Page 70 of Breakaway Hearts

I don’t think, I just pull him away from her.

“She said no,” I growl, taking all my restraint to not crush his windpipe.

“I wasn’t…I didn’t…”

“Let go of him,” Madison says, but she sounds upset.

“She said yes,” the guy tells me, his eyes bugging out, and I would think maybe I’d misread the situation, but Madison is still shaking.

“I was…he didn’t…I said yes, it was fine, it’s not his fault.”

It’s not that I don’t believe her, but I’m missing part of the story.

“Please just let him go.”

She puts her hand on my arm and looks right into my eyes as she says it, so I release my hold on the guy, who slumps before his feet hit the ground, telling me I didn’t just have him pinned against the wall, I was lifting him off the ground. Which is not something I’m in the habit of doing. I like to talk things through. Make light of stuff to diffuse the situation. Not make things worse.

“I’m sorry,” Madison calls after him, but he’s already halfway down the stairs.

“What are you apologizing for?” I ask.

“He didn’t do anything wrong. I just didn’t want to go to his bedroom,” she tries to explain. She blushes, which should be adorable, and I want to tease her about it, but something happened here.

“That is something wrong. He shouldn’t have brought you anywhere you didn’t want to go, even if you said yes at first.”

She looks at me like I don’t understand anything, and I want to press, but I’m losing her. Not like when we bicker and she pretends she isn’t into me, but like the first night, when she wanted to escape.

“I’ll see you around,” she says before I can come up with something to make her stay.

“Wait.” I go to grab her arm when she walks past me, but think better of it and pull back just as her breath hitches. Not in the good way.

But thankfully, she stops.

“Do you need a ride?”

She opens her mouth, and I can see her trying to come up with a lie, before she settles on. “It’s not far.”

“It’s late,” I argue.

“I can call Jason.”

“Or I can walk you.”

“You don’t…I’m fine.”

“I know,” I tell her, even if that’s bullshit. “But Jason’s at that study group, and it doesn’t make sense to bother him when I’m not leaving until I know you’re getting home safe.”

“I’m not on your wall.” She’s annoyed, not in the flirty way when she’s mostly pretending to be, but right now I don’t care. If she leaves without me, I’ll follow a few steps behind like some creep, but I’m not letting her walk home alone.

“You’re on Jason’s,” I say instead of explaining that the only reason she isn’t is that it would be overstepping for me to put her instead of Jason. “You can text him about how annoying I am, but we both know he wouldn’t be happy if I let you leave here on your own. I promise I won’t even talk to you if you don’t want.”

“When has that ever stopped you?”

She sighs before making her way down the stairs. She doesn’t look back, but she lets me follow.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Madison