the mat between my thighs and we were sitting looking at each other with too much expectation hanging in the air between us.
I knew what she wanted from me. She wanted some magical solution to her troubles with the Night Keepers and I really wished I could offer her that. But the only thing I could really do was support her in this plan to bring them down. And I also knew that what I was pushing for would only throw her further into their net too. But the problem with those boys was that they were like a dog with a bone. There was no way she was escaping their teeth unless she pulled them out one by one.
“Have you made any progress with them?” I asked, not needing to say who I meant.
She drew her legs back off of mine and crossed them beneath her as she thought about that.
“Maybe. It’s hard to say for sure. I can’t get anywhere with Blake anyway. He hates me with a venom so toxic it infects me even without me getting close. He’s just hurting so much that he’s blinded by it, consumed by it and I’m afraid of what will happen when all of that pain comes to a head.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen some of that myself.” Blake’s game on the football pitch had been suffering lately. He was growing hot headed, losing control and suppressing his grief. The way he was acting could only really end one way. Badly.
“The worst part about it is that I feel like such an idiot for buying into his charm before all of this. I was even warned about it. Mila told me what would happen if I hooked up with him, but I-”
“You and Blake were together?” I interrupted her, my tone sharper than I’d meant it to be. “As in, you fucked him?”
Her lips popped open as if I shouldn’t have said that. And fuck, I definitely shouldn’t have said that. But I was surprised, she seemed like a smart girl, I just hadn’t expected her to join the queue waiting to screw the Night Keepers’ fuckboy.
“Are you seriously judging me for getting laid?” she growled, those blue eyes flashing in warning.
“I’m not judging you for getting laid,” I snapped. “Everyone likes fucking, princess, it’s what we’re built to do. I’m judging you for choosing Bowman when you could have had your fucking pick.”
Her lips parted as a blush touched her cheeks beneath her freckles and the look was so fucking cute that I couldn’t quite manage to stay mad at her. When the innocent act wasn’t being faked, she really could pull it off.
“I just thought I’d be ghosted afterwards,” she managed to say, dropping her gaze to her red boxing gloves as she pulled them off. “I didn’t realise he’d turn into an actual psychopath and start acting the way he has been. I mean, Christ, when we were together that night he was funny and sweet and generous and so fucking-” She cut herself off and glanced up at me like she’d just realised she was telling her teacher about how it had felt to be screwing someone and that blush only heated beneath her freckles.
“At what point did he suddenly change then?” I asked, as my mind absolutely didn’t linger on the word generous. Because I really doubted that she meant he’d paid for her drinks all night. I was gonna guess that reference had more to do with the things he’d done to her body when they were alone together. Things that had made her pant and beg and scream- I realised she was talking again and bit down on my tongue to cut off those fucking ideas.
“The next morning…he got a phone call in the night from his dad and disappeared for hours. I fell asleep when he was gone but when he came back he was just so…hateful. I didn’t realise it at first, but after we, um…” She blushed again and I could hazard a good guess at what they’d done. Not that I gave a shit. “Anyway, afterwards he basically said thanks and can you fuck off now. So I did. I put it down to him having gotten what he wanted from me and assumed we’d leave it there and forget all about it.”
“But he didn’t?” I asked, pushing even though I could tell she didn’t really want to tell me. But I wanted to know. It didn’t really make any difference