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“I never want to hear my name come out of your whore mouth again, do you understand?” Her voice was a hiss and I imagined her eyes turning into slits as she stared at me. “He was too good for you, but I guess that all guys want to dip their dick in trash at some point in their lives. It’s just a fucking shame that it got him killed.”
She turned away before I could say anything else, her long black cardigan fanning out behind her like a cape. I stood, my jaw hanging open, and watched her go. There wasn’t anything for me to say.
Everyone obviously blamed me for Brett’s death.
Everyone obviously thought that I should leave the school.
“Rose?” Kaleb’s voice broke me out of my thoughts and I turned to him with a sob, falling forward into his arms. He wrapped them around me and held me to his chest. “I think we need to get you back to your room, okay?”
“Kaleb, Kaleb wait.” I wiped my nose with the back of my sleeve and looked up at him. He was so good, so strong. All of my rogues were.
But now I had lost one.
“Do you blame me? Kaleb? Jackie? Do you two think that I’m the reason that Brett is dead? I need to know for sure. I need to know because…because I don’t think that I can stay here if you really think that I’m the reason he’s dead. I love him. I love you. I need you all and to not have him…” I was spiraling and I couldn’t help it. Couldn’t stop it.
A sob cut me off.
First, I’d lost my dad in a horrible car accident, and then Brett? I didn’t know how much more I could take, and I certainly didn’t know how much I could handle if Jackie and Kaleb blamed me.
I honestly would understand if they did.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I blamed myself.
Before I could spiral down this line of thinking, however, Jackie wrapped his arms around me. “You’re okay, Rosita. We don’t blame you. We don’t, okay? We don’t think that you did anything wrong. Let’s get you back to your room, alright? We just need to get you out of here. We may not blame you, but there are some people here who do, and there’s no reason for you to be around them right now.”
I nodded into his chest, breathing in deep to smell his delicious cologne. He was right. I could make this as long as I had the two of them on my side, but I couldn’t just sit around and think that everyone else was going to be friendly.
I let the two of them lead me up to my room. We stumbled on the steps because my legs felt like they were broken, but Jackie swept me up into his arms with Kaleb leading the way. Most of the senior class was still out on the quad, but Maggie and Harper were waiting by my door.
I didn’t see them. My face was still turned into Jackie’s strong chest so that I wouldn’t have to look at anyone, not even my friends.
They asked about me, though, and their loving voices brought me back to tears.
“We’re going to let her sleep, but we’ll make sure that she talks to you guys tomorrow, okay?” Kaleb’s voice was soothing and I loved him for protecting me.
“Okay, Rosita.” Jackie put me gently down on my bed and then turned to leave, but then looked back at me. “Are you going to be okay in here by yourself?”
Was I? I honestly didn’t know what it was going to be like to be alone. Even though I knew that they shouldn’t stay in my room and that if they were even caught on the third floor with me, they’d be in trouble, I shook my head.
“I can’t. I mean, I don’t think that I can do this. I don’t think I can handle it by myself.” My voice sounded hollow, even to me, but it pulled my two rogues back from my door.
“Move over then.” Kaleb kicked off his shoes, his light green eyes searching my face while he spoke. “We’re not going to leave you here by yourself, Rose. Move.”
As quickly as possible, I flipped down the covers and scooted over. Kaleb shed his pants and jacket and climbed into bed next to me. Jackie did the same and climbed in on the other side of me, turning over and pulling me to him to snuggle.
I backed into him, sighing as he draped his arm over my shoulder. Kaleb was turned on his side to look at me and he gently reached out and traced a finger along my cheek before taking off his glasses. When he turned back to me, he reached out and rested his hand on my hip, scooting close enough so that I was sandwiched between the two of them.
Any other time and I would have loved to be there with them, but right then I was so exhausted that I felt like I could cry.
“We’ve got you, Rosita.” Jackie’s voice was a comforting murmur from behind me. I looked at Kaleb for confirmation, and he nodded before leaning forward and kissing me. His lips were soft on my face and erased the cheeks that kept sliding down.
“Don’t worry, Rose. We’re all in this together, okay? We’re not going to leave you, so you don’t need to worry one bit about that, we promise.”
Chapter 20
Dr. Devy and Mrs. Dimitri had agreed that I should take a week off of classes to rest up and feel better, both mentally and physically, but there wasn’t any way that I was going to do that. I had to get back into the swing of things, and quickly.
But there was nothing that could have prepared me for how empty I would feel walking to classes. Even with the rogues at my sides and Harper and Maggie waiting to help in any way that they could, I felt like I was walking through a cloud.
