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I’d prefer? What an ass.
Slowly he removes his hand from my mouth, and I suck in a greedy breath. I don’t scream, mostly because there really is no point. We are in a truck driving down the road.
Who is going to hear me?
Digging deep, I find the strength to speak, to fight back. “Where are you taking me? What are you going to do?”
“I’ve already told you, we’re friends and we are trying to help you.”
“We’re not friends,” I growl, trying to fight against his muscled arms. “And you’ve hurt me. I know you have. Shelby told me everything. There’s no point in trying to hide it.”
“And what’s that?” he asks, slightly amused.
“I know you drugged me the other day at that party.”
“I don’t know why she would say that, but I can assure you, I did no such thing. What would be my motive for doing that?”
“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me? She told me you wouldn’t let her go back outside and told some random guy to bring me a spiked drink.”
“First of all, why would I drug you, and then sit in a car with you for three hours until you sobered up, just to drive you home? Second, if I would have really done that then why didn’t Shelby call the police?”
His words have the fight in me stopping dead in its tracks.
Why would he, and why didn’t she call the cops?
It doesn’t make sense to me. Shelby’s supposed to be my friend. She’s supposed to help me, not hurt me. Why would she do such a thing? Banks takes a sharp turn making us slide across the leather seat. The movement interrupts my thoughts.
Air swooshes from my lungs when I nearly make impact with the window. I would have hit my head against it if it wasn’t for Oliver’s strong arms wrapped around me.
It’s then that I realize I’m still sitting on his lap. Pushing off of him, I scurry off his lap, and take the seat next to him, and attempt to gather my thoughts.
I’m confused, beyond confused.
“I don’t know… but I do know what I saw. She showed me pictures of you and Tiffany. I know you terrorized me at school, that you hung up a banner with my number and spread rumors about me.”
Oliver’s face falls at the mention of those things, and I know that they’re true.
“I’m not gonna lie to you, Harlow. All those things are true, but that was before…” His voice trails off, and it sounds like he’s ashamed.
His words hurt more than I anticipated. I already knew the truth, but part of me was hoping that it wasn’t true, that maybe he would deny it, or had an explanation for his actions, but he doesn’t. Disappointment and jealousy settle deep in my gut.
“Why would I believe anything you say now? You just admitted to bullying me. You made my life hell, and now suddenly you want to help me?” I scoff, they can’t actually expect me to buy this bullshit story.
Oliver looks scorned, but not defeated. “You aren’t innocent, either. Yeah, I’ve done things and so have my brothers, but you did something just as bad. We wanted to ruin your life because you ruined our lives when you planted drugs on Sullivan.”
Banks takes that moment to say something for the first time, “What you did two years ago affected our entire family. Our father’s business went bankrupt, we had to move, completely start over again. So yeah, we wanted revenge. But we would never physically hurt you… never.” For some stupid reason, I look to the front seat, my eyes meeting Banks’ in the rearview mirror.
“Everything you just said only proves further that you should hate me and that I shouldn’t trust you.”
Oliver sighs loudly and scrubs his hands down his face in frustration, “You’re just gonna have to trust us, I guess.”
“We’re almost there,” Banks says, and I wonder where the hell there is. Looking out the window, it’s clear that we’ve left the city, given all the trees. Banks turns off the highway and on to a smaller road. After a few more miles, he turns down a dirt road, and my panic starts to mount.
“Where are we going?” I ask, doing my best to keep my voice steady.
“We bought a cabin up here to get away from school when we want to. We’re gonna stay there for a few days until we can figure out who is trying to hurt you.”
“No one is trying to hurt me, and if they are, I’m better off back at the dorms with dumb and dumber than I’ll ever be here with any of you.” At the end of the day, the Bishops and I will always be rivals, and nothing they tell me will ever change that.
