The tension made me sick. As soon as I woke, a wave of nausea swept up from my stomach. I ran to the bathroom to throw up. Hunter came in as he had the last few times and held my hair back for me. When I was done, he would help me in the shower. He apologized for taking things out on me and I would always forgive him. How could I not, when he looked at me with those eyes of his that had my stomach doing flip-flops. After we showered, he carried me back to bed and made love to me. He always made sure to take his time with me after I got sick or after fighting.
I must have fallen asleep after we were done because Hunter’s side of the bed was empty and cold. I went downstairs to get something to eat before I started to feel sick again. Hailey sat at the bar, eating a sandwich and reading a book.
“Hey, sleeping beauty,” Hailey said. “Hunter keeping you up all hours of the night?”
I rolled my eyes. “No, actually he isn’t keeping me up at all lately.”
“You’ve been sleeping a lot. You feeling ok?”
“Not really.” I grabbed a bowl from the cabinet. “All this tension with Mason is really starting to wear me down. It’s been two months since that fight, and enough is enough.”
“I keep trying but as soon as I bring it up, he makes some kind of excuse to get off the phone.” She closed her book.
“Hails, work on your relationship with Mase. Don’t worry about us. I’m his sister. He has to get over this eventually. Once we go home for the summer, Mom will put a stop to this bullshit.”
Hunter raged into the room, slamming the door and interrupting Hailey.
“What the fuck, CC?”
I frowned. “What the hell is going on?”
“You tell me, what else are you hiding from me?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” My stomach started turning. “What’s going on?”
“Dominic showed up on Christmas morning and you never told me?”
I grabbed my stomach, trying not to think about getting sick again.
“It wasn’t a big deal. Cooper was there with me. He just stopped by to tell me that Brittany lied about being pregnant. That’s it; he wasn’t there more than five minutes before I told him to leave.”
My stomach rolled. I took off running to the bathroom to throw up again.
Hailey knocked at the door. I greeted her from the bathroom floor. The tiles helped to cool my face off.
“Oh, sweetie, are you ok?” Hailey said, lifting my head on to her lap.
“You have to get me out of here. I can’t do this shit anymore.” My stomach was turning again; I held it tight trying to make it stop. “I can’t be around him. My stomach won’t stop knotting.”
I started crying. How could this happen? He was pissed off about something that happened two months ago, something that was no big deal.
“Alright look, you go grab your stuff and meet me back downstairs. I’ll get us back to the dorms. I think you just need a little space.” Hailey ran her fingers through my hair.
I got up off the floor, threw some water on my face and went upstairs to grab my things. I quickly put everything in a bag. I didn’t want to have another fight with Hunter. I snuck down the stairs as Hailey confronted Hunter in the living room. I waited outside, but she didn’t follow. Bentley pulled in the driveway and I ran over to his car.
“Bentley, could you give me a ride back to the dorms, please?”
“Yeah, sure, everything ok?”
“No, but it will be.”
He dropped me off and I said, “Don’t tell Hunter. If he asks if you saw me, just say no.”
“Kenzie, you know I can’t do that.”
I knew that I shouldn’t ask him to lie for me, but I didn’t want Hunter chasing after me.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Thanks for the ride, Bentley.”
Hailey pulled up behind us. She hopped out of the car and rushed to my side.
“Come on, sweetie; let’s get you up to our room.”
I blinked back tears as we walked. She swore. My vision focused in time to see Dominic. And Brittany.
Great fucking timing.
“You ok, MacKenzie? You don’t look so good.” He asked.
“Dom, I really need to get her upstairs.” Hailey pushed past him and guided me to the room.
Dominic followed us the whole way up, but didn’t say anything more. I dove