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Her face turns red under my attention, but she isn’t blushing, she’s full of rage. Completely burning with wrath as she closes the distance between us.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” She shoves me hard and I stubble against the unexpected assault.
“Excuse me?” I scoff a laugh, looking at her with amused concern. What the hell is this chick on? I don’t wait for an answer, I keep moving, heading towards my front door and fishing my key out.
As I unlock the door, she follows behind me. “You need to stop fucking around with Brielle,” she warns and I almost smile. Trust me, Shelby. I would if I could.
I turn slowly, leaning back against the doorframe as I take in her small frame. “Oh, is that what I need to do?”
She isn’t deterred by my attitude, she stomps until she is right in front of me. “I don’t care about your shitty games, rumors, or bets, or how much you get off on being a prized prick! Brielle is my friend and you will stop hurting her.” Her little rant is finished with a poke to my chest and I suddenly understand how her and Brielle became such quick friends. They are a pair of little firecrackers.
“Listen, Andrews. I don’t know what’s got your panties in such a twist, but Brielle took the bracelet and completed the bet, it’s no big deal.” I shrug and turn, hoping to head inside and end this conversation, but she cuts me off.
“You’re hurting her, more than you know.”
The scoff that leaves me now is bitter. “Trust me, she’s earned a little pain. She isn’t the innocent one here.”
“What? You think a fucking evening in jail, deserves all this.” My shock at her knowing that must be clear because she goes on. “Yeah I know all about the tip that landed you guys an afternoon in the slammer before your daddies’ names made it all go away, boo fucking hoo. If you don’t stop hurting her, you’re gonna cause her so much pain, you won’t ever be able to come back from it.”
My defenses are rising and I can’t help but snap back at the memories of that day. “Yeah, well maybe we don’t want to come back from it, did you ever think of that?”
She scoffs, shaking her head. “Then why are you here?” My silence is deafening as we stare at one another until she sighs, “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She closes the distance between us and her eyes turn pleading. “Just please stop, you aren’t just hurting her, you’re going to kill her. Stop before it goes too far. She’s gonna need you.” She takes a step back and her eyes lift over my shoulder. “All of you.”
When she turns and storms away, I feel the presence of one of my brothers at my back, I’m not surprised to find it’s Ashton. Things have been tense with us ever since that night in the kitchen when I fessed up what happened between Brielle and I. I’m not gonna say I didn’t deserve the fucking right hook he gave me, but I do know it has caused some tension between us which we have never had to endure before.
“What did she want?” His voice is quiet, solemn, like he heard every word and just wants to know my take on it.
“Just mouthing off about Brielle.” I shrug, acting casual, pretending her words didn’t remind me exactly why I loathe the girl with the sunshine smile so much.
Ash frowns further, focusing his eyes on me. “She said Brielle was hurt.” He’s always quiet, doesn't use many words, wanting to get straight to the point, but right now I feel under scrutiny.
“Shelby was just being dramatic, we didn’t do anything to hurt Brielle tonight. She took the bracelet, accepted the bet, and now it’s done.” I move to push past him but he blocks my way and I feel that energy I just spent an hour burning off, charging back up. “You gonna hit me again?”
He smirks. “Do I need to hit you again?” I can’t help but smirk back. I know he regrets hitting me, and is sorry about it, but I also know he would do it again in a second if he felt I needed it. And I did. Talking about Brielle the way I did was uncalled for, but I don’t think they understand that she is the only thing that can quieten the noise inside my head. Without her I’m drowning.
“Aren’t you worried about how different she is?” He asks when I don’t respond and let silence simmer between us.
Of course I am. I’ve had to sit back for weeks and watch my sunshine girl be at the fucking beck and call of some slimy piece of shit who has never seemed to learn he can’t have what he wants all the time. How the fuck he landed Brielle is something that keeps me up at night. But I can’t tell Ashton that, he’s like a dog with a bone, already searching for something that isn’t there. If I agree with him, let on that I watch her too, that I also see the smile on her face, but something else in her eyes, he would never let it go.
“Just let her go, Ash. Let her go, like she let us go.”
This time I force myself around his frame and stalk to my room without looking back.
Just over a week later and I am in a new kind of hell. I see Brielle nowhere but feel her everywhere. I haven’t laid eyes on her since the undie run and you’d think I’d be used to her distance by now, her disappearing, but this feels different than last time. I can’t explain it.
When she left us, it’s like a hole was opened in the center of my chest, a hole that Brielle had been healing for years without her even realizing it. And when she left, the hole didn’t just reappear, it grew, opened up more than before until I was barely hanging on.
Her distance now is more familiar. I’ve felt it before, yet it’s as if my body can’t understand it. Maybe it’s because I never knew what it felt like to have her before. Not that I know what it feels like now, but just for a moment, just for that one encounter in the gym, she was mine. I hate myself for thinking that, for wanting that, but my brain has never been able to be completely rational when it comes to her.
I know I’m not the only one to notice her absence. I watch all of the guys' eyes trail to her empty seat in class, see them flash their stare around campus trying to catch a glimpse of her, but it’s no use. She’s gone.
Even her roommate is acting jumpy. Ever since Tuesday when Shelby walked into Econ alone I have been on edge. She didn’t take her usual seat in front of us, instead she made sure she was as far away from us as she could manage. I spent the entire ninety minute class staring at the side of her head while she actively avoided looking at me. She was acting nervous, on edge, like she knew something we didn’t, and when the end of class came, she packed her bag up so fast that I’m not sure I have ever seen anyone move that fast.
When we had Econ on Thursday and Brielle was a no show again, I knew all four of us were starting to wonder what the fuck was going on. But once again, Shelby darted out of there so fast that we didn’t have a chance to catch up with her.
It was probably a little over the top for Ash to hack into the BSU database and download Shelby’s schedule, but it’s Monday now and we are all waiting outside of her first class of the day for her to show up.
“This is fucking stupid,” Hudson snorts. “Why are we even here?”
