AllFreeNovel
Share Us
This had him leaning into her unwanted kiss instead of away, but he was about to break his teeth on hers at the same time. He split his lip with the act, a slice across his upper lip creating a new pain on top of a bruise that had been developing there.
There was a hushed moment then. Or perhaps his ears ceased input the moment he broke away, ripping himself from Danielle before she could do any more and then shoving her, probably more forcefully than he meant. That was the last straw. No more...He’d get the info from Marie another way. She had to know this was over the line...
But his attention drew to the other side of the room. Sang, with Jessica, standing just inside the room.
Jessica didn’t appear at all surprised. The guys were behind them. Lips were moving but with all that was going on; Nathan didn’t understand any of the words. His ears filled with ringing alarm, confusion from the pain and sudden shock.
It was Sang’s face that he locked in on.
Frozen.
Horrified.
Danielle was screaming at the boys and they were yelling back. Marie was backing off with the phone.
But Sang stood, wide eyed, swaying a bit where she was. Her face pale.
She turned, slowly, and Gabriel reached for her.
Only she put a hand up to him, warding him off, as she went for the front door in a jog.
Nathan tripped over Danielle as he started to go after her. Suddenly time returned to a normal pace.
Sang was gone and out the door before he could get to her.
Aftershock
Gabriel ran after Sang as she left. But Nathan couldn’t get to her because of everyone else in the way, including Victor, coming up to him to block him from going.
“Your lip,” he said.
“Fuck my lip,” Nathan said. He turned his fury onto Danielle.
This was her fault. Sang saw something without context and left, probably crazy out of her mind, and after everything that’d happened. He needed to go explain it to her.
With the others blocking the way to the front, Nathan grabbed his hoodie, and put it on as he threw open the sliding glass door and ran out.
Victor was calling out behind him but remained with the girls. Good. Someone else could deal with their crazy antics. He’d done enough.
He should have known Danielle would try something like that. It’d be just like her to time Sang and Jessica coming in the door in that moment.
Is that why she was taking so long? He had to wonder if this wasn’t the plan all along. Either revenge on Sang or jealousy or something horrible.
And he fell for it.
All because Danielle knew way too much. He wondered if they even had a name. Maybe Marie didn’t know anything, like Sang guessed. Danielle just made something up to get whatever she wanted.
Nathan started running first toward Kota’s house, but he realized quickly she wouldn’t go there.
Where would she go? Not back to the Sorenson house. She ran out front to the street. The woods on the other side perhaps?
Just in case, he ran to the bend in the curb, looking down the road.
He spotted Gabriel at the trailer behind the diner. He disappeared inside and the door closed.
Nathan ran that direction. At the diner, he slowed as a truck almost ran him over trying to get into the back of the lot, the big truck that made the food delivery. The driver honked at him a few times.
He probably looked insane, but he didn’t care. He dodged the truck and ran at the trailer.
Once he was on the stoop, he paused, his nerves rattling, ready with an explanation of how Danielle had tricked him.
He’d let it go too far.
It was his fault.
He tried to open the door and found it locked. He checked his pockets, no keys. He left them behind.
He knocked. “Let me in,” he said.
“Not now!” Gabriel said. “Go away.”
Nathan grabbed the door handle, shook it hard and rattled the door doing so. “Let me in! I need to talk to her!”
“Stop!” Gabriel said.
Stop? Why?
Or did he not understand, either? Was he with the others, mad at him for trying to help Sang by going to Lily before? He knew what really happened. Wouldn’t he help him explain?
He tried the door again, and this time, he lifted the handle as high as he could and dropped it down, which sometimes allowed the locking mechanism to catch on locked doors.
It worked and the door opened.
But Gabriel blocked his way. His eyes were big, wild, and his teeth bared.
“I said don’t come in!” he cried out. “Don’t you fucking listen?” He blocked the door with his body, trying to shove Nathan out.
“I need to talk to her!” He continued to press. “Let me in.”
“I’ve got her,” he said. “I’m not the one that royally fucked up.”
“Gabriel,” Nathan growled at him. “I’m giving you two seconds to get out of the way...”
“You’d have to kill me first,” he said, but he opened the door, standing in the way still. The room behind him was empty.
Nathan tried to peek around him. “Where is she?”
“Just leave her alone!” Gabriel said. He put a hand on his chest and shoved at him, but Nathan held his ground. “God damn. You’ve done enough. How could you do all that to her?”
“I did it for her!” Nathan said. “Just let me talk to her.”
Gabriel shoved at him again. “I said back off.” When Nathan still didn’t back away, he shoved lower.
Nathan had another bout of pain radiating as Gabriel hit a spot that had been injured before. Nathan leaned forward, reacting to it and lost his balance as his legs collided with Gabriel.
Gabriel fell back, with Nathan on top of him, with Gabriel’s nose connecting with Nathan’s forehead.
When Nathan got up over him, Gabriel’s nose and mouth were bleeding. A slew of loud curses flung out from Gabriel’s face as he tried to shove him away.
“Sorry!” Nathan cried out, and he reached up, touching at Gabriel’s face, shocked at the blood pouring out, like his hand could somehow stop it.
But Gabriel was swinging, the anger erupting from him. He swung fists wildly out, striking at Nathan. “You keep the hell away from her! How could you ruin this for us?”
Sang burst out of the bathroom, standing out in the tiny hall. She looked over Gabriel and then Nathan, the horror on her face taking over. “Get off of him!” she cried out.
Nathan pulled himself up. This was his fault. Gabriel and Sang may never understand he didn’t mean to fall on him, and it looked like he’d attacked him.
He was only making it worse.
He needed to get away.
He ran out of the trailer and flew off the steps.
“Nathan!” Sang cried out in his wake.
But he didn’t stop. Blindly, he ran off. He ran until he was down the road, but he didn’t go home, couldn’t go home. Victor was likely there. He couldn’t go to Kota’s.
He needed to get someplace where he could think. His wild mind just wanted him to disappear. His heart wrenched into a tiny ball.
Kota’s car was parked in his usual spot. Nathan went to it, opened it, popping the trunk.
He found book bags inside, and he searched them for keys. He found a set.
He drove off, the tires screeching as he peeled out of Sunnyvale.
Wounded
Sang
I ran from Nathan’s house because I didn’t want the others to see.
They couldn’t see me upset on what I’d walked in on.
My reaction.
My face, I was sure, was unexplainable.
Why would a girl supposedly going out with Kota—or Silas or whoever they thought—be upset about Nathan?
I knew it was a trick. I knew there was something going on. Danielle was tricky as it was, and I was sure, dead sure, Nathan hadn’t meant it.
It still hurt. Which shocked me in a w
ay I wasn’t expecting.
Jealousy took over, so strong, so overwhelming. Even as Victor and Gabriel told me it wasn’t what it looked like in front of all of them, and while I still believed it, I couldn’t stay.
I was crying before I even got to the front door. I couldn’t stop the tears. It was why I had to run off. Despite knowing it was a trick, I couldn’t allow Danielle and the others to see me in such a state.
And I couldn’t go back to Kota’s. I didn’t know where else to go. At first, I was just running as fast as I could, just to get away.
I realized I was heading to the diner. I was in the lot before I thought where to go next. Not into public, not into the diner.
