But I did, didn’t I?
She could’ve called me all the names in the fucking book, and I wouldn’t have cared, but then she’d compared me to my father and taken it too far. I was nothing like him. I’d spent years making sure of that.
I’d expected Avery to have some snarky retort when I told her I didn’t care about her stupid apology. To scrunch up her nose in that cute way when she was angry with me. Something about that side of her lit a different fire in me, but seeing her face fall in defeat and her cheeks turn all rosy was like being doused in ice-cold water. I’d had the oddest desire to grab her face in my hands and ignite the heated coals still kindling between us, but instead, I’d taken off, nearly running.
What the hell was she doing to me?
Balling my hands into fists, I turned from the stairs, marched into the bathroom, and slammed the door behind me. And as I let the scalding hot water beat on the top of my shoulders, all I could think about was what Avery would look like, soaking wet and bent over at the waist in front of me.
I turned and twisted the knob to cold.
Danny’s sister. Danny’s sister. Danny’s sister.
12
Avery
One one thousand.
Two one thousand.
My mother, and even sometimes Danny, used to tell me that baths were for children, but I never outgrew them. I showered, of course, but there was something about the silence under the blanket of warmth that was therapeutic. Zayn had a massive tub with jets and the whole works, but it had been wasted on me.
I liked the calm.
The peace.
I slid further down until my head settled at the bottom and my knees breached the surface. I continued counting, forgetting about my lectures. My midterm paper. The five missed calls from my mom. Zayn’s sad eyes following me around campus all week.
And Liam. I made myself forget about him.
It had been over a week since he’d laughed in my face, but that was what haunted me the most.
One hundred ninety-three.
One hundred ninety-four.
Pinching my eyes shut, I pushed away the burn in my chest and held myself under longer, fighting to add on to my time. My record. A challenge I held for myself that only I knew about. No pressure from others to do better. No, this weight in my chest had been put there by me and only me.
My lungs greedily took in the oxygen when my shoulders were yanked out of the water.
Lexie muttered something severe in Korean.
“What the hell?” I asked, wiping water from my face.
“Okay, just so we’re clear, I knocked. Loud. And I called for you, like, five times. You scared the crap out of me. What were you doing?”
“Taking a bath. What does it look like?”
“Do you usually try to drown yourself when you’re in the bath?”
I covered as much of my lady parts as I could with my hands.
“Nothing I haven’t seen, hon.” She winked.
Well, she hadn’t seenmine.
“That was locked,” I stated, gesturing to the wide-open door.
