AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thank you,” she says breathily, the relief evident in her voice. I wonder what the hell happened at home to make her so eager to leave already. I won’t ask, though. Because I shouldn’t care.I don’t.
She turns to leave again, and in an effort to drive that point home, I call out after her.
“Sloane.”
She freezes, glancing back at me over her shoulder. Her green eyes are wide when they meet mine, like she’s afraid I’ll change my mind about my sudden generosity.
“This doesn’t change anything between us,” I snarl.
“Yeah. I know.”
The resignation in her voice and the slump of her shoulders almost does me in again. I bite down on the inside of my cheek so hard that I taste the metallic tinge of blood on my tongue as she walks away, a barrage of questions flooding my brain.
What happened to break her down like this?
Was it me?
Part of me should be glad if it was, right?
Isn’t this what I wanted, to break her as badly as she broke me?
But even if it was, any sense of victory is hollow when faced with the reality of seeing her like this. Which only makes me despise her more, because I shouldn’t feel fuckingbadfor Sloane finally getting what she deserves. For her experiencing just a fraction of the pain that I did when she walked out of my life.
I push up from my desk chair, deciding that now’s the perfect time to go lose myself in a workout for a while so I don’t have to think about this shit anymore. I can still smell Sloane’s scent in the hallway when I leave my office, the agonizing familiarity propelling me away from there to escape it. I quickly make my way down to the weight room, finding Tristan, Archer, and Ares working out when I arrive.
“Hey Madd, where’d you disappear to last night?” Archer asks when he sees me come in.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I say, throwing up a wave to Tristan as I pass him doing reps on the lat pull. “Heard you went off somewhere with Kaylie.”
The corner of Archer’s mouth kicks up in a grin. “My girl wanted a tour of the old lodge, so I indulged her.” He licks his lips, the mischievous look in his eyes letting me know exactly what they got up to on that ‘tour’. “We came back to the party after a while, though. Heard you left.”
“Little help here, bro!” Ares chokes out through gritted teeth, struggling on the bench press in front of Archer with the weight bar pinned to his chest.
Arch curses under his breath, apparently remembering that he’s supposed to be spotting for his brother. He darts in to grip onto the bar, helping Ares lift it to the rack and dropping it on with a loud thunk.
Ares abruptly sits up, panting as he wipes sweat from his brow.
“Still trying to catch up to me on the bench?” I tease.
He turns at the waist, gesturing to the stack of weights pinned on each end of the bar. “I’m getting there.”
I step closer, leaning in and squinting to make a big show of checking the amount of weight he was lifting. “Looks like you’ve still got about sixty pounds to go, bud.”
He rolls his eyes, waving me off and pushing to his feet. “Where’s Avery at? Haven’t seen her around today.”
“At home resting, since you tried to poison her last night.”
“Hey, I have no regrets,” Ares laughs, shrugging. “I successfully got her drunk enough to dance with me.”
Archer snorts, slinging his arm around his brother’s neck and yanking his head down, putting him in a headlock. “Avery Kessler is so far out of your league you’re not even playing the same sport.”
Ares grabs onto Archer’s forearm, twisting to get away, and I take a step back as the two of them start grappling with one another, heading over to the leg press machine beside Tristan.
“Know why Sloane just came by my office to ask for a dorm room?” I question as I move behind the machine to set the weight.
“So she went through with it,” he sighs, letting go of the pull bar. The weights slam down with a thud behind him and he leans forward, scrubbing a hand over his sweaty face. “Goldie said Sloane got into it with my dad earlier and things got pretty ugly.”
I arch a brow in his direction. That explains why Sloane said things were tense at home, but I never would’ve guessed that she actually snapped off at her dad. She’s always gone along with whatever he says- that’s why we’re in this whole situation in the first place.
