“Please,” she begged, her voice cracking. “Please. He needs to be here. You don’t understand. Brad… I don’t know how long he has. Please, Lila.”
I glanced at Riley, and she gave me a questioning look. “I’m sorry, Savannah. I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t guarantee he’ll listen to me. If you want Maddox there and I can’t bring him to you, you’ll need to find another way.”
Savannah inhaled a shaky breath. “Okay. Thank you, Lila.”
We hung up, and I fell on the couch beside Riley. “What’s up? What did Savannah want?”
“Brad is… sick.”
Her mouth rounded with a shocked ‘o’. “She wants you to convince Maddox to go see his dad?”
“Bingo.”
“How sick is he?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It sounded serious, because she was crying.”
Riley nodded slowly. “I was on Colton’s Instagram two hours ago. They apparently have a party going on at his house, right now. I saw Maddox in one of the videos in his story.”
“Another party?” During Exams? What the hell?
“Last I heard, it was Maddox who decided to throw the party. Again. Which, by the way, the last one ended with a fight.”
This reminded me of four years ago. Back in high school, when Maddox didn’t give a shit about anything or… anyone. He was all about partying, drugs and alcohol… and letting his fists do the talking.
He was spiraling. Once again. Oh God.
My head fell into my hands, and I took a deep breath. Maybe it was my fault… An overwhelming sense of guilt filled my chest, and I almost choked on the taste of bitterness on my tongue.
“Do you want to wait until tomorrow?” Riley questioned, rubbing my back.
“No. I have to do this tonight. Maddox might be stubborn, but I am more stubborn than he could ever be.”
16
Lila
Riley and I parked three houses away and stared at Colton’s corner townhouse. After a few minutes of silence, we walked up to his porch and blinked. “Holy shit,” Riley breathed.
The party was loud and crowded. I cringed, as a couple stumbled out, practically mauling each other. He pushed her against the house, and they were practically humping over their clothes, too drunk to care that they had an audience.
It was in that moment when I realized how bad this situation was. I shouldn’t have come here tonight. If I found Maddox’s in the arms of another woman…
Oh my God.
I almost doubled over, because the pain of that was unbearable. This was the wrong decision. I should have waited until tomorrow morning, when everything would have been calmed.
But what if…
What if he still had a woman by his side in the morning…?
What would I have done then?
Shit. SHIT! I couldn’t even bring myself to think of it. I stalked forward, climbing up the stairs, into Colton’s fancy townhouse and weaving my way through the sweaty bodies.
I spotted him instantly. Through a crowd, many feet away. It was like my eyes knew where to look, my heart knew where he was, an invisible string tugging my body toward him.
Maddox.
He sat on a couch; his long legs spread out in front of him. He wore black jeans and a black shirt, with holes in it. It looked like he hadn’t bothered to shave for many weeks, and his hair was just as messy. Maddox looked completely out of it. High and drunk.
The two girls, one on each side of him, giggled. They were practically salivating for his attention, but his stares were empty, glazed over. Maddox tipped his head back and took a long pull from his joint, inhaling that shit and breathing out a thin layer of smoke. I took a step closer, my body moving on its own accord.
The blonde girl on his right stuck her face into his neck and her hand moved to his crotch. My heart was about to fall right out of my chest, when his fingers circled around her wrist, stopping her movement. He placed her hand on his thigh, a safe distance away from his dick.
My hand went to my throat, and I clenched our dreamcatcher. I exhaled the breath I didn’t know I had been holding.
He lifted his head, looking in my direction.
Our gaze met.
I halted.
He paused.
Time just fucking stopped.
My body twitched under his gaze.
He stared.
I breathed.
The dreamcatcher dug into my palm, as my hold tightened around it. Maddox’s lips curled, and there was nothing warm about it.
Maddox slowly got off the couch and stalked toward me. His eyes were angry, crazed. He still