Torn (Torn Series) Page 0,79

heart squeezed painfully as I heard the words I love you come out of his mouth. I couldn’t think of anyone who was less deserving of them.

“Give me a couple days to cool down ok?”

He nodded as we reached my building. “Fair enough. Find me when you’re ready,” he kissed me gently and then walked away, his shoulders slumping.

I turned and walked into the building. My eyes landed on Drake the minute I stepped inside the classroom. My stomach was in knots as I stared at him. He felt the heat of my gaze and turned to look at me. I gave him a small smile before taking a seat a couple rows away from him. He frowned and stood to walk over to me. He sat down in the seat next to me and set his book on the desk. “Hey.”

“Hey,” I mumbled back, feeling uncomfortable.

“So are we back to ignoring each other?” he asked as he stared at me.

“No, just figured it was best to stay away until I get things figured out you know?”

He ran his hands through his hair, looking agitated, “Look, I’m sorry for yesterday with Logan. I shouldn’t have said what I did, but it’s the truth. He has no clue what he’s got with you. He doesn’t appreciate you.”

I instantly came to Logan’s defense, “Like you would? Where would you find the time between all the women you’re with? I’m not stupid Drake, you wouldn’t give all that up for me.”

“Are you serious right now? Of course I would give it up. Have you seen me with anyone lately? I’ve stopped it all, for you. I wish you would take me seriously, but obviously you’ve already decided what you think of me.”

I thought about what he said. I hadn’t seen him with anyone for a while. Even when those women had come to our table Friday he had pushed them away. I thought at the time it was because he was so mad at me, but maybe that wasn’t the case.

“I’m sorry Drake. I’m not being fair to you, but it’s hard to see you as anything different. You’ve been with so many women though, what do you expect? You can’t change overnight.”

“Before you tripped right into my life I would have said the same thing. But there’s something different about you. I don’t know what it is, but it wants to make me change every bad thing about myself.”

I glanced around the room and noticed the professor enter from his office. What could I say to something like that? Drake had me in knots from the moment I laid eyes on him, I couldn’t deny that. Things could have been so different if he hadn’t pushed me away before, we could have been happy right now, instead I was in the biggest mess of my life. All because of him.

“That doesn’t change anything Drake. We’re both so screwed up on our own, but together we’re a whirlwind. Nothing survives that gets in our path.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but the professor started introducing himself at the front of the room, effectively ending our conversation. The rest of class passed in a blur, my mind was so far gone that I couldn’t even begin to tell anyone what we had talked about. Once we were dismissed I grabbed my things and flew out the door hoping Drake wouldn’t approach me. I made it halfway across campus before looking behind me. Drake was behind me, but there were several students between us and he was making no attempt to catch up.

I breathed a sigh of relief as my phone started ringing. Expecting it to be Logan again, I was confused when Blocked Number showed across my phone.

“Hello?” I answered cautiously. There was no reply so I spoke again. “Is anyone there? This isn’t funny.” I could hear breathing on the other end of the line but still no one spoke. “Fine, whatever. Be a creep.”

I started to pull the phone away from my ear to hang up, but I stopped as I heard a voice on the other side that made my blood run cold.

“Chloe? Is that you?”

I stepped off the path and leaned against a tree as I listened to my mother’s voice.

“Mom?” I felt someone come up next to me, but I ignored them as I waited for her to speak.

“Yeah it’s me. You’re a hard person to find.”

“What do you want? I told you the last time I saw you