Chapter 5
Sebastian
I'm boiling with fury, my teeth grind together so hard it hurts my jaw. I stand there watching her mouth open and close. Her eyes slam closed, and her head shakes back and forth as if trying to clear her mind.
When her eyes open, she looks around the room for any escape. But there's only one, and I won't let her get near it. She knows what she did was wrong—I can see the regret written all over her beautiful fucking face.
I take her in. I've already noticed that she looks paler than usual. The dark bags shadowing her eyes, the way her hands are shaking with each passing second. I want nothing more than to pull her into my arms and comfort her the way I'm used to doing.
However, I struggle to move past what happened. How could she allow those fucking assholes to touch her in any way?
Ever since my parents died from a pill overdose, landing me in foster care at the young age of ten, Mary helped heal me from the trauma I suffered.
She was the only one who was nice to me in that house.
The foster parents weren’t terrible, but they often looked away when something was happening instead of dealing with it.
Mary and I both stayed there for almost a year before I got kicked out because one of the other little boys was picking on her.
Seeing her cry sent me over the edge.
The anger I felt left my body the moment my fist connected with his face—over and over again—until Mary was screaming for me to stop. That finally got our foster parents' attention, and they had me removed.
The whole reason I left was because someone made Mary cry, and I ended up doing the same thing by getting kicked out. I moved in with another foster family the next day.
Thankfully, it was my last one. My best friend Ace’s parents were the ones who took me in, and that’s how I met him.
Now, the same girl who was everything to me stands there with the nerve to cry and act like a victim in the mess she made. "I want to go back in time and change everything." I manage to keep my voice down. My fingers itch to wrap around her throat, but I hold myself back.
No. I'll never be able to forget this.
I know Tyler and Anthony are the Dean's kids, so there’s only so much I can do without losing my scholarship. That is something I can't risk, even if I crave to feel them break in my hands. Stupid, spoiled-ass rich kids who think they can do whatever they want.
They’ve never liked me or my friends. There’s no real reason, except that I didn't grow up with the kind of money they did. Tyler and Anthony like to think of themselves as some superior beings when, in reality, they’re the scum of the school.
I might be hurt, but they had to learn that they can't touch what isn't theirs. And Mary wasn't theirs. She's mine.
Was mine.
I would've given up everything for her. There was nothing I wouldn't do.
Now? Now all I want is to see her suffer the way I am.
Mary flinches back, the tears falling freely from her eyes, and it takes everything in me not to comfort her.
Instead, I step forward, crowding her against the bookshelf.
My fist slams into the shelf next to her head.
I press my forehead to hers, my eyes closing as I struggle to breathe, her scent clouding my senses. It's too much.
I push away from her when I feel her fingers against my chest and storm off toward the door. It feels like the walls are closing in on me the longer I stay close to her.