but they were still too far away for me to hear what he was saying.
The look in his eyes when he glanced my way told me all I needed for my heart to crumble.
He definitely knew her and he was silently trying to say sorry, but for what?
The kiss, for know her, for her coming here?
The possibilities were endless. Here I was agonizing about Blake… I was so dumb.
“Blake,” I said, my voice so angry and hurt that it came out as a whisper.
“That’s Fiona, his fiancé.”
My head snapped up to look at Blake. “His what?”