didn’t move. The middle of her was starting to shake through and through from the cold or something else. “Greg! Greg, please! Greg!”
He put one hand in the air, and a horrible memory sliced through her. That’s what he had done when he had walked away at the student union, and somehow she knew as she stood there alone, this time, he was walking away for good.
Sanity said that it should have regained some control on the walk to the car, but it didn’t. It was like suddenly there was nowhere to grab onto and hold. At the car, Greg got in and he was halfway home before he even caught up with himself enough to realize he’d just wrecked everything.
Yes. He had really just gone and done the unthinkable.
She hated him now.
It was over. They were over.
And life would never be the same ever again.
Chapter 33
Her dorm was a two-mile walk. She was in heels and nearly nothing of a dress.
Taylor took one look at the swirling lights in the window above her, and she knew she was never going back in there. Never.
Still, with no phone and the buses no longer running on a Saturday night, she was going to end up freezing to death if she stood out here very long.
She wrapped her arms around herself, and pushing the impossible questions about Greg and what in the world had just happened away from her, she sorted through her sparse options. Sparse dwindled until there was only one, and it wasn’t a good one.
With a heavy sigh, she forced her feet forward, making them keep going down the sidewalk. Paige’s dorm was at the other end of that walk. It wasn’t far. But Taylor knew even as she started that direction, far wasn’t the problem.
Bumping into the driveway of the house, Greg very nearly took out Nelson’s car. He didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything anymore. Caring hurt, and he had hurt enough for a lifetime.
Jumping out, he slammed the car door and shook his head hard, trying to keep himself from letting any of the stupid tears fall. He didn’t deserve tears. This was all his fault. He had ruined everything. Everything. Burned it to the ground. Destroyed it. Wrecked it. Shattered it. Demolished it. Until there was literally nothing left of what once had been.
He went to and through the front door on one push, slamming it behind him as well, which startled the lovebirds cuddling on the couch.
“Greg? Holy moly, dude!” Nelson said, uncurling from Paige. “What in the wide world…?”
But he never slowed down. “Don’t want to talk about it.” He went straight to his room, slammed that door as well and yanked his shoes off, nearly sending himself careening into the wall from the momentum. He didn’t care. The more damage and destruction he could inflict on himself, the better.
“Greg?” Nelson’s knock was soft but there. “Dude, are you okay? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Greg collapsed in a heap on his bed before wrenching his jacket off with such velocity, he almost dislocated his shoulder. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
A breath and he thought for a second that would be the end of it. He should have known better.
“Greg? Hey. It’s Paige.”
Crumping forward, Greg put his head in his hands as his heart shattered. All he saw was Taylor’s beautiful face, swirling in the darkness. Stunned. Confused. Dazed and distraught. She was never going to forgive him for that. Never.
What had he done?
Taylor barely remembered how to get to Paige and Lauren’s room, but she remembered just enough. She got there with nearly no trouble. It was getting herself to knock once she was standing on the other side of that threshold that was the real issue.
Closing her eyes so she wouldn’t see herself take the leap that was more insanity than faith, she reached up and knocked softly. No reason to wake up the whole dorm though it was only going on ten o’clock.
Reality began to sink in about the time she heard the voice on the inside.
“Well, that was… quick.”
Oh, man, this is a bad idea.
In the next second her heart stopped completely as Taylor found herself face-to-face with not Paige but Lauren. Stark, excruciating horror split right through the middle of Taylor, and her eyes widened on the sight.
“Taylor?” Lauren seemed equally stunned. She glanced past Taylor into the hall. “What’re you doing here?”
“Greg,” Paige called softly through the door. “Greg, can I come in? Hey. Open the door.”
It