Page 90 of Black Ledger

Ifelt the bark against my skull and curled my toes into the grass.

What the fuck had just happened? And more importantly, what did I do now?

I ran my palm down my face and let out a soft cry. His face was devastated—pure devastation like I had rejected something he had wanted for so long. Was it even possible that he’d wanted it that long?

Wanted me?

My chin lifted to the sky, and I stared up at the nearly full moon.

And you will never want me back.

His words played over and over and over again in my head. He thought I’d never want him back. He cared that I didn’t.

I swallowed. My throat and heart felt raw.

I needed to fix this. I needed to talk to him and understand what he had meant by that, but he wouldn’t answer his phone or text me back, even though I had called him ten times.

So what could I do?

If I went over to his house, would he already be with someone else? There was never a moment when girls weren’t over at Zeta. He could have gone home, chosen any random girl, and fucked her.

And could I walk in on that?

I held my head in my hands before rubbing my temples.

I was going to have to risk it because we had to talk about what just happened.

So very, very slowly, I lifted myself and made my way back through campus to try to find my heels before walking—with them in my hand—to Hyde Park and the Zeta Rho Kappa fraternity house.

I didn’t have to open the door because when I got there, it opened in my face, and a couple of drunk girls fell out of it, laughing, making their way home from whatever they had been doing.

As I said, there were always girls at Zeta.

I stepped aside to let them stumble their way off the property.

As I walked in, everything stopped. The music. The conversation. Every eye on me.

That was when I realized I looked like a mess. A concerning one.

And I was now faced with the guys who cared most for me in the world—except Severin.

My best friends—and twin brother—stared at me.

It wasn’t a huge party—only six guys and a couple of girls, but all six were my friends.

My brother spoke first. “What the fuck happened?”

He stood up quickly, dropping the girl from his lap without a second thought, and he stormed over to me.

“Did you get into a fight?”

“Are you okay?”

Kaz and Maks’s voices overlapped.

“You were on a fucking date.” Kaz stepped up to me as my brother took my chin and inspected my blossoming bruises. “Did he do this to you?”

Severin didn’t even try to land a punch, but the ground had done the work for us.