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Chapter Twenty-Nine
Phoenix
My body still ached from the confrontation I had with Logan two days ago. It’s Friday, and as I make my way from the library to meet Stryker for lunch, I keep thinking about that day. I told Cami and Luca as soon as they picked me up. It rattled me so much that I practically begged for one of them to stay with me that night.
I couldn’t trust that the extra lock would keep him out, and I also didn’t want to let Stryker know about it as he would have beat the shit out of Logan for it. Every time Logan has gotten physical, Stryker has been his voice of reason, but somehow, I don’t think he would have been this time.
I was more confused than ever when I thought about what happened between Logan and me the other day. I know he is angry, but I think for a moment there, I caught a glimpse of the boy I once loved after he came to his senses. But as quickly as that boy appeared, he disappeared.
I hated how he could illicit that side of me that cared for him and then blow it all to hell. I wasn’t quite sure what he was hoping to achieve that day, but making me confess to something that isn’t true is never going to happen.
The one thing he did succeed in doing is pushing me more toward Stryker. He and I have been spending a fair bit of time together, and although I’m still learning to trust him, I also can’t deny that what I feel toward him is growing. I know I will have to talk to him sooner rather than later about my past and about what I’m feeling for Jonah and Logan—even if I’m scared to.
The way he is acting at the moment made me question if he would ever believe what I had to say or if I would have to show him the proof of his cousin’s vile acts. His parents weren’t much help, either. They want to wait until after his football season is finished to tell him the truth. I suspect that has more to do with his dad wanting to avoid the subject rather than his mom. But still, their reassurance means little when they refuse to acknowledge the harm their silence has caused.
Lost inside of my racing thoughts, I turn to head into the stairwell, running into something hard. I reach out to grab hold of the person I ran into to stop myself from falling down the stairs. Almost instinctively, they grab me by the waist to steady me.
“Watch where you’re going, would you!” If words could be weapons, these would have sliced me to bits. Looking up, I am staring into the hypnotic emerald green eyes of the one person that I’ve been trying to avoid.
“Hello, are you even listening to me?” he snickers. “So much for being a dancer. You have as much grace as a newborn fucking horse.”
I’m immediately snapped out of my trance as I straighten up. “Look, I’m sorry I accidentally bumped into you, Logan. It isn’t as though I was thinking, ‘hey how can I piss Logan off today, Oh I know I’ll run into him in the stairwell,’ ” I scoff. “Come on, give me more credit than that. You’re the last person I want to be around.”
“Whatever you say, Phoenix,” he was clearly annoyed. “Might want to be more careful around stairs, wouldn’t want to take a fall, now would we?”
“The fuck you mean by that? Are you threatening to push me down the stairs?” My shock is clearly evident in my voice. I cannot believe what he just said to me.
“Now, we both know I don’t threaten Phoenix, if I wanted to push you down the stairs I sure as fuck wouldn’t give you an advanced warning, and I also wouldn’t do it at the fucking school,” he deadpanned.
“Doesn’t sound that way to me,” I counter. “Sounds like a threat from a bitter teenage boy that doesn’t like to hear he’s wrong. But that’s all good. We both know what happens to people who are bitter all the time.”
“Yeah, and what’s that, huh?
“They end up all alone,” I turn to leave, looking back at him one last time with a smirk of my own. “Oh, and Logan, don’t take too long to pull your head out of your ass. I won't always be here.”
“The sooner you leave, the better.” I hear him mutter to himself as he leaves.
I turn to leave, and just as I’m halfway down the stairs, I feel someone shove me hard from behind. Within seconds, I’m tumbling down the stairs, as a scream rips from my throat. My arms flail out, trying to grasp on to anything I can to try and break my fall. As I hit the bottom of the stairwell, the last thing I hear before everything fades into darkness is a door opening somewhere and footsteps running close by. I can’t believe he actually pushed me.
