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Chapter 29
Samara
Itwas1PMwhenI got the text from Ginger stating she was outside the front gate. It was Sunday, and I had to be back on campus before the 10PM curfew. The plan was to head into town and get some lunch so we could talk about the missing teenagers. After that, I didn’t know. I only assumed she’d bring me back to the academy.
Before walking out the dorm I had to check in on Sky. Ever since she was attacked, she’d been distant. She’d hardly come out of her room. She’d been missing classes. At night I could hear her cries echoing across the dorm. Hell, I wasn’t sure if she’d gotten a wink of sleep since then. Brian came to visit her several times over the weekend and she’d turned her own boyfriend away. I was worried about her. We both were.
“Sky?” I gently knocked twice, frowning when I grasped the knob and found it locked.Again.
“Hey, I’m about to head out with my friend to go get some lunch. You want me to bring you back anything?”
Silence. It was so deafening I could hardly stand it.
“At least answer me,” I pleaded. “Let me know you’re alive in there before I kick the fucking door down.”
“I’m alive,” she called out. “Just go, Samara. I’ll be here when you get back.”
I blew out a breath and shook my head before grabbing my wallet off the kitchen counter. When I made it outside, closer to the gate, Ginger honked the horn and threw a hand out of the window, shouting that she was starving and for me to hurry the hell up and get in the car already.
“Samara!” she squealed once I hopped inside and shut the door behind me. Ginger reached over and tightly wrapped her arms around me. “God, I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too.”
“Jesus, babe.” She pulled away, her gaze widening as she grazed her fingertips across the cut on my bottom lip. It hadn’t fully healed yet. I’d been nursing the inflammation with ice and the cut itself with a shit ton of Neosporin for the last two to three days now. The swelling had gone down tremendously, but it would take another day or two for it to fully heal. Or at least I hoped.
“What happened to you?”
“It’s a long story,” I sighed out, not really in the mood to talk about it just yet. “Let’s go eat and then we can talk.”
After driving around a bit to find majority of the local restaurants with long lines of people waiting outside the doors, we’d chosen to get pizza instead. There was a decent looking pizzeria I’d spotted across the street from a little boutique shop. Ginger parked along the side of the street and together we rushed inside, both more than eager to soothe our hunger.
“Table for two?” a guy wearing a ridiculous looking pizza hat asked when we walked inside.
“Three actually,” spoke Ginger.
“Wait, what?” I cut my eyes hard at Ginger, who offered me an apologetic smile. “I thought it was just gonna be the two of us.”
She didn’t reply right away. As the pizza guy began leading us to our table, Ginger was hot on his heels. It wasn’t until we were seated in a booth when she spoke again.
“I’m sorry, Samara, but no. Jace is coming too. He-uh, he’ll be here soon.”
I scoffed, my heart sinking. “Why are you just now telling me about this?”
“I didn’t think you’d agree to come if you knew,” was her nervous, blunt reply. “There’s a lot to explain and I can’t do this without him.”
My heart sank lower as that day with Isaac in the courtyard invaded my brain. I didn’t have the heart to face Jace again after what I’d done. Ginger was right. I wouldn’t have agreed to come if I knew he’d be here too. It looked like I didn’t have much of a choice but to face him now because Ginger was my only ride back to the academy.
God fucking DAMNIT.
I breathed in and out as the unwelcoming feeling of nausea sloshed deep, heavy waves through my stomach. Then as I glanced out the window, taking in Jace’s SUV pulling up and parking right behind Ginger’s car, bile ruthlessly burned up my throat. My hand clamped tightly around my mouth and within seconds I was darting to the bathroom, ignoring Ginger as she anxiously called out my name from the booth.
I pushed open the first stall I could find and dropped to my knees, vomiting. Tears slipped out my eyes as I struggled to ease my heartrate back to normal.
I can’t do this.
Yes, you can. You have to.
No, I can’t. Just get up and make a fucking run for it already!
