With Cain out of the picture, and taking on some notoriety as a result—well, I called it that because in the real world it was—he’d taken his brother’s place and ruled senior year.
I knew, just fucking knew, that come prom time, he’d be prom king. If Maria let him attend, of course. She hadn’t let him attend spring homecoming. At least, that was what I’d heard in the locker room from her gossiping friends.
I couldn’t imagine Adam letting Maria control him to that extent, but she had leverage, didn’t she? She had the power to extend Cain’s jail term, to make his ‘stay’ even more miserable than it already was.
Power, in the hands of someone like Maria, was never a good thing.
I didn’t even know her, not really, but I never liked the way she looked at the world. She was beautiful, with long, coffee brown hair that offset her creamy tanned skin. Her eyes were an almond-shape, rich espresso that could have contained a smile, but instead she constantly scowled. She looked like someone had rubbed shit under her nose. For someone who’d been granted so much in her life, who’d been gifted a world of riches since birth, I wasn’t sure why she was such a miserable bitch, but she was. Without a shadow of a doubt.
Adam’s laugh faltered as our gazes connected, and with such abruptness, that Liam and Derek, a couple of the guys on the swim team with us, and his other friends, Jake and Brad, shot him a look. It didn’t take a second for them to figure out who Adam was staring at.
Even as he pinned me with that look, I let my gaze drift because I couldn’t deal with connecting on that visceral level—not before lunch, at any rate.
It was easier to look at the dicks he called friends than it was to linger on him, even if they did pull faces and sneer at me. I was relieved when he passed out of my line of sight, the dicks with him, even if he’d definitely slowed down once he saw me.
I got the feeling he’d been hoping what had happened in Fort Worth would be something that would be repeated. But I didn’t have time for that, not only because I literally had zero time outside of training, but also because my heart couldn’t stand it.
My body belied that, however, and it was why I took the pill Janice insisted on procuring for me, just in case I fell into temptation, but danger lay on whatever path Adam and I collided on. There was only so much heartbreak I could withstand, even if I craved him more than I ever had.
But, because he wanted me, he’d stopped avoiding me. Before, it had felt like he had some kind of GPS on me, so that whatever part of the academy I was in, he could go in the opposite direction. Now? He was there.
Drifting into my line of sight, enticing me by breathing.
And though I wanted to, I knew I had to be strong.
Even if that felt like a huge task most days.
When the bell rang, I gathered my shit together and trudged out long after everyone had left the lab. As I started down the corridor, the faint sounds of sobbing drew my attention, and I twisted around, aware that someone was nearby and that they were using the break between classes to hide away.
The sounds, though, reminded me of what it had been like in the early days of Adam’s marriage. I’d cried like that. Like my heart was breaking. Like my soul was being torn in two.
The sobs made me cringe, even as I knew I couldn’t just walk off and leave someone so upset though they wanted to be alone—I had to check in on them.
The corridor was lined with a counter that topped cupboards the science teachers used to store equipment in, and I followed the corridor to the end, frowning because the noise sounded like it was coming from inside a cabinet.
Because I knew they were stacked full, intrigue had me further following the sound and that was where I saw her.
I’d seen her around school. She was a new girl, three years below me, but she’d come as a surprise because, while I didn’t see that many auras anymore, hers was bright. She shone like the sun, and it was impossible to avoid the joyful gleam around her.