way over to Lars, curious about how he was doing, when a voice stopped me. “Looking for your precious BFF?” I spun to find Byron leaning against the wall, his eyes bloodshot. “Try the last room at the end of the hall.”
I started walking that way, partly because I finally knew where he was, and partly because I didn’t want to be near Byron.
“Don’t say I never gave you anything!”
I ignored his last jab, and when I reached the end of the hall, I steeled myself, shaking my hands out. Dash was probably in there getting high with Jackson, and I needed to prepare some kind of speech. I could’ve kicked myself for not doing that on the way over here instead of daydreaming. I needed to have something to say that would make him listen, even if he was wasted.
Resolved to just outright blurting the truth, I pushed open the door, then quickly shut it behind me. When I looked into the dark, there was no drifting smoke and no cloying scent of marijuana. No, the scent in the room was one that had cement filling my stomach and caused my next breath to cut straight through the middle of my heart.
Two figures were moving on the bed, and unable to do anything, let alone alert them to my presence, I just watched as Kayla pushed back the duvet and released a moan that I swore I’d hear for years to come.
I must have made some kind of sound that alerted them to my presence because she looked over at me, a sinister smile curling her mouth as Dash’s body moved over hers, the bed creaking, and the sheets shifting.
A rough curse left him, and he rolled off her. “You’re not done,” she said.
“Can’t,” he said, his voice like gravel. “Too fucked up.”
Kayla’s face pinched as if she was offended. “Well, I guess now’s a good a time as any to tell you we’ve got company.”
My body thawed, my hand reaching blindly for the door handle behind me as Dash said, dark and dry, “Like I fucking care. Wait, do they have a smoke?”
“Why don’t you ask her yourself?” Kayla’s breasts bounced as she rolled and stood from the bed, naked. “Got a smoke, Peggy?”
Dash sat up so fast, he swayed, but I was already out of there.
I raced down the hall, missing a step as I all but threw myself down them. A guy caught me, and I mumbled my thanks, then raced down the rest of them with my vision blurred and my heart left bleeding on the floor above my head.
How could he? And with Kayla?
Outside on the drive, I slowed to a walk as her warnings came back to hit me square in the core of who I was. I hadn’t believed she’d be able to hurt me. With the exception of Byron, I hadn’t believed I had anything she’d wanted. I hadn’t been worried about Dash because I never once thought he would touch her.
I’d been wrong.
“Going so soon?” Dash’s casually cold voice entered the smog.
I tossed a glance over my shoulder, noticing he’d found a fix of nicotine, then let a sour laugh fly free.
“What?” he asked, hot on my heels as I bypassed a group of girls who were smoking and watching us. “You just got here. You can’t leave yet.”
“And what would I see next if I stay, Dash? You having sex with someone else?”
His laughter was bitter and lacked any remorse. “I didn’t finish, so probably.”
We’d left the driveway, and I was halfway to my car when I spun around and shoved him. “You hate me that much?” He didn’t even move.
“Yeah,” he said through his teeth, blowing smoke into my face. “I do.”
“I guess the feeling’s mutual now then, so I’ll see you in some other lifetime.” I turned for my car, swiping at my cheeks.
He snatched my wrist, pushing me up against someone’s car as he loomed over me, his chest pressing into mine. “It fucking hurts, doesn’t it? You couldn’t admit it, but I see it now. It’s written all over your face. You care more than you should, and it fucking kills you.”
“Fuck you.” I tried not to choke on the words.
“You already have, Freckles,” he said through another bitter laugh. “Six ways from Sunday, you’ve fucked me, and I’ve yet to find anything satisfying about it.”
“Let go.” I tried to pull the hand he had pinned to the cool metal behind my head free.