"You know, all those hot romances make the guys out to be players and whatever but then there's that one who takes one look at you and forgets everyone else and you get to run off with him while he earns a shit ton in the NFL or NBA or whatever." She sighs dreamily.
"That what you want?"
"No, not really." She laughs. "I want a career. But we can all dream, right?"
"Sure can." I think back to my own obsession with Luca over the years and I totally understand the fascination.
Ella opens the door for me when we get to the building I apparently need and I step through.
"I think your cell is buzzing," she says, quickly catching up with me.
"Oh."
Swinging my purse around, I dig through it as we head up to the second floor.
"Is that Mary Poppins’ purse or something?" she mutters when she looks over to find me still searching.
"Ah-ha," I exclaim as I pull it out.
"Jesus, someone wants you," she mutters, staring down at the screen as I do.
Seventeen missed calls from Zayn.
My heart drops into my feet as I think about what that many missed calls could mean.
Mom, Dad, Harley… fuck.
My hand is trembling as I attempt to call him back. I can barely breathe through my panic as I wait for the call to connect.
If something has happened to them, I'm not sure I'm going to cope. Not after…
The call rings twice before he answers.
"What's wrong? Is everyone okay?" I rush out, my voice cracking with emotion.
Ella's concerned stare burns into the side of my head but I keep my eyes trained on a spot on the wall down the hall in the hope the nothingness might somehow calm me.
"What? Yeah, everyone's okay," he says, sounding a little regretful about sending me into a meltdown.
"Thank fuck. Don't ever do that to me again, okay?"
"Shit, I'm sorry. I didn't mean… it doesn't matter. Um… you might want to sit down for this."
The panic that had started to subside returns full force.
"Zayn?"
"Okay, um… I'm not sure how to… fuck…"
"Just spit it out."
"Okay, so a new player showed up at our session this morning and—"
His voice fades into oblivion as a person walking up the hallway I'm staring down catches my attention.
My heart slams against my ribs and my head begins to spin.
No. No, it can't be.
No.
Our eyes connect and it's like someone's just hit me with a fucking truck.
This cannot be happening to me.
No.
No.
"No," I cry, although my voice doesn't sound like my own.
My cell slips from my hand. I can vaguely hear Zayn shouting down the line as I wrap my arms around my middle and stumble back, needing to put as much distance between us as possible.
"Letty?" A soft voice hits my ears and I remember that Ella is with me but all I can see is him.
Kane Legend.
Walking down the hallway as if he's about to attend my sociology class.
No. No. No.
When my eyes focus again, I find him standing stock-still outside the door and staring at me as if I can't possibly be real.
God, please let this be a dream—or a fucking nightmare.
Hate crackles between us as we just stare at each other as if we're not really there.
I guess at least I know he didn't plan this.
He's as shocked as I am.
His lips part and for a second, I think he's actually going to say something but at the last minute, he closes them again and swiftly disappears into the auditorium.
I release the breath I had no idea I was holding and my legs give out.
I slide down the wall until my ass hits the floor and I wrap my arms around my knees.
"What the hell was that?" Ella asks, dropping down to her haunches beside me and placing her warm hand on my shoulder.
"T-that… that was my worst nightmare."
"Uh… o-okay." She looks to the door where Kane vanished and then back to me. "Do you want to go back to the dorms?"
I'm about to say yes and I'm almost climbing from the floor in my need to escape but at the last minute, I stop myself.
"No. I need to go to class."
"But—"
I push up from the floor and brush myself off.
I refuse to be the girl I've been for the last year. If I'm her, then he'll crush me without even trying.
I need to find the girl who stood up against him the night of that party. The night that tilted my world on its axis.
I blow out a breath and reach down for my cell, looking it over, grateful that I didn’t crack the screen, and then grab my purse.
I take a step toward my class but Ella's hand on my arm stops me.
"A-are you sure this is a good idea?"
No, it's probably not. "Yes, it'll be fine." I refuse to stop my life for a moment longer because of him. He's already taken enough from me. That has to stop now.
After tapping out a quick message to Zayn, I square my shoulders and hold my head high as the professor slips into the room.
Perfect timing.
"I can come?"
"No, you have a marketing class. I'll be fine."
She hesitates, not wanting to leave me.
I understand. If I'd just witnessed her react like that to merely seeing someone, I'd be concerned too.
"Unlock this," she says, lifting my cell up.
I do as she says and she takes it from me, quickly tapping out her number.
"If you need me… anything. Call me. I'll be right here."
"Thank you," I whisper. "I-I should go. I don't want to miss anything."
"Okay."
She doesn't leave, instead just watches me walk into my class.
The seats are almost full as I scan my eyes around the room, hoping like hell my eyes don’t find him.
Spotting an empty seat about halfway back, I hitch my purse up higher and make my way there as the professor begins introducing himself and what today's class will entail.
I can't have taken more than ten steps before a tingle of awareness races down my spine.
He's watching me.
As discreetly as I can, I look around the room trying to find him, but I'm unsuccessful. All I find are eager students listening to whatever is being said at the front of the class.
My blood is still whooshing in my ears long after I sit down and get my books out. I try my best to focus and get my head around what this semester has in store for me in this class but all I can see are his blue eyes as he stared at me in the hallway.
He looked exactly as he did that night. Like he left and wasn't affected by what happened between us.
Why should he? It's not like we saw each other or even spoke after that night.
The second he heard the sirens in the distance, he bolted, leaving me there in the dark forest, damn near glued into that muddy puddle he'd fucked me in.
I was a mess. If only I knew that it was a sign of what was to come, it might not have felt so bad.
Hindsight is a great thing because if I had known what was going down in Skye's house then I might have swallowed down my pride and walked back inside to find my sister.
But I didn't. I fixed my dress the best I could, got in my car, and made my way home, confident that Harley would be safe with Kyle and the others. She doesn't need babying, we're all Harrow Creek kids and we know how to look after ourselves.
But if I had known…
I try to swallow down the messy ball of emotion that clogs my throat.
I have so many regrets from that night. There are so many things that shouldn't have happened and what went down between Kane and me was only one of them.
Harley ended up in the hospital being questioned by police and Kyle ended up in juvie.
No doubt he blames all of that on me along with the already
very long line of crimes he thinks I'm guilty of.
I let out a shaky sigh as images from my past play out in my head like a freaking movie.
It's two hours later when our professor brings the class to a close after explaining our first assignment but I haven’t heard a word of it. I breathe a small sigh of relief when he tells us that notes will be online shortly because I have no clue as to what's happened this morning.
Everyone around me begins packing up their things and making their way toward the exit but I find myself frozen to the spot.
Still, my skin prickles with awareness telling me that he's still here.
Why can't he just leave with everyone else, forget I exist and continue on with his life.
Out of nowhere West and Brax's comment from this morning hits me.
"New guy turned up and caused havoc."
Holy shit, Luca.
He hates Kane almost as much as I do. Something I never discouraged during my time in Rosewood, although I never confessed to the feeling being mutual. I made a point of being busy every time the Bears and the Harriers had a game and I never once mentioned my connection to him aside from us being at school together. Neither of them ever asked either, not that I'd have told them the truth if they had. I'd run away from my high school bully and that was the end of it. I was just glad that the Bears ruined the Harriers every time they played. It made everything feel a little better in my head.
But now… now he's here and if he's on the team.
Fuck.
This is not good.
No.
This is really, really fucking bad.
5
Kane
I find myself a seat at the very back of the auditorium and sink into the shadows as more students pour in behind me, filling the seats around me.
The room around me spins and blurs into nothing as I try to get my head around what just happened out in the hall.
She's here.
Scarlett Hunter is at MKU and looking like she's about to attend class.
But she goes to Columbia. Or at least, she did.
I haven’t seen or heard from her since that night. But my brother is dating her little sister. How didn't I know this?
Probably the same reason why they don't know you're attending, asshole, a little voice pipes up in my head.
I never meant to hide college from Kyle, from anyone really. But the thought of saying it out loud and then it all falling through at the last minute terrified me. Everything I've done these past few years has all been to get here, to provide my brother and me with a better life but to get here, I've relied on others coming through on promises they could quite easily break. The risk was too high and I didn't want to get Kyle's hopes up. He already thinks he had a hand in ruining my life when he went down that night.
If I'd told him then I might have gotten the heads up I needed about her being here. Or word would have got back to her that I would be and she'd have changed her mind.
I let out a sigh as I think about the woman who’s consumed so many of my thoughts over the years. There were so many differences between that woman outside this room and the one at that party eighteen months ago.
When I first clocked her at the other end of the hall, I didn't even think it was her, just my mind playing games with me.
But the closer I got, I knew, my body knew.
Her face was thinner, her cheeks hollow and her complexion pale. Her body was so much thinner than it was the night I had my hands on her and my immediate reaction was concern. Something has clearly happened to her, but then I remembered everything she's done to me, all the ways she hurt me, and the anger decimated the concern and raced to the surface.
I clench my fists over and over, trying to expel some of the pent-up anger but it does little to help. I need to get up, to move to go and punch something—or someone. Luca fucking Dunn is top of that list after the drama he caused with Coach this morning, accusing him of breaking the NCAA rules by letting me in as he has. That really ticked Coach off because everyone knows that Coach Butler never does anything against the regulations. It just shows how much trust he has in Coach. I expected him to question me, but I didn't think he'd be quite that angry about my arrival.
It was hard not to smile as we all heard Luca shouting his frustrations at his leader and threatening to go to the athletic director about the decision.
His reaction was everything—and more—than I expected. And now, running into Letty. Well, today couldn't actually get much better.
I shift in my chair, still fighting to keep a lid on things as our professor begins his lecture. I've got my pen poised and ready to start at least one class the way I'd like when the side door opens and a familiar figure steps into the auditorium.
Most are too focused on Professor Nelson to notice the late arrival, although he gives her a hard stare as she makes her way into the room.
Unlike out in the hall, she's got her head held high and her shoulders squared.
I barely manage to contain my laughter at her attempt to look in control.
Clearly, she's forgotten that around me, she has zero control.
I watch her every move, wishing like hell I could easily get up and make my way to sit near her, anything just to torment her a little.
I smile to myself. It's like high school all over again. Only, back then, I just wanted to teach her a lesson for betraying me. Now I want to ruin her for how everything turned out.
I've lost so much because of her, yet she got everything she wanted.
Although her being here right now instead of her beloved Columbia makes me question things, but I don't care enough about her problems to let it affect me.
I slump down in my chair, half-listening to Nelson but mostly focusing on her, picking out all the differences I see in her from last year.
I never should have touched her that night. I knew that before I even laid a finger on her but the temptation after all the years we'd danced around each other way too strong. Then when I had her body pressed up against mine, writhing and begging for more, I knew I'd made a colossal mistake.
My cock swells, tenting my pants, as I vividly recall taking her in the muddy puddle as the party raged behind us.
But as good as my memories are about finally claiming what should have been mine all along, I can't forget what was happening inside that house.
I drop my head, thinking of my brother and everything he went through because I was distracted. Because of her.
The class passes faster than I thought possible but I barely hear any of it. Today might be turning out to be better than I expected, but I kinda hoped I’d make a better start with my classes. I missed two yesterday and I've just fucked this one up.
It really is just like high school all over again. Too distracted by a dark-haired beauty to focus on what I should be listening to.
I'm slow packing up, mostly on purpose because I want to watch her run from the room like her ass is on fire.
She might want to appear that she's not affected by my appearance, but it's all lies.
She's terrified.
Exactly as she should be.
In the end, I'm one of the last out of the auditorium. There are a few guys I vaguely recognize from our session this morning but none of them so much as attempt to talk to me. I get it. Their loyalty is to their captain.
Pulling the folded up piece of paper from my back pocket, I stare down at the campus map and try to figure out where I can find some food before my statistics class in an hour.
I grab myself a sandwich when I finally locate the campus coffee shop and by the time I've eaten it and then found the right building for my next class, I'm almost late.
The auditorium is abuzz with student chatter as I step through the door, almost all the seats taken.
I scan the room, looking for a place to sit when my eyes land on a familiar bowed head.
Bingo.
The seats on either side of her are taken, but that's not going to
stop me.
I march up the stairs toward where she is and come to a stop by the guy who's getting his iPad set up ready for the lecture beside her.
"You're in my seat," I say, making him stop what he's doing to turn to look up at me. Something about him is familiar and I'm not the only one who sees it because his eyes flash with recognition.
Next to him, Letty tenses at the sound of my voice but she refuses to look up despite the fact her body has locked up tight at the prospect of having to sit beside me.
"Sorry, but I'm pretty sure seats haven't been allocated in this class. Go find another."
"Huh." I tilt my head to the side as if I didn't understand his words. "Clearly, you didn't hear me properly. I said… you're in my seat, asshole."
The students surrounding us begin to pay attention but still, Letty doesn't so much as breathe while I stand here.
"Everything alright?" another guy says, coming to stand beside me but keeping his eyes on the guy who's sitting.
"It's okay," a quiet voice says from beside the guy. "Go and sit with Brax somewhere."
An accomplished smile twitches at my lips.
"But—" the guy argues, ripping his narrowed eyes from mine to look at Letty.
"It's okay." She smiles at him. Anyone else would think she meant it, but I see more than most, and she's anything but happy about this.
"Is everyone ready to start?" the professor says from behind me as the guy begins collecting up his things.
"We'll just be down there." He points to a couple of empty chairs a few rows down.
She nods at him and smiles again and he hesitantly gets up but he doesn't leave right away, instead, he levels me with a look that might have lesser guys running scared. Clearly, he has no idea who I am or what I'm capable of.
"Shoo," I say with a flick of my hand before dropping down into the now vacant seat and unpacking everything I need.
She's like a stone beside me, not moving and I swear not even breathing as she waits for what I'm going to do next.
Professor Richman begins going over his expectations for this class, but his words fade off into the background.
Yet another ruined first class then, I muse to myself as I watch Letty out of the corner of my eye.
After what seems like forever with her sitting beside me and her floral scent filling my nose and driving me insane, I lean toward her slightly.
The Revenge You Seek: A Dark College Bully Romance (Maddison Kings University Book 1) Page 4