“She’s nothing to me,” I snap, the words coming out sharper than I intend.
Mason chuckles. “Then why are you gripping that file like you’re imagining it’s his neck?”
“Fuck off,” I growl.
Miles raises an eyebrow. “You’re still pissed, Hayden. That’s not ‘nothing.’ Plus, she?—
“She chose him. She didn’t think about what happened to me.” I look down at the file again, anywhere so I don’t have to face my brothers, who know me well enough.
“She chose him, but you still chose her,” Declan mutters.
“Seriously, fuck off.” I stand, pocketing the file. “I’ve got work to do.”
They don’t follow me. They know I need space. But as I walk away, all I can think about is the fact that Olivia hasn’t told her mom the truth. That maybe some part of her still lives in that lie, or maybe she’s done it to protect something or someone.
And that makes everything worse.
Time to focus. Time to kill. Because the moment I stop moving, the moment I let myself feel again, I’ll drown in her.
I stop at the stairs, and instead of going downstairs, and back to the house, I go up. toward the sixth floor, because for one night, I don’t want to think about her. Since she came back I can’t stop thinking about her.
The sixth floor is quieter tonight, I walk the length of the dark hallway, and the bouncers don't even stop me, they open the door for me. Cain will know I’ve come up here; the man has cameras all over this place, but tonight I don’t even care. Just a moment without her face being in front of me, that’s all I need, is one night.
I spent most of my night on the sixth floor, hoping it was going to help me, it didn’t. And fuck did I try, but I hated myself more for thinking about her. Thinking about what we could have had.
As I walk through the corridor at school, I can hear a conversation but can’t make out what they are saying. The only thing I can hear is Olivia’s name, but as I get closer I start to hear a little more.
“She was getting into a car with Hayden, are they together?” some girl asks. “She works at Skyline. You know what they say about girls who work there.”
I clench my jaw, tight. Feeling my teeth grinding like gravel.
“How did the fucking new girl get Hayden, when we’ve been trying to get his attention since day one,” another girl moans, and I take a deep breath, and grab my books and walk to class.
Focus, Hayden. Focus on the mission. Focus on the fact that you’re not here for her. She doesn’t exist; she broke you. Remember that.
I step into my next class, and there she is. She seems to be in most of my classes, and that’s the last thing I need.
I see her in the back row, hoodie on, head down, with her hair falling like a curtain around her face. She doesn't look up. Not even when I walk in. But I know she feels me in the room, because her fingers twitch around her book. I even googled the book she’s reading, and it looks like she is reading some crazy romance shit at the moment. I haven’t read any of them and I don’t plan on it, but I did take a look at the reviews on there, and they seem to have some sex scenes which get spoken about a lot.
Jen sits three rows down from me, still pissed off about the other day, and I don’t even care because I can’t be with her atthe moment. She’s being her normal loudmouth self. Always has something to say, she’s laughing at something on her phone with some other girls, then she turns in her seat and tosses her voice over her shoulder like poison spray.
“Must be nice, getting free rides. Are you trying to figure out how to pay Hayden back for the ride?”
Abigail stiffens beside her. “Shut up, Jen.”
Jen rolls her eyes. “What? Everyone’s thinking it.”
My fists curl on the desk, but I don’t turn around, I don’t have to, I can feel Olivia shrink further into herself.
Thank fuck class finally starts and Jen shuts up. Now I can think about anything other than the girl who used to be my best friend.
Class drags on. When the bell rings, I don’t rush. I wait. Everyone clears out. Olivia was out before I even stood up, she’s doing everything she can to make sure she’s not around a lot of people. She hasn’t been coming to many of the parties either and the ones she comes to Abigail has dragged her, and she leaves as soon as she can.
I have no classes this afternoon, and I have other things to be doing, like look into my hit. I told Mason and Miles where I would be, so they know not to get in touch with me.
Walking to my car, I glance over to see Olivia sitting alone in the garden side of the yard. I’m not sure how she got back to school yesterday, because there was no way her car would be fixed overnight. As I get to the car lot, I stop, well that answers that question. Her car is still where it was yesterday, and I look over at the tires.Not your problem Hayden, walk the fuck away.
Shaking my head, I get in the car and make my way to watch the asshole whose life I’m going to enjoy ending.
