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Jacob sighed, concern making his brows furrow. “Bailey—”
“Don’t,” I muttered. His frown deepened, his eyes pleading with me to open up to him. I thrust my books at him and shut my locker door. “I need to go to the restroom.”
With that, I scurried off from him, escaping into the bathroom where he couldn’t pry answers out of me. When Jacob looked at me like that—like I was ripping him apart by dying inside—it fucked me up worse than I already was.
I hated that my shit was affecting everyone else, but I didn’t know how to lock this back up. It was overflowing past the dams I’d worked so hard to build. It was like an uncontrollable storm. The emotions and the pain now had nowhere to go but out. And fuck, they were gushing out of me.
I splashed cold water on my face, trying to shock my system into locking my tears back up. I drew in a shaky breath, staring up at my pale face in the mirror.
I looked like shit. How I looked on the outside was exactly how I felt on the inside—dead. There was no color to my cheeks anymore. I used to be rosy and smiley. Now, I just looked . . . dull.
The door opened, and one of the popular girls walked in. She was the reason Gemma had dropped out a few weeks ago. Hell, I hadn’t even heard from Gemma since she did. And the fucked up part was, though Gemma and I had been best friends for years, I didn’t care enough to reach out to her.
How fucked up was that?
All I knew was that Gemma eventually moved back home after making up with her parents, but beyond that, I had no idea what she was doing nor how she was doing.
“What do you want?” I demanded when Paisley stopped behind me, staring at me through the mirror.
“The weight of your lies finally weighing down on your shoulders, Bailey?” she taunted.
I laughed. It sounded bitter and cold. I stood up to my full height and turned to face her. “What lies, Paisley?” I demanded. Already, I could feel this argument draining me of what little energy I had.
She eyed me with disgust, her eyes lingering on my stomach for a moment. I wasn’t showing yet, and honestly, I wasn’t even eating enough to be bloated. If you looked at me, you had no idea I was pregnant.
“That baby isn’t Seth’s.”
I shrugged. “I never said it was,” I told her, stating facts. Someone had found out though, and spread the rumor. But as for me, I had never said a word to anyone here. I had never even mentioned that I was pregnant. But word had a way of spreading in this small ass town regardless of how much you tried to keep something under wraps. “So, if you don’t mind, kindly fuck off.”
I moved to step around her, but she blocked me. I drew in a deep breath. “Seth never wanted you, Bailey. You were something fun—that was it.” I flinched, her words cutting me. A cruel smirk twisted her lips. “He dropped you, just like everyone knew he would. Yeah, he prolonged it—probably hadn’t gotten to fuck you yet.” She was wrong about that. We’d fucked within the first couple of days of knowing each other, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. It was none of her business. “But he dropped you just the same.” She laughed. “And now, no one is going to want you. You’re nothing but another statistic—a single, deadbeat mom with a baby daddy that doesn’t want shit to do with you considering I haven’t seen him anywhere around.”
With that, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and walked out of the restroom. Tears burned in my eyes. My hands shook as I pulled my phone from my pocket and called Trent.
“Sis?” he asked as soon as he answered. “What’s wrong?”
I sniffled. My throat burned with tears. I didn’t know whether I wanted to scream at the unfairness of the world or curl into a ball in a corner somewhere and cry. “Can you come get me?” I croaked.
“Yeah.” His voice was soft, understanding. I sobbed. “I’ll be there soon, yeah? Go on up to the front office. I’ll call to let the school know I’m picking you up.”
“Thanks,” I whispered, my voice breaking.
I swiped at my cheeks and walked out of the restroom. Seth was standing in front of the bathroom, towering over Paisley, his angry eyes narrowed at her. Her face was pale, and fear resided in her eyes. The scene brought me to a halt, my teary eyes wide as I stared at them.
What was going on?
Why was Seth so angry? And why did Paisley look so scared?
Seth abruptly turned to face me, his blue eyes running over me. “Bailey,” he breathed, taking a step towards me like he wanted to wrap me up in his arms and hold me.
God, that killed me.
My heart broke. My bottom lip trembled.
Jacob stepped between us, blocking me from Seth’s view. The breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding whooshed out of my lungs. “Come on,” Jacob said softly, wrapping an arm around me. He led me away, throwing a dirty look at Seth over his shoulder. “Trent texted me. Let’s get you to the front office.”
I sniffled and nodded my head. But I couldn’t stop myself from looking back over my shoulder at the guy who wrecked my soul but somehow still held my heart. Seth’s eyes met mine. There was so much regret in his eyes that my soul screamed in agony.
I looked away first. I couldn’t fucking take it.
