Chapter 24
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
DILLON
Dillon
Let me know you’re ok, little crow.
Dillon
Haven’t heard from you since this morning. Just wanted to know if you’re free to have a chat.
Dillon
Jamie, it’s been over a day. I know you’ve read my messages. Just reply.
Dillon
Please?
Dillon
I have no regrets. I wouldn’t change a thing that happened between us. Please, Jamie. Just let me know you’re ok and you don’t hate me.
Dillon
You can’t hide from me forever! I know where you live!
Dillon
FFS Jamie. I can’t believe you’re behaving like this.
Dillon
I thought I meant something to you.
Dillon
I thought you cared.
Dillon
So very mature… NOT!!
Dillon
FUCKING HELL, JAMIE! ANSWER YOUR DAMN PHONE!!!!
“ J esus.” I scrubbed my hand down my face as I stared at my messages to Jamie. It had been four days since he ran from my room with tears streaming down his face. I don’t think he even realized he was crying. It was like he wasn’t there—he answered me on autopilot, but his mind seemed a million miles away.
I’d never considered myself capable of being a stalker before, but my actions over the last weeks have proved to the contrary. After Cory dug up everything he could on Jamie, I learned his schedule by heart. I knew where he was meant to be every hour of every day. So I’ve been where he should be every day, but no dice. It was like he’d become a damn ghost, and his fucking friends shut me down every time I asked about him. Their lips were sealed tighter than any vault in existence. And as much as I hated them for that, I was happy he had people that would go to bat for him without thinking.
I checked my watch as students swarmed the corridor, heading to their next class, but as my eyes ping-ponged from face to face, the one I needed to see wasn’t there. Jamie had five minutes before Velecote would start the lesson and considering the way he had it out for Jamie has only gotten worse, I prayed he’d make it on time. I heaved a sigh and pushed my damp hair out of my eyes. Tension rippled through my muscles, making the ache from practice intensify.
I leaned against the wall opposite our room, ankles crossed and arms folded over my chest. The volume of people had rapidly decreased in the last couple of minutes. I was just about to head in when the doors at the end crashed into the wall, the sound reverberating through the nearly silent corridor. My head snapped up, and my eyes latched on to Jamie. Even in his flustered state, he was still the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. His bag was slung over his shoulder, and his cheeks were flushed like he’d been running, but it was his rigid posture that set off alarm bells in my head.
“Jamie.” His shoulders slumped when he turned toward me. He kept his head down, refusing to meet my eyes as he scuffed his shoes on the floor. I wasn’t having this. When I was with him, he’d look me in the damn eyes. I stepped up to him, tucked my finger under his chin, and nudged it up until he was forced to look at me. His eyes were bloodshot, red rimmed, and seemed to vibrate with anxious energy.
That look alone had some of the anger in me abating, but like the surging tides, a new wave of emotion threatened to pull me under. Someone had made him cry. Someone had hurt him that wasn’t me, and there was no lifetime where that was acceptable. He was mine. Mine . Anger and fury coiled through me. I would make whoever had made him feel this way pay. I touched my tongue to my teeth, shut my eyes, and counted down from ten in a futile attempt to control myself.
“Where have you been, little crow?” I growled and breathed in his sweet caramel scent. With each deep inhale, color filtered back into the world and something that had been missing slotted back into place. He was here, with me. My little crow. Mine.
Jamie wrenched his head from my grasp and cast a surreptitious glance up and down the corridor before his eyes flicked to the door to our class. Mr. Velecote was just entering the far end of the building, talking to some blonde woman. I couldn’t make out who she was, and quite frankly, I didn’t give a shit. My attention was wholly focused on Jamie.
Clearing his throat, he pulled his phone from his pocket and turned off an alarm. “Going in there.” He nodded to the door and turned away from me.
I grabbed hold of his bag to stop him walking away from me. No one turned their back on me or dismissed me like that. “Not like that, you’re not,” I growled and stepped up behind him. My hand touched his side, and Jamie jumped a mile in the air.
“What the hell did you do that for?” He spun around, breaking my hold on him. His chest heaved and he narrowed his eyes at me.
“I want answers.” Jamie scoffed, stalked away from me, and had his hands wrapped around the handle when I said, “I want you to sit with me today.”
He froze but didn’t look back at me as I closed the distance between us. “Thanks, but I’ll pass.”
I leaned into his back and had to bite back a groan at the feel of his body heat seeping into me. “I mean it. He gave you shit last time. The least you can do is sit with me.”
“How do you know? You’re not even in this?—”
“I said I was, so I am,” I countered. “If you paid more attention to the rest of the room, you might have seen me.” Watching Jamie from afar was mesmerizing, but it had nothing on how it felt to be the center of his all-consuming attention. That was fucking addictive.
“Yeah, sure,” he mocked. He was acting like a petulant little child. Was he going to stomp his foot next? It took everything in me to smother the grin that was tugging at my lips when I felt the fight drain out of him.
“Don’t believe me?” I breathed against his ear, and he shuddered. I reached around him and opened the door. Mr. Velecote’s footsteps were growing louder by the second. “I’ll prove it to you. But Jamie?” He stepped into the room but glanced at me over his shoulder, chewing on his bottom lip and disbelief shimmering in his eyes. “Next time you dismiss me like that, I’ll punish you.”
An indigent squeak slipped from him and this time, I chuckled. I placed my hand at the small of his back and steered him into the lecture hall. Tension radiated off Jamie as every set of eyes followed our progress and hushed whispers broke out. I ignored them, and when he went to sit in his usual seat, I wrapped my hand around his wrist and hauled him up the steps to where I sat. Confusion flickered across his face, and his mouth opened to question me, but I shook my head at him, and it snapped shut.
“Move,” I grumbled at the guy in a beanie who’d taken the seat next to mine.
“Aww, man, really?” I glared at him so he’d get the fucking message. He jumped up like I’d lit his ass on fire, and my lips twitched.
Jamie scoffed. “You’re such a dick. You know that?”
“I do. Sit.” I nodded to the seat next to mine and waited. “Jamie.” The command in my voice had him slumping down next to me just as Velecote walked into the room. Jamie busied himself getting set up, resolutely ignoring me. That was fine. He was where I could see him, and it calmed the rage simmering too close to the surface. I’d get the answers I wanted, whether he liked it or not. I could be patient and bide my time. I’ve had five years worth of practice, after all.
The lesson was boring as fuck as Velecote droned on in his monotone voice. It made my ears bleed. Jamie huffed and puffed, but every time I looked at him, his eyes were glued to the images on the whiteboard. Not at me. Never at me. It made my jaw tic. I wanted his eyes on me like there were on my birthday.
“Make sure your notes are up to date as I’ll be clearing the board in two minutes.” Velecote said. “Then, I want you to watch a short presentation on our next topic.” The lights started to dim as he cleared the board off. Shit. I’d have to get the work from someone else as I’d ignored everything else in the room but the perfect boy next to me.
“Are you going to talk to me?” I leaned into his personal space, inhaled his delicious scent, and ran my knuckle down his cheek. Fire-filled eyes bore into mine before darting to the font of the room.
“Eventually,” Jamie said, making that admission sound like it’d cost him more than I knew. “There’s a lot we need to talk about.” His words made me shiver, because he wasn’t wrong. There was a fuck ton of skeletons and secrets between us, but that didn’t stop my single-minded focus. Jamie was mine—any other outcome was unacceptable.
“Is there something you’d like to share with your fellow students, Mr. Bowen?” Velecote’s voice boomed in the now silent room. You could have heard a pin drop. But all I could focus on was the hitch in Jamie’s breathing and the tremor running through his body.
“No sir. I just?—”
“That’s enough. Eyes front, or I’ll make you stay behind after class.”
I clenched my fist tight enough to snap the pen I was holding, and a growl rumbled my chest. “That fucker?—”
Jamie’s hand landed on my arm, stealing my focus. It was only then that I realized I was halfway out of my seat. “It’s alright, big guy.” His tentative voice shook me to the core. “He’s just got it out for me. Not everyone is gonna like me, you know that.” But they did, and that was the problem. He was the walking definition of sunshine—kind, sweet, and caring. He’d give the shirt off his back to a stranger if they needed it. He was the best of humanity wrapped up in one perfect package, and he’d chosen me. Fate was a cruel fucking master. My chest ached as guilt wrapped around my heart.
I scrubbed my hand down my face and whispered to myself, “What the fuck have I done?”
This is all my fault, and I felt like shit because of it. I had to speak to the guys and call this off. Things had gone too far already; involving the faculty had never been part of the plan. Stevens had a lot to answer for. That bastard was avoiding me even more than that fuckface Chad was. Guilt decimated me. It was like being stabbed repeatedly in the heart by a rusty blade and unable to escape. I created this shitstorm and I had to fix it—without him finding out before I could tell him.
“Oh my god, that’s him.”
“He sure can take it.”
“What a whore.”
The room felt electrically charged, and Jamie froze next to me. My gut plummeted through my feet as mocking laughter echoed around us. I pulled out of my meandering thoughts and nearly threw up in my mouth when my eyes locked on the image on the board. “Fucking hell. I’m going to puke.” The words were out before I could stop them. Jamie flinched before packing up his stuff.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the image on the screen. Someone had very skillfully manipulated a still from either a porn site or an Only Fans account. It was as hot as it was fucking disturbing. Jamie being double penetrated by two massive guys—bulging glistening muscles and all—with his head thrown back in ecstasy while they held his lithe body between them as they kissed over his shoulder. The words “FUCKING LITTLE FAGGOT” were written above the image. I knew this was fake, but fuck, who ever did this had done an amazing job.
My heart pounded like a war drum. I was out for fucking blood. I didn’t care how many bones I’d have to break. I’d find out who did this. The noise volume rose exponentially as Jamie retched beside me. My hand shot out to hold his, but my eyes remained resolutely focused. I knew he was a virgin. It was the singularly most spectacular moment of my life when I sank into his tight heat. When he gave all of himself to me—it was a gift from fucking heaven. I finally understood why sex had made my skin crawl before, but I’d done it to make sure I fitted in. That my secret was safe. But with Jamie, it was life-altering. Life affirming. It was like coming home after being lost for years.
“D-Dil.” His broken voice shattered my heart. Tears spilled down his face as the rest of the room howled with laughter and snapped pictures of him. “I…”
“I’ve got you, baby.” I cupped his face and rested my forehead on his. I felt like I was the king of the word when he sighed and melted into me. “Let’s get out of here.” Jamie stumbled on legs that wouldn’t hold him as I snatched up our bags and led him down the stairs to the door.
“Where do you think you’re going, Mr. Bowen?” The accusatory tone in Velecote’s voice had me seeing red. I wanted to rearrange his face with my fist until he was unrecognizable. Jamie’s shattered whimper held me back.
“We’re leaving. I’ll ensure the dean hears about this.” Without waiting to hear his response, I guided Jamie from the room before he had to endure anymore of that shit. His legs collapsed as the door slammed shut, and the silence in the corridor was a welcome reprieve.
“I… I d-didn’t… D-Dil?—”
“I know, baby. That image was photoshopped. I’ll find out who did it and make sure all traces of it are deleted.” His watery smile gutted me. I hated that he was hurting. Hurting because of me. Because people had gone wild and turned this into so much more than it was ever intended to be. I couldn’t wait for the day I left this place, and if I had my way, I’d be taking Jamie with me.
“Dil.” He cupped my cheek with a shaky hand and licked his lips. “Make me forget. Please .” I kissed his forehead as tears poured down his cheeks. His agony and humiliation saturated the air.
“I will, little crow.” I adjusted him in my arms so he could wrap his legs around my hips. Luckily, classes ran for another twenty minutes, which would give me enough time to get him squared away in my dorm. “First, I need to get you out of here and somewhere safe.”
“Okay. I trust you.” Fuck, baby, I wish you didn’t. The countdown timer was dangerously close to zero, and I prayed I wouldn’t be one of the casualties when it detonated.