Kiss To Forget (Blairwood University #2) - Anna B. Doe Page 0,72
the floor, my back pressed to the bench behind me as I wait. I’m rewarded a few moments later when she shakes her head decisively.
“To be fair, he tries to get me to talk, but I try my best to avoid it while we pretend to eat a happy dinner like a family.” Her tone is lifeless, devoid of any emotion, but I can see the hardness hidden in her eyes. She walks from side to side, unable to keep still as she talks. “That’s how we roll, always pretending that everything is fucking okay, when it’s anything but. However, today he crossed the line. He actually had the audacity to suggest that I should stay here for spring break so we can bond.” She chuckles, but there is no amusement. “Can you believe that?”
She looks away, trying to hide the tears in her eyes.
I work my jaw, only now realizing how tightly I’ve been gritting my teeth. “Why do you keep going?” I ask, hoping that my words sound calm, because I feel anything but. If Coach were here now, I’d punch him in the face for all the hurt he’s caused Yasmin, my spot on the team be damned.
“I don’t have a choice.”
Grabbing her hand in mine, I pull her to a stop. “We all have a choice. If he’s making you uneasy, you shouldn’t go to him.”
“I can’t. We have a deal, and I don’t know what he’ll do if…” Yasmin shakes her head, dismissing the idea. “I can’t.”
The hairs at the nape of my neck rise with trepidation. “What kind of a deal?”
At this point I’m not sure what to expect. The person I thought I knew for the better part of two years, the person I admire, is a farce, and I’m not sure what to believe in.
Yasmin watches me for a moment. I can see her debating on whether to tell me the truth or not.
Intertwining our fingers, I tug at her arm. She falls on the floor next to me. With my free hand, I push the strand of her hair behind her ear. “You know you can tell me anything. I’ll keep your secret.”
“Because I’m keeping yours?” Yasmin cups my face.
“No.” I trace her cheek with the tip of my thumb. Leaning down, my forehead brushes against hers. I shouldn’t do this. Hell, I shouldn’t have asked her to come in the first place. It clashes with everything we agreed on. But seeing her, it does something to me. She does something to me, something I can’t name, but don’t want to give up. Consequences be damned. “Because you know my darkness, and I want to know yours. I didn’t want to tell anybody about my mom because I don’t want them to pity me, but I don’t regret taking you home with me that day, Yasmin. Having you there with me… it made it a little bit easier. So yeah, I want you to tell me your secret, not because I want to have something on you, but because hopefully it’ll make you feel better. The decision is all yours.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
YASMIN
The decision is all yours.
Nixon’s words ring in my mind. I want to tell him, share this secret I’ve been hiding with somebody. No, not just somebody. I want to share it with him. The most unlikely of confidants. But there is something about Nixon that draws me to him. That has drawn me to him from the very moment we met.
My throat bobs, tongue sliding out to wet my suddenly dry lips.
“He got me into Blairwood,” I confess quietly. My secret. My truth. My shame. “He got me into Blairwood and, in exchange, I have dinner with him once a week.”
“What?” Nixon pulls back to look at me, completely dumbfounded. “How?”
Not something he expected to hear, huh?
Shifting in my seat, I move closer to him. I’m not sure if they don’t have the heating system down here, or maybe they just don’t turn it on, but whatever it is, it’s freezing, especially since we stopped moving.
Nixon lifts his hand and puts it over my shoulder, pulling me into the crook of his arm. I rest my head against his shoulder, relishing in the warmth of his body.
Just this once, I say to myself, but the other part of me laughs.
That’s what you already said.
“I was supposed to go to Yale. I got a scholarship, a full ride,” I say, remembering the events like they happened yesterday. The joy of that