AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sassy opens her mouth to speak, but she closes it again. Her face drops and something inside of me softens. I’m angry at Chase, not Sassy. It’s not fair of me to take it out on her.
“I’m sorry,” I say and pull her into a hug. She rests her forehead against my chest, and I kiss the top of her hair. “I guess he pushed all the right buttons for both of us, didn’t he?”
“I swear he’s normally a decent guy. I don’t know what got into him.” She says, her voice muffled against my shirt.
“About twenty beers got into him.” I joke and I feel Sassy smile against me. She pulls back, her frown returning.
“Are you okay, though? Physically I mean?”
“Yeah, it was nothing.” I touch my lip, which has only begun hurting now that I’ve calmed down. I’m pretty sure I’ve come out of it okay. We didn’t fight for long before they broke it up. “But maybe we should cool it on going out for a while.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know,” I sigh. “We’ve been partying and drinking a lot lately and everyone who’s telling me I need to pull my head in might have a point.”
Sassy steps out of my embrace, betrayal etched on her face, and I realise she thinks I’m still saying that she’s no good for me. I’m quick to reassure her.
“This has nothing to do with you, Sass. And nothing to do withus. But I need to put more work into my studies for a while, which means I should stop going out so much. Just until my grades are back up.”
“That’s fair,” Sassy says quietly, nodding. “I guess we should both find a job before we run out of money, too.”
“Hmmm, guess so.” I grit my teeth. Finding a new job is about the last thing I want to do right now. But if I’d like to continue having food to eat, then it’s pretty high on the priorities list.
Sassy stands on her tiptoes and plants a kiss on my cheek, avoiding my sore mouth. “Walk me home and from tomorrow we’ll be perfect little students for a while.”
“Not sure about perfect.”
“We’ll be the best students this university has ever seen.” Sassy adopts a wide-eyed innocent look and puts her hands in a prayer position.
I laugh, and swing an arm around her shoulders.
“Well, it’s worth a shot.” I say, and we walk home.
A light rain begins to fall after I drop Sassy at her dorm. Although I’m getting wet on my walk home, I don’t care. I hope the boys are either out or in bed by the time I get in, so I don’t have to explain my split lip. After their annoying intervention the other day, the last thing I want to do is validate their worries. I love my mates and appreciate that they have my back, but I don’t want to hear anything else about me and Sassy cooling it off.
I think about Chase again and the things he was saying tonight. It makes my stomach churn with how easily he found my biggest worries and knew where to twist the knife. Sassy told me straight up when we met I wasn’t her type, but I pursued her anyway. I know she isn’t someone who can be told what to do, but I was persistent, and now I can’t help but wonder; what if it’s only a matter of time before she decides she was right in the first place? What if she ends up agreeing that Chase is the right person for her?
No. I shake the thoughts from my head. I’ve had too many drinks and I’m letting my brain get carried away. Sassy and I are fine.
But try as I might, I just can’t seem to shake the dread deep inside of me.
Chapter29
Sassy
It’s been a few days since Colt and I cooled it on the going out. We’ve kept away from each other outside of uni, but during school hours we still catch up for lunch. Like we have today. I’m not sure if Colt is making much progress with lifting his marks yet, but I know I’m not. Real life keeps trumping my study plans.
“Something on your mind?” Colt asks, and I realise I’m frowning at my salad bowl. We’ve stretched out on the grass on the back oval, enjoying the sun. It’s just the two of us today. Our friends are still in class.
“It’s nothing.” I answer, stabbing at my salad with my bamboo fork.
“Don’t make me have to guess, Sass. You’re not that girl.”
I smile up at him. He’s right. I hate it when girls say there’s nothing wrong when clearly something is.
“Okay, okay. I’m just upset because Darren’s refusing to give me my last pay cheque from the strip club.”
“Why?”
