Which is obviously ridiculous because the pain isnotgoing away. If anything, it’s getting sharper and more unbearable.
Goddamn it.
With a deep breath, I stop by the parking lot of Vaughn’s school and pull out the bottle of acetaminophen from my denim jacket and swallow two dry. They better kick in fast, because Vaughn can’t see me as a weakling.
Though he didn’t look down on me when I was weak like Dad does. If anything, he took care of me in the cave. So maybe he’ll do it again?
I smile through the pain, but it soon drops when I recall that he left me there.
Abandonis the word Dad used.He abandoned you in the cave and saved himself while you were being an idiot by getting shot.
No.
I lean against one of the cars to catch my breath. I saw how Vaughn was shaking while suturing my wound, heard the panic in his voice as he tried to stay strong while slapping my face and begging me not to fall asleep.
Someone like that wouldn’t justabandonme.
It’s just not like him.
I watch students drift through the parking lot toward their sleek German cars. My school is just as polished, but there’s something easier in the air here—lighter than the tension that hangs in Chicago. Or maybe that tension is mine, a shadow that follows me because of who my father is.
It’s still August, but apparently, they do some form of a summer class or orientation or something that Vaughn joined last minute according to Cy. Which makes sense. Now that the camp is no more, Vaughn would still want to advance academically during the summer. He’s too studious for his own good.
Anyway, Cy was the one who found this school for me and even got me a visitor’s entrance badge. No clue how he does it, and I don’t ask. But in typical Cy fashion, he did demand to know the reason I want to be here.
He called me an idiot for even liking someone like Vaughn, who’d never like me back, and said that I’d only get hurt. But Cy is the idiot, because he wasn’t in that cave with Vaughn?—
My lips curl in a grin when I spot him walking toward me, dressed in delicious-looking black pants and a shirt. Okay, fine, they’re just black clothes, but seriously, he wears them so well, looking all serious and grumpy and shit.
Not even kidding, but my heart lights the fuck up upon seeing him, and the pain that’s been pulsing into my abs recedes to the background.
There are so many things I’ve wanted to ask him and talk to him about. Like what happened between falling asleep, hugging, and waking up in Chicago, or why hedidn’t check on me—though he doesn’t have my number, which can be fixed.
I want to thank him for taking care of me and just…maybe meet him sometime, if he can. It doesn’t have to be much, and I won’t push for anything out of his comfort zone since he’s straight.
My grin widens at the thought of introducing him to other possibilities. Maybe, like me, he’s only straight because he hasn’t tried anything else.
At any rate, I need something more. He’s like a maddening itch I can’t seem to reach.
I’m about to come out from behind the car when a girl rushes toward him and wraps her arm around his waist.
My smile drops instantly.
Who the fuck is that brunette, and how can I get rid of her?
She looks up at him, saying something I can’t hear, and he smiles. My heart kind of crumbles, releasing this stupid sound that makes it hurt more than my gunshot wound.
Vaughn rarely smiles, if ever, so why is he smiling at that girl?
Then I recall that he has a crush on this one girl whom he wants to be his first, and my heart simply shatters, giving up on me and spilling out on the ground.
So this is his crush? A beautiful, put-together girl who he can’t stop smiling at?
She gets on her tiptoes and kisses him.
Buzzing explodes in my ears as I watch her kiss the lips I claimed a week ago. Okay, claim is too strong a word. I brushed my mouth against his, and that’snothingcompared to the kiss I’m currently watching in full HD.
The pain becomes so lethal, I drop against a car to catch my breath.
