“Fucking answer me!” Ollie demanded, causing me to wince. “Or do you enjoy torturing me?”
“You have no idea what I’ve been going through.”
I turned to walk away when Ollie snatched my wrist and jerked in front of me.
“You have my blessing, Mia. You’re set free, no point in waiting around for me anymore. Turns out, I’m just like my brother. I’ll never be the person you once knew. That bloke you fancied so much, he’s fucking gone.”
His green eyes held a void I badly wanted to fill again. It wasn’t my Ollie staring back at me. This side of darkness knew him well. So damn well, his demons were rejoicing to have him back and if I didn’t stop now, his darkness would swallow me too.
Chapter Ten
“Do not fear the hurt in their eyes.
Instead, fear when hurt fadesto hollow.
For the difference between
the two is the heart.”
—Oliver Masters
mia.
“I’M SO OVER THIS WEEK,” Bria whined. “Where’s Tyler?”
A full week had passed since the vigil, and I looked around to see both Tyler and Jude missing from the mess hall. Immediately, my thoughts went to Tyler and her safety. “I don’t know,”—I stood up from my chair— “I’ll be right back. I’m going to check her room.”
Bria nodded as Jake commented on a girl all over Liam at another table. As far as I knew, Bria didn’t know about Jake and Liam’s relationship. But that didn’t stop Jake’s inability to control his mouth. Bria’s thoughts were somewhere else and didn’t see much into it, anyway.
I walked through third wing and approached Tyler’s door. Soft cries sounded, and my heart jumped into my throat as I pushed the door open.
My eyes landed on Jude’s bare ass as he thrust into Tyler from behind. “Oh-my-god,” I mumbled as I immediately closed the door. With wide eyes and frozen feet, I stood on the other side of the door, trying to piece together and shut out the image I just witnessed. My hand still glued to the doorknob, Jude swung the door open from the other side and brushed past me.
“Mia, I’m so sorry. You weren’t supposed to see that,” Tyler said out of breath. I turned to face her through the opened door as she slipped a shirt over her head and shoved her legs through pajama pants. “Please, you can’t tell Bria. She’ll kill me.”
Her blonde hair was in as much as a wreck as this situation she put me in. “Why can’t I tell Bria?”
“Because … ” she huffed. “They’re like a thing now.”
“Tyler! Why would you do that to her?”
“I like him, and I haven’t found anyone I’ve liked enough since the … you know … since I was forced. I’m done putting myself on the back burner and letting people walk all over me!”
“I can’t deal with this right now,” I rubbed my temples, “I came to check on you to make sure you were okay. I don’t trust that guy, Ty. You shouldn’t either.”
“He’s good, Mia. You have him all wrong. If you would just get to know him.”
“No, I’m not wrong about this.” How do I tell her that I think it’s him playing harmful pranks on me? Who put glass in my mattress and into my back?
Her blank stare stuck on me. “Say you won’t say anything. At least let me figure this out first. Then, I’ll tell her myself.”
“Fine.” I threw my hands up in the air. “It’s your funeral.”
Unable to face anyone, I decided not to go back to the mess hall and retreated to my dorm instead, spilling my secrets into my only trusted friend—my journal.
Our weekly meeting of Woman Against Sexual Assault was awkward that evening. Tyler, Bria, two new girls, and I sat spaced out on the floor. The new girls helped deflect the big fat elephant in the room—the elephant being Tyler and Bria sitting across from one another and sleeping with the same guy.
My loyalties laid out before me. I glanced over at Bria, her listening intently to the small mouse-like teen with a voice to match, nodding in moments when she was supposed to, completely unaware of what was happening behind her back.
