Declan chuckles. “I reassured her, told her unless something happens, you won’t even be noticed.” He pats my back, and I nod. I know Lileah hates it, but it’s the only way she’s going, I won’t go through another bad prom night.
"She's the baby sister of four brothers who know how to kill, it’s not easy for her, and her having a boyfriend won’t be easy.”
“Especially not for baby sisters who get asked to prom by teenage boys who think TikTok trends make them interesting,” Miles adds, rolling his eyes. “There's something else I have to tell you.”
We all turn around to face Miles, but his eyes are locked on me. “And what's that, you finally coming out?” I joke with him and he tells me to fuck off which makes me laugh.
“Fuck off, it’s about Olivia.” I look away from him, because he knows I don’t care, so why say anything? “When I was in her car, I saw something, and—” he stops, and it makes me turn my head to face him. “—I know we hate her for what she did, and we will always be on your side. You hate her, we hate her, you forgive her, we forgive her. But there was a note I saw, and it said, "We will play again, like old times.” Miles stops for a moment, and I use every ounce in my body not to react. “She looked freaked out when she took it from me, I don’t think it’s the first note she’s got.”
“Who’s sent it?” Declan asks.
“Don’t know, didn’t ask, and even if I did I don’t think she'd have told me.” I glance over to the window, wondering who'd have sent her the note. “If I had to pick who sent it, Leo would be on the top of the list.”
I stay quiet not saying anything, not sure what to say or how to feel about it.
I zone out the conversation happening around me, to focus on my body to stay the fuck where it is and not get up and walk to the window. Wondering if she’s still behind the bar, hoping no man is talking to her.
Who’s sending her the notes, is Leo really that stupid?
Yet I wonder why I should care, I shouldn’t but if I can’t have her, then no one can.
My body betrays me and I’m walking to the window, where I watch her laughing with a man. The laugh I used to know betterthan my own name and the next second my body has decided my brain hasn't caught up with yet and I'm walking, out of the office and down the stairs.
Power walking through the crowd, pushing people out of my way, so I can get faster. My eyes still locked on her giggling away with the asshole.
Why the fuck do I care?
I reach her before she sees me coming.
My hand closes around her upper arm and I pull her away from the bar without a word, not rough enough to hurt her, but rough enough that she has absolutely no choice.
"Hayden—"
I keep walking, steering her toward the side corridor, away from the bar, away from him, away from the music and everyone watching.
"Hayden, what are you?—"
I push through the side door and we're in the corridor and I let go of her arm and she spins to face me, and her eyes are wide and something in her face is doing that thing it used to do, that thing I told myself I'd forgotten but haven't.
"What is wrong with you?" she says. "You're hurting me?—"
"I’m hurting you!" It comes out loud. "I’m hurting you, Olivia?"
She blinks. "Yes, you?—"
"Nowhere close to how you fucking hurt me! Nowhere even in the same world of how you hurt me. You hurt me in so many ways that I still live with that pain. Everything that happened, it was your fault, you fucked me up, and you’ve come back here like it meant fucking nothing!” I punch the wall so hard it breaks the plaster.
Olivia screams, her eyes wide, I can see her body shaking, but she hasn’t seen the fucking scars, she didn’t have to fucking sleepwith one eye open, she’s got her whole life thrown upside down. She did all that to me.
She goes quiet.
Good.
I take a step back because I need the distance, need something between me and the way she's looking at me right now, it’s taking everything in me to keep myself together. I drag a hand through my hair and try to find the version of myself that doesn't care about any of this, and I can't find him anywhere.
"Who is he?" I ask.
"Who is—" She stops. Something shifts in her face.
