now.
“Yeah, and she’s apparently got a roommate from hell this time around. Sleeps all day, parties all night. Taylor couldn’t even get into her own room when she got back tonight.”
“Oh, man,” Nelson said. “Hate to hear that. Bad roommates are the worst. That’s not going to be easy on her.”
“Tell me about it,” Greg said. “And she’s got the trial coming up on Tuesday.” Carefully, he sat in the chair opposite Wes. “That’s working her over something real bad right now.” He thought, scratched at the stubble on his face, considered, and finally decided the guys could be trusted. His gaze fell to his hands when they clutched in front of him. “She’s actually been working on something to maybe get the trial stopped.”
“Stopped?” Nelson asked.
“She’s not going to testify?” Wes asked, and Greg’s gaze jerked up.
“Uh, no. Not that. She’s definitely going to testify if there is a trial. It’s just if she can get it stopped…”
“How would that work?” Nelson asked in confusion.
“It might not, but she feels lousy for dragging us all through this. She’s hired a lawyer, and they’re floating the idea of a civil suit against Chris, hoping that maybe he’ll enter a plea and nobody will have to testify.”
Nelson and Wes looked at each other for a long moment.
“A plea?” Wes finally said. “Like a reduced sentence kind of thing?”
Greg shrugged. “I don’t know really. I think the goal is to get around doing a trial, not sure how that’s going to shake out or if it even will. Unfortunately, we’re kind of running out of time at this point.” His gaze came over and stuck on Nelson. “But she’s really worried about Paige. She knows how hard this has been on her.” Letting his gaze fall, he let out a breath. “And on all of us.”
However, that struck Nelson so hard he sat up straight. “Wait. Does she know about Paige and the counseling stuff?”
Slowly Greg shook his head. “Not unless someone told her back home. I didn’t tell her. She’s carrying enough stuff the way it is.” He took a breath. “How is Paige anyway? She seemed a little better over the break.”
“We hung out at my parents’ house as much as possible,” Nelson said. “It was just better if the two of them aren’t in the same room together. No sense throwing gas on a fire.”
“I hear you there,” Greg said. “It’s like there’s no meeting in the middle between them, like there’s so much stuff between them, they can’t figure out how to even start the conversation.”
“They’re both hurting,” Nelson said. “Paige is so angry about all of it, and I think she’s scared too.”
“About Chris?” Greg asked.
“About Taylor doing something stupid again,” Nelson said. “I don’t think she’s ever going to get over holding her in that hallway. It’s like something broke inside of her, and she can’t figure out how to put it back together.”
“Lauren’s off-the-charts worried about her,” Wes said. “It’s all she talks about these days.”
Greg wasn’t sure it was his place to ask, but if they were being honest, he figured he had a decent shot at a solid answer. “So did they ever put her on anything? Meds or something?”
Slowly Nelson nodded. “Lowest dose of this stuff possible, and she doesn’t even need it a lot of the time. But yeah, it’s a thing now.”
His gaze dropped as Greg’s heart fell for her. “I hate this. If I could strangle Chris, I would. Him and Hayden too. They are both…”
“So what’s the deal with them anyway?” Wes asked. “I mean, Chris I kind of get, but what’s the story with that Hayden guy?”
Dipping back into the story he now knew almost by heart, Greg put his head back on the chair. “It sounds to me like Chris practically thought he owned her. He ran her whole life pretty much top-to-bottom. I think Hayden wanted in on the action.” Shaking his head, Greg looked at the ceiling, trying not to remember the image of her in that kitchen fighting Hayden off which somehow mixed with the others when she was fighting off Chris. It all did very bad things to his heart. “It’s like they thought she was a plaything, a toy that they could just do anything they wanted with.”
Wes let out a slow exhale. “I hate guys like that.”
“Tell me about it,” Greg agreed. “Makes me want to put a fist through someone’s face.”
“Did she…? Did… they…?” Nelson started but tipped his