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Reluctantly, I allow her legs to drop until she's taking her own weight once more and I step back. It fucking rips me apart inside to do so, but this isn't just about me.
A roar rips from my throat a second before my fist slams into the locker beside her head.
She screams, and all the fight leaves me.
"Shit, K. I wouldn't," I shout.
"I know," she says sadly, “you just startled me. "I... uh..." She looks over her shoulder at the door, and I swear to God my world stops spinning. "I really need to..."
"Go back to him," I finish for her.
"It's not like that, and you know it."
"Do I?" I sigh as she starts to back away from me. "I love you, K. I fucking love you."
"I know." Those two words gut me. The fact that she doesn't say it back shreds me to fucking pieces.
I watch her go, but the second she has her hand on the door, ready to push it open, I stop her.
"Wait." I push my hand into my pocket and pull out something I’m sure will mean nothing to her. "Here."
I drop the small origami flower into her hand and then turn and walk away myself, knowing that I can't bear to watch her do it to me.
Chapter Eleven
Kennedy
“Feeling better?” Warren asks me the moment my eyes open.
I take a second, pressing a hand to my stomach. “Still a little nauseous.”
I hadn’t even had to lie.
When Shelbie had dropped me off at the trailer yesterday, I’d spent almost two hours puking into the Kravens toilet bowl. That’s how Warren found me.
I blamed the school’s Taco Friday. Surprisingly, he bought it. He’d held my hair back and then stripped my damp clothes from my body, lowered me into the tub, and washed every inch of my skin. I was too weak to argue. Too broken to fight off his touch when he slid his fingers between my legs and made me come.
But the guilt came thick and fast, and he’d barely gotten me to the bowl before I puked again. By the end of it, I was so weak I could barely stand. Warren tucked me into bed with a hot water bottle and some ice chips and let me sleep.
Only, sleep didn’t find me. I lay there, pretending. It was easier than trying to keep him at arm’s length.
I couldn’t do it, not after seeing Conner. Not after hearing the pain in his voice and feeling the anger in his kiss.
He hates me.
Conner hates me, and I don’t blame him.
But I also know he loves me. That’s why he’s hurting so much. Because I’ve broken his heart.
I’m a fucking mess.
But I can only pacify Warren for so long. He’s already growing skittish. Soon he’ll want me to prove my loyalty with not only my words but my body. And I’ll have no choice but to obey.
Because Conner confirmed what I already knew—Warren has the Jaggers running scared.
“Why don’t you have the morning in bed? I want to hit the gym and run a few errands. We’re going out tonight, so you need to feel better.”
“Out?” The hairs along the back of my neck tingle.
