The two of them walk out the door and not a second later, Kai is getting to his feet too. “Sorry, pretty girl,” he says, leaning down and pressing a kiss to my forehead. “I have shit I need to deal with tonight.”
I nod, understanding all too well what kind of shit he’s talking about and just like that, the fun night I was supposed to have with my boys is completely gone, though I can only hope that they’ll all be back later. For now, it’s just me and Nic and when his arm falls over my shoulder and he pulls me into his side, I can’t help but be okay with that.
Chapter 27
The sound of the shower on the other side of the wall has my eyes springing open to find that I’m still in Breakers Flats, at Nic’s apartment, and curled up in his warm, familiar bed.
Fuck. I fell asleep. That wasn’t part of the plan but after having dinner and catching up with Nic’s mom when she returned from work, I was exhausted. I didn’t even realize that I’d fallen asleep halfway through the movie, and to be honest, I’m kinda pissed. That was a good movie.
My hand rubs over my eyes and by the time I sit up in bed, the shower is cutting off. It’s only a minute before Nic comes striding back into his room, dripping wet with a towel around his waist. He starts getting dressed and I can’t help but watch the show.
I’ve never quite understood why guys do that. They get out of the shower and instantly wrap the towel around them. What’s the freaking point of using the damn towel in the first place if you’re not going to use it to mop up the water that’s rushing over your skin? It infuriates me to no end, even more so when Nic pulls his shirt on and the beads of water left on his skin instantly soak into his shirt. I couldn’t do it. I’m one of those girls who needs a thorough drying after my shower.
“What time is it?” I ask, watching as he pulls on a pair of jeans. Nic usually isn’t one to get up and dressed first thing in the morning. He usually sleeps till late in the afternoon and fucks around in his sweatpants until his father is demanding his attention, so watching him dress now tells me it’s time to get up and get my shit together.
“7 am,” he mutters, making my heart break. Who the hell wakes up at 7 am on a Saturday morning?
“Come again?” I sputter, dropping back down against Nic’s warm pillow. “Come back to bed. It’s too early.”
“As much as I'd love to climb back in bed with you, we have to go. I have business this afternoon and I want to drive you home first. I don’t want you to take the bus again. Too many dodgy fuckers around here.”
My bottom lip pouts but I can’t help but like his plan. The bus ride would take me nearly four hours, but if Nic’s driving, he will have me there in two. I reluctantly sit back up, bringing the blankets with me only to realize that it’s not necessary. I’m completely clothed and I let out a small sigh of relief. I don’t think I’ve ever woken in this bed with clothes on before, but I guess there’s a first for everything.
“Worried that I took advantage of you while you slept?” Nic scoffs, diving through his closet for his shoes.
I roll my eyes and peel myself out of bed, ignoring his comment. I know he’d never take advantage of me like that. I walk straight through to the bathroom and roll my eyes at the way the bathroom mirror is fogged up with steam. Is it really that hard to use the bathroom fan? Boys will be boys, I guess. Some habits die hard.
I take care of business and as I step out into the hallway, I find Nic emerging from his bedroom. “You good?’ he asks, looking me up and down to make sure I’m ready.
“Yeah, but we’re going to need to stop for coffee on the way.”
He rolls his eyes which is as good as a yes. Nic isn’t a coffee drinker and honestly, I don’t get it. What kind of person isn’t a coffee drinker?
Soon enough, I’m riding in the front of Nic’s car as he speeds down the highway. Music fills the cab while heaviness sits on my heart. I’m not ready to go back. If I could stay just another few hours, maybe another day then that need to be with my boys might ease just a little, but I can't. I'm supposed to be working and if I’m late, mom will never …
Fuck. Mom.
I suck in a gasp and start rifling through my things for my phone. “What’s wrong?” Nic demands, struggling to keep his eyes on the road.
“I didn’t tell mom that I was staying out yesterday. She would have worried all night.”
“Chill out, O,” Nic soothes. “I called her last night when you passed out on the couch and let her know I was driving you home this morning. She’s good. She knows you’re safe.”
Relief settles through me and I relax back into the seat. “Thanks,” I say with a grateful sigh, looking out at him to watch the way he handles his car with ease. “Did you hear from Eli last night? Is he good?”
“Yeah, He’s fine. There was a hold up at the doctor’s office so it took longer than he anticipated but he got his antibiotics and will probably be popping pills all fucking day. The poor fucker can’t get his rocks off for at least two weeks.”
I laugh, imagining the way his heart would have broken hearing that advice. “So, no cream?”
“Apparently not.”
I nod, feeling sorry for the guy when I remember one of the reasons I wanted to see Nic in the first place. “Can I ask you something?”
His brows furrow, knowing I never ask if I can ask something. It’s simply not something that I do. He looks over at me and narrows his eyes. “What?”
“You’re not going to like it.”
“Spit it out, Ocean.”
I press my lips into a firm line, trying to work out the right way to word this when I fuck it all to hell and go for it. Nic isn’t easily offended and despite knowing that he’s not going to want to discuss this, I can’t go back to Bellevue Springs without knowing the truth. “I need to know what you know about Colton and his friends. I know you’ve done your homework on them,” I tell him. “I’m not stupid. I know that you dug into their backgrounds and I know it wasn’t exactly done legally which means that you have all the dirt you need on them, and I need to know it.”
His fingers tighten on the steering wheel. “Can’t you just be satisfied with me telling you to steer clear of them?”
I shake my head. “I need to know what situation I’m about to walk back into. They all have skeletons in their closets.”
“Do you understand what kind of position you’re putting me in? This information was given to me in confidence. If word gets out that I spilled information, we’d lose our contact and it’d be my head on the firing line.”
“I won’t tell anyone,” I promise. “I just need to know what to look out for.”
Nic is quiet for a short moment before letting out a pained sigh. He doesn’t want to break his contact’s trust but at the same time, my safety will always come first where Nic is concerned. “Alright,” he finally says, “But I swear to God, O. If this gets out and it’s traced back to me, it’s my fucking balls on the line. Do you understand that?”
“Yeah, I got it,” I tell him. “You can trust me.”
Nic’s eyes slice across to mine and seeing the honesty shining back at him, he nods. “The four of them were all involved in some sort of rape allegations,” he starts, making me suck in a sharp breath. “The whole thing is a fucking mess and I’m amazed by how they were able to get out of it. I'm telling you, O. If this shit happened in Breakers Flats, there’d be jail time and fucking heads blown off.”
“What happened?”
“It was nearly two years ago and there was some kind of party at Carrington’s place. Colton had his boys over, you know, the same ones who have been hanging around now.”
“Charlie, Spencer, and Jude?”
“Yeah, that’s them,” he says. “There were two girls involved and from what I read of one of their statements, she and her friend were invited to party with the four boys and they willingly went. One thing lead to another and they were fucking around and having a good time. That was the last thing the girl remembered.�
�
A bad feeling settles into my stomach and my mind instantly takes me to Jude. The three others are good guys despite their stubborn and douchey attitudes. “What happened?”
“About a week after the party, the girl received a recording of her being fucked along with a message, blackmailing her and her family. She had no recollection of being fucked but the evidence was there. What she does remember is that there were four boys at the house, four boys partying with them, and only four boys who could have been the one filming her being raped.”
“Fuck,” I breathe.
“Yeah, naturally all four of them denied any wrongdoing and as it was a week after, there was no DNA evidence. The other girl didn’t remember a damn thing either and because of that, it was impossible to press charges.”
“How is it that nobody knows about this?” I question feeling absolutely sick for the poor girl, especially after Jude came at me the way he did over the past few weeks. I guess on the bright side, she’s lucky to not remember it, but now she’s seen the evidence and I’m sure it’s burned into her brain.
“You really think Daddy Carrington was going to allow something like this to get out? He stepped in and had all their lawyers sort out a deal. It was settled in private and all parties were paid off and told to keep quiet. They all signed confidentiality agreements and that was the end of it. One of those boys is a rapist, Ocean, and the three others know and haven’t said anything which makes them just as fucking bad.”
I can’t help but agree and as I turn to Nic, I see the anger pouring out of him in waves. “It’s Jude Carter,” I tell him, feeling it in my gut.
“How do you know that?”
“I just know,” I say, cringing with the truth that’s sat heavily on my shoulders. “That time he came into my room, you know, right at the beginning … that wasn’t an isolated incident. He’s come at me a few times since then.”
“WHAT?” Nic roars as the car swerves off the highway. I gape at him as I struggle to keep myself from rocking around in the car. “Did he fucking touch you? How long has this been going on?’
“Calm down. He hasn’t fucking touched me. He just … tried a few times, but I had your gun and I was fine, besides, I think he’s given up now. He's more interested in making me pay and giving me pathetic death threats. I can handle it, Nic. I’ve been handling it.”
“What do you mean making you pay?”
Fuck. I knew I should have left that part out. “He belittles me every chance he gets, tries to humiliate me, and then there was the time he threw me into the pool with the promise of never letting me out. It’s just stupid shit like that. He has no game and honestly, he lacks originality. I’ve seen you do worse … so much worse.”
Nic’s knuckles whiten on the steering wheel and he goes dangerously quiet. “Say something,” I beg him, hating the unease of not knowing how he’s going to react. Usually, I can read him like a book, but right now, I’m getting nothing.
“I fucking trusted you to be honest with me.”
“It’s a two-way street, Nic. I was honest with you until you beat the shit out of Jude and made everything worse. I told you that I could handle it and you didn’t trust me.”
His hands slam down on the steering wheel and in the blink of an eye, he pulls back out onto the highway, driving faster than ever before. “This is so much more than petty high school bullshit, Ocean. This is real world shit. How can you not see that? You can’t handle it. You’re just a kid.”
“Oh, so now I’m a kid? Fucking perfect. I wasn’t so much of a kid when you were wanting to fuck.”
“Don’t you bring that into this bullshit. You’re coming home. I won’t allow you to stay there.”
My eyes bug out of my head. “Allow me? You’re not my fucking father, Nic. You’re not even my boyfriend. I’m staying there and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Over my dead body,” he spits.
“Stop the fucking car, I’m getting out.” He rolls his eyes and the rage builds up within me. “You lost the right to tell me what to do. You need to back off, Nic. I love you but right now, you’re being an impossible jerk. I can’t handle your bullshit. I’m not going back to Breakers Flats. For now, Bellevue Springs is my home and I’ll deal with the bullshit that comes along with that on my own terms.”
“That’s fucking bullshit, Ocean.”
“I don’t care what you think it is, but I’m not throwing away my chance for a proper future just so you can feel better about yourself and play the part of a top-dog alpha. I won't do it, and you shouldn’t even ask.”
His hand slams down on the steering wheel again. “You’re so fucking infuriating.”
“Try dealing with you on a daily basis.”
Nic rolls his eyes and starts muttering under his breath the same way his mom does when she’s pissed but nonetheless, he drives me back to Bellevue Springs. We sit in silence and it’s awful. I hate leaving things like this with Nic but by the time he pulls up in front of the massive mansion, there’s resentment bubbling within me.
The car comes to a stop and we sit there, neither of us wanting to leave it like that but both far too stubborn to be the first to make it better. “I know what happened at school on Monday,” he says. “And I know about Charlie.”
Fuck.
Nic scoffs seeing the look on my face. “You have five hundred horny teenagers at your school. Finding out what’s going on with you wasn’t that hard.”
I look out the window, refusing to meet his eyes. “It was handled.”
“Handled?” he spits. “By who? How?”
“I …” I cut myself off, thinking over the week and realizing that I don’t exactly know how it was handled. On Tuesday morning, Jude didn’t show up for school and then again on Wednesday. The same thing happened until the end of the week and I just assumed it was handled just as they promised. “The boys fixed it.”
“The boys?” he laughs. “The same guys who kept quiet about him raping that poor girl? The same boys who’ve allowed him to come at you time and time again? The same fucking boys who treat you like trash? Call you fucking trash?”
“I … I … I don’t know, okay. They said they were going to handle it and then he was gone. So yeah, they did handle it.”
“No, Ocean. I fucking handled it. Your fucking precious boys let him get away with it. They walked out of there and left that fucker breathing. I. Handled. It.”
My eyes bug out of my head as I suck in a sharp gasp. “You killed him?”
“No,” he snaps, “But I fucking should have. Unfortunately, the fucker is going to live.”
“Nic …”
“No,” he says, cutting me off. “Just go. Go be with your new crew in your big fucking house with your fancy fucking cars and expensive school.” He looks away as a tear rolls down my cheek. “You’ve changed, Ocean. I don’t even know who you are right now.”
Nic kicks over the engine cutting our conversation short, and with nothing else to say, I push open the car door and get out before watching as Nic disappears up the long driveway, leaving my heart an absolute mess.
Chapter 28
The weekend passes uneventfully and then Monday quickly turns into Thursday. I’ve never had such a bad week here. Nothing has even happened. Colton has left me alone, there’s still no sign of Jude, and Milo has kept me smiling, yet the heaviness in my heart from leaving things so shitty with Nic has killed me. Hell, I think I’d prefer having the whole school groping me than having to deal with this.
I make my way down to the parking lot after another painful day and lean against the passenger’s side door of Milo’s Aston Martin as I watch the students filtering out of school.
I hate it here but the fact that I’ve chosen to stay tells me that Nic was right. I have changed, or at least, maybe I’m changing. Right now, I can't work out if that’s a bad thing or a good thing. All I know is that he shouldn’t be pissed at me for wanting more out of life.
I see
Milo walking out of the front gates and a smile pulls at my lips until I really take him in. He’s walking out of the school like his ass is on fire and the look on his face is telling me that something is wrong, very wrong.
My brows crease as he storms down toward me and I notice a shitload of students calling after him. My stomach drops.
“Get into the car,” Milo demands as he reaches me, whispering low while filled with desperation.
“Wait. What? Why?”
“Just … please. They know I’m gay. It’s like a witch hunt up there. They’re all coming after me and if they catch me, I’ll be fucking dead in seconds.” he indicates down his body. “This shit doesn’t fly here.”
“That’s fucking bullshit,” I demand, standing my ground and refusing to move. “Don’t let them. Stand up for yourself.”
“You don’t get it,” he urges. “I’m as good as fucking dead. Being gay is not acceptable here.”
“I understand that. I don’t accept it, but I get it, trust me, I do. But I’m not going to stand here and have you running scared. It’s not fair. If you don’t want them to know, then we do something about it. You want back in the closet, then that’s where you’re going to go.”
“What?” he grunts. “You’re fucking insane. Once you're out of the closet, you can’t go back in. It doesn’t work like that.”
I grin wide, strutting over to him. “You want a bet?”
His brows furrow in confusion and the closer I get to him, the hungrier my expression becomes. My hands fall to his chest and I force his back against the car while pressing my body against his. “What the hell are you doing?” he panics, flicking his eyes up toward the angry mob that’s making their way down here.
“I’m going to kiss you, Milo, and it’s going to be fucking hot. Your hand is going to squeeze my ass and you’re going to grind into me until you have those guys questioning themselves. I don’t care if you have to picture me as Jason Momoa, but you’re going to do it and you’re going to pretend that you love it. Got it?”
Tough Sh*t: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Rejects Paradise Book 1) Page 29