Page 71 of She's With Me (She's With Me 1)

I awkwardly stand in front of him, not knowing what to do.

“Thanks?” I say suddenly, remembering that I probably have blood on me from when I bit Dave’s hand, and wipe it away.

“He’s a dick, anyway,” the guy says nonchalantly.

I appreciate that he saved me from Dave and his friend, but I have this nagging feeling that something’s off about him. Plus, I don’t want to stay behind this building where no one knows where I am for any longer. I’m tired. I’m sore. I’m rattled. And to be honest, all I really want right now is Aiden.

I begin to walk back to the front of the building. “Right. Well, thanks again.”

“Wait!” he says quickly, coming closer to me but not invading my personal space.

I regard him warily. He’s not threatening, but I’m drained after what I’ve just been through, and I just want to get back to my friends.

“What’s your name?” he asks gently.

I at least owe him my name after he jumped in to help me out. “Amelia.”

“I’m Luke.” He smiles. “I wish we could’ve met in different circumstances.”

“Yeah, no one really likes being manhandled and punched so hard in the stomach that they taste colors,” I say, while trying to smooth out my hair.

“Been there, done that,” Luke jokes, before growing serious. “Listen, you’re friends with Annalisa White, right?”

My eyes narrow at him and my mind shouts Red flag! Red flag!

He must sense my alarm because he quickly adds “I saw you guys pull in together and you were talking to her.”

That doesn’t make me feel any better. I’m grateful that he’s here, since he’s the only reason I’m not a bloody mess right now—well, at least not a bloody mess with my own blood instead of Dave’s. Seriously, I think I tore a chunk of his hand out; there are bloodstains on my leather jacket from when he grabbed my arms. But if this guy is enough to make the always fierce Annalisa nervous, then maybe I should be careful around him too.

“Who? Oh, that girl with the red headband? No, she came up with some friends of my friends. We just met tonight. Well, thanks again,” I ramble as I slowly back up and then turn to run to the front of the building, leaving a very confused Luke behind.

Turning sharply, I run straight into Mason. He reaches out his arms and steadies me, preventing me from landing on my ass from ricocheting off him.

“Amelia? Where the hell have you been?”

Swirls of different emotions flood me when I see him. I don’t know how to feel about him right now. On one hand, Mason is a great friend and I love spending time with him. I want him to be happy, and it really shouldn’t be his job to protect me twenty-four seven. It’s not his job to make sure I don’t find trouble, which is inevitable anyway. On the other hand, he left me alone in a sketchy bathroom surrounded by even sketchier people who are into illegal shit. He literally had one job: to make sure I wasn’t left alone. He knew that Ryan and the Silvers who hate me and already did illegal things to me are here, and he left me.

What makes it worse is that he left me so that he could flirt with a girl. Like his booty call couldn’t have waited until I was done and back with everyone else? I don’t expect him to give up his life and devote himself to a life of service and protection. He just had to wait five minutes and then flirt with her when I was with Julian or Chase or someone.

I know I can’t blame him for what happened. It’s not his fault that Dave hates me and Aiden. But if Mason was with me, Dave would’ve never grabbed me in the first place, and I wouldn’t have just been beaten up and have a giant bruise forming on my abdomen. I’ll eventually get over it and forgive him, but right now, I need to be mad. That shit was traumatizing and I wouldn’t have had to go through it if he didn’t ditch me. He wasn’t even the one to save me. Like, did he not even notice that I was gone? He should know it doe

sn’t take that long to pee.

“K-bear? What’s wr—” He stops when he takes in my appearance.

I’m sure I look a mess. I know that my hair is tangled, and I can only hope that I got the blood off my face. My clothes are disheveled, not to mention the blood smudged on my jacket.

“Holy shit, Amelia. What the fuck happened to you?”

He grabs my chin and analyzes my face for damage, but I push his hand off, my anger brewing.

“It’s not my blood,” I answer coldly, and walk back to that awful bathroom to get cleaned up before anyone else sees me. I don’t want to answer any questions and I definitely don’t want Aiden to find out.

Mason quickly follows. “Amelia, stop. Tell me what happened.”

I get to the bathroom and step in before turning to regard him with cold and angry eyes.

“Why don’t you ask your booty call?” I snap, unable to help myself, before slamming the door closed in his face.

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