Chapter 33
R en
The anger that had stayed with me all day had only gotten worse with each minute and hour that Myles didn’t reach out.
He hadn’t found me at lunch or after school, and my phone remained quiet.
It didn’t help that all the assholes lurking in the shadows decided to come out of the woodwork.
Nash had poked at me, making sarcastic jokes all through biology.
Raquel made fun of me when I walked into the bathroom during lunch, and of course, Vicky couldn’t help herself as soon as I stepped into our room.
“Even I lasted longer than six weeks with Nash,” she sneered. Ignoring her, I walked to my side of the room, but she was like a vampire after blood. “Is it true that he didn’t tell you he was engaged? Such a jerk move, but it looks good on you.”
“Why is that?”
“You know…this whole perfect couple act, it was getting old.”
I glanced at her but kept my mouth shut.
She blew on her nails, the bright pink polish so hideous it was offensive to my eyes.
“Fiona seems really nice, but wow, awkward for you. The fiancé of the guy I’m with suddenly transferring in seems horrible.
I wouldn’t know, but tell me, are you going to stay with Myles knowing that after next year, he’s marrying the girl down the hallway?
” She smiled, but her eyes were filled with loathing.
I honestly had no idea why she hated me so much. If she weren’t such a bitch, then maybe she and Nash would still be together. I looked around Vicky to her bed and then her desk, and I could feel her eyes on me, questioning what I was doing.
“Funny, I don’t see your Valentine’s gift.
Oh, that’s right, you got dumped.” I shooed my fingers at her.
“How about you crawl back into your cave of horrors? The room was so peaceful when you were sulking over Nash dumping you while he kissed me.” Her smugness fell a little, but she didn’t move, so I crossed my arms and leaned against my desk.
“He really is an exceptional kisser.” In reality, it had been so fast that I didn’t have time to register what was going on before it was over.
“I wonder how awkward it would be for you if I decided to take Nash up on his offer and sleep with him.” I tapped my chin.
“I mean, I have to be better in bed than you are. It’s not like you can get much lower than someone yelling how terrible you are in front of all your friends. ”
I smiled as she went full raging bitch mode like I’d pushed the flashing, red, do not touch button.
After she called me every name in the book and hurled a few more threats, she grabbed her stuff and stormed out.
But it didn’t matter if I got my dig in and stood up to her.
What mattered was that she wasn’t wrong.
What the hell were Myles and I now? Were we broken up?
He said he wasn’t going to marry Fiona, but did he really have a choice, considering who his family was?
Could I trust him to be honest, going forward?
And why the hell hadn’t he been in touch?
I ran through every emotion possible, but right now, I was sitting happily enraged.
Luckily, after Vicky left I hadn’t seen the walking toxic bomb since. If she came back right now and said one wrong word we were going to end up in another knock down, drag out fight. I could feel it.
With the number of times I’d paced this room, smoke should be forming behind me.
Stopping, I opened my phone and typed out a pissed-off text to Myles.
My thumb hovered over send, but I couldn’t do it.
I erased it. No, he needed to reach out first, and I didn’t want to be the naggy girlfriend sending fire messages.
“He could just be giving you space,” I mumbled.
Sucking in a deep breath, I sent a text to Blake. He’d opted to sit with me, Ivy, and Chantry during lunch rather than at his normal table. I was very well aware of all the whispers circling me like a bunch of vultures waiting to pick the meat from my bones.
R: Hey there
B: Hey, yourself. Is everything okay?
Did I ask him about Myles? Was that bad etiquette to ask the second guy you wanted to date about the first guy? I was so out of my depth.
R: Yeah, I just wanted to say hi and thank you again for the necklace.
B: Myles hasn’t reached out, has he?
I groaned and flopped down on my bed.
R: Am I that obvious?
B: LOL! Not at all, but I was going to text to see if he reached out to you. I haven’t seen or heard from him since this morning, and I’ll be honest, that worries me.
I sat up straight, my heart fluttering a mile a minute.
R: Why?
B: I just have a bad feeling. He said he was going to fix this once and for all.
I jumped up and started pacing again as sheer panic gripped me.
Here I was all annoyed, and Myles could be in serious trouble, or in a car crash, or at a hospital.
Oh my god. I closed my eyes and ordered myself not to rush to the worst-case scenario.
There could be dozens of reasons why he’d been MIA all day, and none of them could be harmful.
Knowing Myles, he could’ve driven to the next state to get me a piece of cake he thought I’d like as an apology.
I gripped my stomach as the spike in adrenaline brought images of my mum’s attack.
I took a breath in and counted to four, then blew it out and counted to four again.
“Stop it. You don’t know anything. Don’t panic,” I ordered out loud, trying to drown the loud, screaming voice of terror in my mind.
B: Ren, you okay? I didn’t mean to freak you out.
R: I’m still here, trying really hard not to.
B: I’ll try calling him.
Opening my photos, I stared at the pictures of me and Myles. I now had dozens of them—Myles kissing my cheek or making me laugh. He insisted on capturing every moment. I ran my finger down the side of his face. Everything was going to be okay. He was okay. We were okay. All was okay.
B: He didn’t answer.
I opened my contacts, about to call Blake, when a knock that sounded like something dragging down the door made me jump. There was definitely a shadow of someone in the hall. The thud and drag sound came again. I swallowed hard and kept my thumb near the talk button as I walked over.
Grabbing the handle, I whipped it open and sucked in a ragged breath—a scream lodged in my throat. Myles stared at me from one partially open eye. The rest of his face was swollen, black with bruising, and blood coated every square inch of him.
“Oh my god, Myles.”
“I. Made….” He licked his swollen and split lips. “It. Right,” he said and collapsed toward me. I dropped my phone and grabbed for him, but he was too heavy and took us both down.
“Myles.” I pulled myself out from under his weight and grabbed my phone, hitting talk and speaker as I slowly rolled Myles over and put his head in my lap.
“Ren?”
“Blake, it’s Myles. I….” I gasped in a breath, trying to steady my shaking voice. “I need you. Grab Nash or someone. I need help.”
“Where are you?”
“My room,” I said, unable to hold myself together. Tears were not going to help, but he was hardly breathing, and he did this for me. I’d rather him marry another girl than put himself through this. Leaning over, I kissed his forehead. “It’s going to be okay.”
I could hear the thundering of feet before Nash, Blake, and Liam skidded to a stop outside my door.
“Jesus, fuck. How did he get back here,” Liam asked.
“I don’t know, but help him,” I ordered, and Nash kneeled beside me and felt for a pulse.
“He’s breathing. Liam, help me lift him, and we’ll take him to my room,” Nash said.
“He needs a hospital,” I said, standing as they lifted him.
“No hospital, unless necessary.” Had Nash lost his mind? “It will lead to questions he can’t answer without getting himself killed.”
“What the fuck is wrong with this place?”
I grabbed my key and ran after them. Nash had the same room in the opposite wing, but he didn’t seem to have a roommate. They laid Myles down, and I kneeled beside him on the bed.
“Yo, Princess?” I glared at Nash. “Go to your room. I need to call the campus doc.”
“Then do it. I’m not leaving.”
“Yes, you are,” he growled.
“No, I’m not.”
“He wouldn’t even be like this if it weren’t for you. I think you’ve done enough.”
I clenched my jaw, my hands balling into fists.
“Fuck you, Nash. I’ve put up with your asshole attitude, your rude comments, your blatant sexual assaults, and I’ve ignored it because of who you are to Myles. But go ahead and try to keep me from him, and I’ll report every last fucking thing you’ve done to me.”
Nash marched across the room, but I held my ground and glared up at him as he stood towering over me. “I’m getting sick of you coming between me and my guys, Princess.”
“The only one coming between you and them is your attitude. Now call the doctor, or I call 911.” I could feel the rage in him, and I knew that if we were anywhere else for any other reason, I might have just pushed my luck over the line.
“Let her stay, man. Myles went to her room, not ours,” Liam said, and I could see the wheels turning in Nash’s eyes.
“Fuck,” he yelled but put the phone to his ear.
“Here, I went and got ice,” Blake said, walking into the room and looking between the three of us. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing.” I took the bag of ice from his hand and went to the bathroom to find a towel. It was shockingly neat and clean. I’d expected it to be a mess and smell like sweaty guy. Grabbing one of the folded hand towels, I walked back to Myles, ignoring Nash’s glare.
His face was so swollen and bloody that I didn’t know where to begin, so I just held it as gently as I could over his swollen eyes. He groaned, and I placed my hand in his, hoping he realized that I was there. His knuckles looked as beat up as his face, and I swore one was broken.