Thirty-Eight
Vincent
“H omecoming is tomorrow. Got your dress?” I glanced at B as she clutched her bottle of apple juice a week after shit had gone down with Levin.
I knew things had happened between her and Dom too.
It must’ve have been bad because neither one of them was speaking to the other.
Even Levin was keeping his distance from her.
Not that it was out of the ordinary for the brute.
He was just doing it more than usual. Hell, Levin and Dom weren’t really saying much to one another either.
I knew Dom was a jealous, possessive son of a bitch, but B belonged to all of us.
It had been his idea after all. Something had his dick in a twist. Probably the same thing that had mine in a twist: the possibility of having to kill her.
It was torturing me too. There had to be another way. Dom thought B was in love with Fallon. She couldn’t be. Those pricks had hurt her. I found it completely unbelievable the more I thought about it. And it enraged me when I considered it a possibility. I’d never accept that though. Ever .
With the current dynamic in our group, it meant I’d been spending a lot of time with our silent beauty.
The bruises on her neck hadn’t gone unnoticed by me.
She’d taken to wearing a navy-blue scarf to cover them.
I heard the whispers among other students.
They thought she’d been getting fucked hard by the kings, and we’d been leaving our marks on her.
Maybe she had been by two thirds of us. Not me though. It was dry as fuck in my neck of the woods.
She shook her head and fiddled with the label on her bottled apple juice, her full lips turned down into a deep frown.
“B, come on. The past weeks have been less than fun. Work with me.” I reached out for her hand and was relieved when she let me hold it. I knew she hadn’t gotten a dress. Since I enjoyed shopping, I would’ve been the one voted to go keep an eye on her. “Talk to me.”
She locked gazes with me. “Do you ever want to just run away?”
I blinked at her, surprised at what she’d asked. “Sometimes.”
She licked her lips. My cock jolted in my pants.
“Do you think if I ran, I’d get far?”
I ran my thumb in gentle circles on the top of her hand. “No. We’d find you.”
“Would you hurt me?” Her words were soft as she stared back at me, waiting for my answer.
I hated my next words. “We don’t let things that belong to us go, baby B. You should know that by now.”
“But why do you want me? I mean, it’s nothing—I’m nothing —to you guys but a stupid game to piss Hail off. He doesn’t even really seem to care all that much.”
“Trust me, he does,” I said softly. “He’s a snake. He’s just waiting to strike. That’s all.”
She shook her head and started to pull her hand away. I tightened my hold on her.
“Don’t. Talk to me more. You’re upset. I want to know how I can make it better.”
She scoffed. “Like you care, Vincent. No one cares. All you guys want to do is use me for whatever you feel like then toss me aside.”
“Is that what this is about? Levin? Dom? I know some shit happened with both of them. Tell me.”
“Like they haven’t,” she said sourly.
“They haven’t.” I stared back at her. “Levin said you messed around. That’s it. Dom hasn’t said a fucking word about anything.”
“I didn’t sleep with Levin. We did just mess around.” A look of pain swept over her face as she frowned again.
“And Dom?”
Her bottom lip wobbled as she looked down.
“B, come on, don’t shut down.”
“I don’t want to talk about it here.”
“OK. Fair enough. Let’s go back to my room. We’ll chill. We can relax and do whatever you want. Sound good?”
She visibly swallowed and nodded. Satisfied with that answer, I got up and tugged her to her feet.
Classes were over for the day. The big homecoming game was tomorrow, which meant we only had half a day of classes before kickoff.
The dance would be held immediately after and would run until midnight.
Then the festivities would shift to the dip, where students would drink, fuck, and get high—not necessarily in that order.
I held Bianca’s hand as we walked, not something any of us ever did with her. It felt good to have her near me like that. A few students cast curious looks our way. Kings didn’t have girlfriends.
I snorted at the thought.
B wasn’t my girlfriend. I didn’t hate the thought of her being one though. In fact, it kinda sucked that she wasn’t. My plan for saving her ass might work if I could just get her to look at me how she looked at Dom and Levin.
The fact I was the odd man out was a real kick in the dick.
We were both quiet as we strolled to my place. Dom had left school early to do some bullshit he hadn’t clued any of us in on. Levin had darted off the moment he could so he wouldn’t get stuck with B. I found that odd considering he’d had her naked and screaming his name last week.
Both of them were idiots.
When we got to my room, I unlocked the door and led her inside.
“We should’ve gone to my room so I could get something different to wear.”
She sat on the edge of my bed and tugged at her scarf. When it came off, I caught sight of the yellow bruising which was fading away. I knew Dom liked it rough, but how far had he gone? Too far if I had to guess. It pissed me off.
“You can wear something of mine.” I closed and locked the door.
With quick steps, I went to my closet and pulled out a pair of gray sweatpants and a black t-shirt for her. She hesitated for a moment as I held them out to her.
“It seems I’m always wearing one of you guys’ clothes,” she said, finally taking the clothes from me and getting to her feet.
“None of us are complaining.”
She scoffed but didn’t say anything as she shuffled to the bathroom to change. I busied myself with calling in a pizza for us and then texting one of the court to meet the delivery driver at the gates and bring it to me.
Once I had that done, I turned on my flatscreen and thumbed through my streaming channels.
Bianca came out a moment later, looking too adorable in my oversized clothes, her blonde waves tumbling around her.
“I ordered pizza. Come on.” I patted the spot beside me on the bed. “Let’s pick a movie.”
“Isn’t it a bit early for a movie?” She ambled over and sank down beside me.
“Nah. We’ll do it all night if you’d like.” I winked at her suggestively.
She gave me a shaky smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Those fuckers broke my baby B. It really pissed me off.
“We can talk,” I said.
She shook her head before sliding up the mattress on her bottom. She sank against my pillows. I followed a moment later, settling in next to her.
“What would you like to watch?” I looked over at her.
“Something happy.”
“Something happy it is,” I said, moving to a comedy.
I just wished I could make her happy. How fucked up was that?