I steel my resolve and walk in like I belong here, because I fucking do.
“You’re seriously moving back in here? After everything you did?” Garrison asks, arms folded.
I tilt my chin up. “If you’ve got a problem with it, bring it up with the headmaster.”
“Don’t expect to get any of this food. And no one let him have any of my hot sauce.” Graham says gesturing at the room with his spatula.
“I expected as much. But I have to say, I’m surprised no one’s asked me why I did what I did.”
“That’s because we don’t want to hear you try and reason away your betrayal.” Salem says.
“You were willing to hear Pierce out.” I retort. She steps up to me, rearing her hand back but Walker grabs her by the wrist.
“He isn’t worth it.”
“Fuck you. You don’t deserve to say his name.” She says, angry tears welling in her eyes.
“I see. Well, if no one wants to hear my side of the story, I’ll head up to my room.” I push past her, heading up the stairs.
“Should we hear him out?” I hear Garrison ask. I smile, knowing exactly which person I’ll need to talk to first.
I enter my room and see all my personal items have been tossed all over my bed, which is missing its headboard. I shove everything off into one pile at the bottom, deciding to deal with the mess later.
Step one of getting back into the house had gone easier than I anticipated, and I guess I have the new headmaster to thank for that. People tended to stay in line when you threatened the very futures they so desperately wanted.
It pays to have friends in high places.
ChapterThirty-Two
SKYE
SONG: FAVORITE CRIME BY OLIVIA RODRIGO
I’m scrolling aimlessly on my phone, pretending to be engrossed in the videos and pictures I happen upon. In reality, I’m painfully aware of Lukas’s imposing presence mere feet away. His body is turned away from me, staring at the wall. Too lost in his grief, his side of the room smells like his vape pen and alcohol from the myriad of beer cans strewn around in varying levels of stale liquid.
We’ve been vaguely orbiting around each other since the funeral and I’m pretending that it’s not slowly killing me to have Lukas so close and yet not have him at all. Things with Graham have been more than amazing, but I can’t lie to my heart.
I know that I want both of them and that scares me.
As I scroll, my phone lights up with a message that twists my stomach. The nameDavid, flashes with an incoming text. I feel a cold sweat break out over my skin. I haven’t heard from him in months. What could he possibly want now?
The last I heard, he wanted to be “just friends” because I was in his words “becoming a little bit too chubby for his liking.” And that was over the summer, before I started at Kildale.
I’d always been a curvy girl, no matter how little I ate, what diet I tried, or how much I worked out. When he emphasized my weight like that, and not for the first time, it crumpled something deep inside me, exasperating my insecurities in a whole new way. I instinctively push at my cellulite covered stomach, as I press to see what the message says.
David:Hey beautiful, I miss you…
I feel my stomach clench as I take a sharp breath that sounds like a mix between a shriek and a gasp. I grip the phone tighter. The audacity of him to text me those words after he broke me so cruelly. I feel the volume buttons dig into my flesh, denting it as my hand shakes. David had a way of making me feel like I was never good enough for the likes of him. That I was lucky to even be getting an ounce of his attention. And that’s all he would ever give to me. I gave 150% of myself to this man that, on a good day, gave me 5%. I lapped it up, accepting his scraps and telling myself he really cared for me.
I blow out a breath, situating my fingers over the reply box. Before I can even think about if I should even text him back, my phone is being ripped out of my hands by Lukas. His face turned up into a snarl as he glares down at me, his tangled hair falling over his forehead. Crap, why is he so cute?
“What are you doing, Lukas?” I say, too shocked to move.
He doesn’t answer me. Instead, he begins to scroll on my phone. I sit up, trying to grab it from him, but he dodges me easily.
“Who the fuck is this?”
“Just an ex. Give me my phone back.”
