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“What?” Gareth couldn’t hide the shock in his voice. “You’re kidding. She’s still weak—” Him arguing against me going to school, supposedly due to wanting me to rest, was very out of character for him… yet another reason why I had to go to school today.
Plus, Erin still hadn’t texted me back. It was the oddest thing.
“She’s old enough to decide for herself what she can handle,” Alistair spoke with a nod. “If she decides she wants to come home, she can call and I’ll come pick her up.” At that, my mom had to roll her eyes, like she thought I was being a drama queen or something.
Gareth turned his glare to me. “Fine. Let’s go, then.” He said not another word, storming out of the kitchen. He never brought a backpack home, so I assumed he went to get his shoes and then for the car.
“You better catch up to him,” Alistair spoke, “otherwise he might just leave without you.”
I turned to do just that, hurrying after Gareth. Gareth said not a word to me, not as we went into the garage, not as we got into his car, and not even during the drive to school. I didn’t need to be a mind-reader to know he wasn’t happy with me, but whatever.
I had to go to school. I had to see Erin and make sure she was okay.
God, I hoped she wasn’t ignoring me because she remembered what happened… if that was the case, I’d say Gareth was fucked, but would he really be? Probably not.
And if she wasn’t okay… what would I do? I’d cross that bridge when and if I got to it.
Seeing the old school building as we approached, my stomach twisted into a dozen knots. It looked like any other morning, and yet the bandage on my wrist was a constant reminder of the events of the weekend. I couldn’t fight the nerves in me as we pulled into the parking lot. Gareth parked in his usual spot, slow to turn off the car and finally turn those hateful green eyes toward me.
“You will not push yourself today,” Gareth told me. “And I don’t want you calling my uncle if you want to go home. You’ll message me instead. If you need to go home, I’ll drive you.” It sounded almost like he was irritated at the mere thought that Alistair had offered to come pick me up, like he didn’t want me to be alone with anyone else.
“I don’t think the school would like that,” I spoke, reaching for the door handle and getting out.
Gareth got out of his car, hurrying around the front of the sportscar to reach my side. I started walking away, but he grabbed my elbow and stopped me by pulling me back toward him. “I don’t give a shit about what the school or anyone who works here says. You’re my responsibility, Brianna, not Alistair’s.”
I stared at him for a few moments after that, my gaze narrowed in suspicion. There was no way he knew something was going on with me and Alistair, was there? I might’ve hinted that there were secrets Alistair wasn’t telling him, but this overzealous protectiveness had come out of nowhere.
But we weren’t alone. Other students were arriving, pulling into their parking spots too, so I jerked my arm away from him. Saying not a single word, I turned and walked away with a fast pace as headed toward the main doors to the school. As I went, I pretended not to feel Gareth’s glare on the back of my head.
With how my weekend went, it was crazy to think no one else had any idea. Walking inside the school, everyone else went about their normal Monday routine—meaning more than half of them were sleepwalking, while the other half clutched their choice of coffee. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just another day.
It wasn’t just another day, though.
I went to my locker, tossing glances all around as I opened it and stuffed my bag inside. A part of me expected Erin to appear, profusely apologizing for what happened, as if it was all her fault, but no one came up to my locker. I grabbed my stuff for my first few classes and shut my locker, and then I headed through the school halls, to where Erin’s locker was.
Minutes went by. I had to move so the students who had their lockers next to Erin’s could get in, but once they were gone I retook my spot, leaning my back against the metal lockers as I waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
Basically, I waited until I couldn’t wait anymore, until the warning bell rang, signaling the impending start of homeroom and first period. Once that stupid bell rang, I had to give it up and get to class.
It was only when I slid into my assigned seat that I let myself wonder what the hell was going on. Erin had my same schedule, so a teeny, tiny part of me had hoped that, maybe, she’d already visited her locker and had gone straight to homeroom without wanting to talk to me. Maybe she didn’t want to bring up what happened over the weekend, thinking it was too awkward or something.
But her seat remained empty, and that only made the pit in my stomach grow.
There were only a few reasons Erin would be absent. Either she was sick—and she certainly hadn’t looked sick Saturday afternoon when she’d come over—or… or something had happened to her, after she’d gone and I’d cut myself.
The teacher took attendance and sent it into the main office, and morning announcements came on the speakers shortly after that. Everyone stood and said the pledge of allegiance, like every morning, but I was too busy staring at Erin’s vacant seat to speak a word.
Gareth had been so furious with me, when I’d done it. He’d rushed over to me, grabbed me, and took hold of me to stop me from bleeding out. Alistair had said Gareth had stayed by my side in the hospital, but what if… what if he hadn’t?
What if he’d gone and killed Erin anyways?
I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that Gareth was connected to Erin’s absence, and as the day wore on and I went to the rest of my classes, that feeling only grew. Erin never showed up. Her seat remained eerily empty the entire morning—and the pit in my stomach refused to dissipate.
What would I do if Gareth had killed her after all? That had been the whole point in hurting myself, to try to get him to see reason, to threaten to take away his new favorite toy. If he’d killed her… then there was no point. No point in any of it.
