AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her brow lifts, and she kneels down beside me like I’m a child who needs eye-level interaction. “Who was here, Ry?”
No. She’ll ask too many questions. Then she’ll hunt Ridge down like he’s a predator and grill the hell out of him. No. I can’t tell her. “No one. I just…had a really weird dream, that’s all.”
Her perplexed look shifts to one of sympathy. “About him?”
She’s referring to Sebastian Saint, naturally, considering he’s in my dreams every night.Except last night. In fact, I don’t even think I dreamt last night.
I get off the floor and Scar does the same. “No,” I tell her as I pull my dress down. “Actually, it wasn’t a bad dream this time. Just weird.” I hate lying to her, but there are some things we just have to keep to ourselves until we’re able to figure them out.
Such as my fucked-up emotions. Not just figuring them out for myself, but with Ridge, too. I swear the guy gives me whiplash and he hasn’t even spoken to me. I can’t quite figure out how he makes me feel. Sometimes he’s hot, while other times he’s cold. Any sane person would report his behavior to the dean immediately, but for some reason, I haven’t.
“Well,” she drags out the word as she lifts a cup of coffee out of the carrier. “This should help you survive the day.” I take the coffee from her and flip the little tab on the top before blowing into it. “How’s your head this morning?”
“Good,” I say honestly. “Great, actually.” Then it hits me. The sleeping pills. No wonder I slept so well. Ridge fed them to me and I accepted. My God, I am such an idiot. He could have drugged me with something else, but in my semi-comatose state, I accepted them. Of course that means I’m going to feel groggy today, on top of my hangover. It’s why I rarely ever take those damn pills in the first place.
I set my coffee on my nightstand while Scar shuffles through her drawers on her side of the room.
Picking up the bottle Ridge sat on my nightstand last night, I tap it against my palm, rattling the contents. I knew I didn’t imagine him.
“I hope you’re feeling better, Ry,” Scar’s tone shifts abruptly to a more serious note, “because I have something to tell you.”
“What happened?” I set the bottle back down and sit on my bed. Flicking tiny gold specks of glitter on the sheet from my dress, I prepare myself for the worst because Scar only uses that tone when it’s something big.
Her shoulders slump, and she tosses a pair of dirty jeans in her laundry basket. “We have cleanup from the party last night.”
“Son of a bitch.” I drop back down on the bed, resting my head on my pillow. “Of course we do.” Cleanup is nothing like what I thought she was going to say, but I’m still not happy about it.
I swear the upper-class girls hate us. We’re constantly given tasks, and while I’m certain they’re nothing like what the guys have to do, it still sucks.
Reaching over to my nightstand, I grab my coffee and scoot up so I can drink it down before jumping in the shower. Mmm…black and bitter, just the way I like it.
“How many of us?” I ask, hoping like hell we have a large group of girls to help clean up.
“Not really sure. Elena sent out a text, didn’t you get it?”
“Haven’t checked my messages. And right now, I wish you hadn’t either.”
Elena is a sophomore and like a peer advocate with a whip. She tells us what to do and when to do it. But she also has a junior ahead of her telling her what to do. The senior girls basically hold all the power over us and if there is one thing I hate more than anything, it’s being told what to do.
Dragging my ass out of bed, I grumble repeatedly, making my disdain for this situation clearly known. “Going to shower. I’ll be back.” I grab some clothes and make my way down the hall to the communal bathroom. Once I’ve washed away a night of heavy drinking, I put on a pair of gray sweatpants and a pink hoodie with a bitten donut on the front. I toss my damp hair up in a clip and don’t even bother putting on any makeup. The old Riley wouldn’t dare leave the dorms without a fresh layer of foundation, but this is the new me and my new motto is: Don’t like it, don’t fucking look.
I’m back in our room, slipping on my white sneakers, when Scar’s voice hits my ears. “Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you, there’s a bonfire at the hot springs Friday night. The guys are forcing me to go with them, in which case, I’m forcing you.”
“Nooooo.” I drag out the word. My head falls back and the pushover inside of me begs the new me to step in. “Not another party, Scar. Please.”
“Come on. You’ve bailed on all the good parties already this year. Even the one Maddie and Jude attended.”
“But I went last night.”
“You had no choice last night. The freshmen threw the party.”
Maddie is Neo’s—one of Scar’s boyfriend’s—twin sister and also a good friend of ours. Jude is Scar’s half-brother and one of our other best friends. Jude and Maddie don’t attend BCU, but they came for a visit a couple weeks ago, and I missed seeing them. Now, Scar will use that as bait to get me to go to, yet another, party.
“It’s not for a few more days,” Scar continues. “So I’ve got plenty of time to convince you.”
“We’ll see,” I grumble in defeat. “Is that good enough?”
Scar hooks an arm around my shoulder and leads me out of our room, closing the door behind us. “For now.”
