We were going to be sending out important information for the concert and giving people access to club events after the meeting. There was a minor event this weekend and members were going to need early access to the auditorium to help set up.
“Crap, I didn’t finish the database,” I told her.
“Yeah, I know. Violet is dealing with that now.”
“Nice,” I said, and smiled.
Chapter 13
After the meeting, Kingsley called me, but I wasn’t quite ready to talk to him. I was still embarrassed and didn’t know what to say to him. Instead, I spent most of the night curled up in my bed with a king-size chocolate bar and a reality show. Violet and Christie watched with me for a few hours, but then left.
Eventually, I had to dislodge myself from the bed because my bladder got the best of me. As I was walking back from my room, I heard Violet scream. The terrors were back. Lola must have been with her boyfriend and Violet didn’t want to tell me. I rushed to my room and grabbed my phone. She promised to keep her phone on loud in case something happened.
I called again and rushed out to pound on her door. After two additional calls, she finally came to the door. Violet took one look at me and burst into tears. I walked into her room and we climbed on the bed.
“What I’m going to do? I can’t sleep here anymore. It’s ridiculous. He’s in jail, so why am I still scared?”
“I don’t know. I’ve only had one semester of psych. Maybe it’s time for you to talk to someone. Speak to a therapist outside the school.”
“I think I might look into that at some point. I want to be strong, but he broke into my room, and every time I fall asleep, I see him coming in here again.” The tears continued to fall and I grabbed the tissue box next to her and handed them off.
“All right, let’s get it together for a moment. He is in jail. He can’t come touch you. If you see him this weekend, it could be over. Hold out until then.”
She turned and looked at me and I saw the sadness in her face. “I don’t think that plan is going to work. I think I was just being naïve. David said his investigator is working on something, but we haven’t heard any updates since Sunday. I know things take time, but I just don’t have the patience for that. And who left that note? Who took the pictures? Was it Trent the whole time or did he also have help? But why was he even involved in the first place?”
“I’m not sure, but that’s what the professionals are for. Let the investigator handle it. Berneli would only hire the best, so I’m sure he is going to find a way to fix all this.”
“Yeah, I’m sure Berneli did hire the best.”
“Leave it to them and you’ll be back with your man doing dirty, dirty things to each other.”
“Uh, I hope the universe hears that! I’m hornier than I think I’ve ever been.”
“On that note, I’ll leave you be. Just make sure you keep your phone on,” I insisted, and headed to the door. As I was about to walk out, Violet stopped me.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier.”
“It’s okay. I know you were just trying to show you care. Your little body can’t handle too much emotion,” I teased, and winked at her.
“Obviously! But in all seriousness, why are you trying so hard to make this work? You really just met the guy.” She spoke in such a soft voice and I saw pain and hurt in her eyes. Something about the way she was looking at me made me think.
I twisted my hands together, trying to find the words. I climbed back on the bed and just started talking. “So, my parents had this super fast relationship and married quickly. They just knew they were right for each other. My mom says it felt right in her gut. When Kingsley smiles at me, I feel that. I don’t know, it’s hard for me to explain. He seems to just know me and he’s always trying to do these elaborate things because he wants to impress me. But the truth is, I’m just impressed he wants to be with me. He’s ready to fight Jason he wants to be with me so bad. It’s a good feeling.”
“But…”
“I know. We’re having some problems. But you and Berneli did too. You thought he was seeing other girls.”
“And he wasn’t.”
“Well, Kingsley may use occasionally but so does Kyle and we still love him. Give me the chance to help him realize there are better ways to cope with issues. I really think I can help him. I want to help him.”
“I don’t feel good about it.”
“I didn’t feel good about Berneli, but I trusted you. Don’t you trust me?”
“I do.”
“Good, I decided you weren’t a crazy lunatic and became your friend so my judgment can’t be completely off.”
“Well, there are some who may argue with that,” she said with a smile. There was still tension in her jaw and her eyes still looked sad, but at least she seemed to want to give me a chance.
“Exactly. That’s all I was trying to get out.”
“But it couldn’t hurt to learn a few things,” I said, looking down at the floor.
“Well, just make sure you do it to yourself, I mean make sure you learn it for yourself.”
I nodded, feeling a bit better.
“Do you want me to stay in here tonight? Is Lola not coming back?”
“In all honesty, I don’t actually think Lola is going to be coming back to school. A lot of her stuff is gone.”
I looked around the room and noticed her closet was half empty and her dresser, usually filled with make-up and hair stuff, was now pretty bare.
“Did something happen with Tyler?”
“I don’t know. I saw her yesterday and she wouldn’t talk about it.”
“I hope she’s all right.”
“Me too. I’ll ty to talk to her again, but I don’t think it will do any good.”
“Well, my offer to stay here still stands.”
“No, I’m just gonna turn the TV on and try to fall asleep to an old show or something. Lola likes to fall asleep to Happy Days and I think I could use something like that right now.”
“All right, well, let me know if you change your mind. I’ll turn my phone on loud.”
***
As I was getting ready for my morning class, Kingsley called again. Part of me wanted to pick up, but I didn’t want to get distracted. I did need to get to class and I didn’t want to fight with him anymore. I let it go to voice mail, tossed the phone in my tote bag, and headed out the door.
Thankfully, I had managed to pass my math class last semester, but I had a new problem. Statistics. It was a completely different language and I was actually worse at it than pre-calculus.
In other words, I needed to focus. As I left the dorm building, a feeling of déjà vu came over me. Kingsley was standing there with coffee. But this time, I wasn’t happy to see him.
“Babe, please, let’s talk.”
“Kingsley, I don’t want to talk to you right now. I have class in ten minutes and I don’t want to be distracted.” I kept walking, hoping he’d let me be, but knew he wouldn’t.
“Come on, just give me a minute. I thought about what happened and I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you. I know it’s not your fault that you didn’t know what to do and I just let my emotions take over.” He was walking fast to keep beside me and talking way too loudly.
I stopped and pulled him aside. “Listen, things got heated and I get that. I really do need to get to class right now, but maybe we can talk later?” I hoped he’d agree. I really did want to talk to him but I was kind of scared of what he might say. He didn’t sound like he was going to blame me, but what if he did? I already blamed myself enough, if he said it too, well, I wasn’t sure what I’d think.
“You’re right, babe. I wasn’t thinking, but I feel awful and I want to fix things with you. I shouldn’t have kicked you out of my room,” he said, dropping his voice. “I need you in my life.”
I smiled, blushing as he said the words I needed him to say. I didn’t even have to ask. He just got me. “Really?”
“Meet me at the coffee stand after class. We can talk then, but you didn’t have to get me anything.”
“I wanted to.” He kissed my cheek and then backed away slowly, still grinning big at me.
Then I looked at my phone and panicked. My class was set to start in six minutes and I was definitely going to be cutting it close.
Much to my dismay, I had to sit in the front row. Didn’t these people know the rules? True, we didn’t have assigned seats, but technically, we had assigned seats.
The class was a disaster, as always. I had no idea what was going on nor any idea how to figure it out. But I was super visible in the front and the professor called on me. Of course, my answer was wrong and I was unbelievably humiliated. This was going to be a long semester. In a worse mood than before, I walked to the coffee stand and ordered a large french vanilla latte. As I was waiting for my coffee, I heard my name.
“Hey, Christie,” I said, giving her a weak smile.
“What’s up? How are you doing?” she asked, and then placed her order.
“Not much. Kingsley is coming and we’re going to try to talk things out. He was waiting outside my room with coffee, but I needed to get to class.”
“Well, that’s good. He definitely needs to do some sucking up.”
The barista called my name and I grabbed my cup.
I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the idea that he had to suck up after doing something wrong. I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. I’d see what happened when Kingsley got here. “So, what else is going on?”
“Not much. Go grab a table so you have one when Kingsley gets here. I’ll wait with you.” She waved me off and I picked one of the tables off to the side. As long as he didn’t speak too loudly, no one would hear us. I was a little nervous.
I took my phone out of my bag and double checked my messages. Maybe his class went late or something. Letting out a sigh, I put the phone away and turned to look at Christie. She was smiling at a guy who seemed to be holding her coffee hostage.
Frankly, I’d kill someone if they tried to take my coffee. She wasn’t as crazy as I was.
This guy stood a little over a head taller than Christie, but then again, she was wearing tall, chunky leather boots. Though his height was helped by his hair. It was black, brushed out of his dark almond-shaped eyes, and gelled straight up. There was a good chance he used more hair gel than Violet but it looked good. He looked good and I definitely thought Christie noticed.
I heard her giggle loudly and couldn’t help but watch more intently. She was flirting. I’d never seen her in action, but I always thought she’d be this sex kitten. As it turned out, in front of a hot guy, she turned into a giggly school girl just like the rest of us. I felt a little bit like I’d found out there was no Santa Claus.
She started to walk toward my table and I gave her a skeptical look.
“Well, who was that?”
“Um, his name is Shane. He grabbed my coffee by mistake. We ordered the same thing, and the barista placed it on the counter and said Frappuccino instead of my name. So he grabbed it and I stopped him, you know, because I wasn’t gonna let him take my nectar of the gods.”
“That’s my girl.”
“Anyway, he tried to pull the whole, ‘oh, I’ll give you your coffee if you give me your number’ thing. But I have a boyfriend, so I don’t want to just give out my number.”
“Right. But then why were you giggling?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it was the leather jacket or the muscles underneath it. I mean, did you get a look at him? Geez, I could do some real damage to a body like that.”
“Oh really?”
“Hey, just because Rob is down south doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a good-looking man when I see one.”
“Yeah, he was pretty fine. Are you into that bad boy thing?”
“Who isn’t? I don’t know. Rob is basically the polar opposite of a bad boy. He is just your typical altar boy.”
“Is that a problem?”
“No, it’s great. It means I trust him.” She smiled at me but it looked forced and she looked a little scary. Her eyes were too wide and her eyebrows went up too high. Whatever was going on with her damn sure didn’t look great.
She looked down at her perfect manicure and searched for what were clearly made up flaws.
“Annabelle?” Kingsley asked. He had walked up to the table while we were talking.
I looked at Christie and the forced but scary smile was back. “Hi, Kingsley. I just stopped by for a coffee and saw Annabelle. I’ll see you guys later.”
Kingsley gave her a smirk. “Thanks, we have some things to talk about.”
“I’ll call you later?” I asked her. I didn’t want to leave her when she was opening up to me, but I did need to deal with Kingsley.
“You’d better, bitch.” She slipped her sunglasses on and headed out the door.
“She’s pretty vulgar,” Kingsley pointed out, and made a face. “I don’t like women who swear like that. I hope she doesn’t rub off on you.”
“Kingsley, she’s one of my friends…” I started, trying to defend her.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m supposed to be groveling, not insulting your friends.” Kingsley reached out and took my hand.
I looked down at our hands together and tried not to smile. They fit perfectly. “Kingsley, I’m so sorry for the loss of your friend. I really feel for you, but—”
“You don’t even need to say it, babe.”
“You were nervous, I was upset. Everything was just a mess. I accept your apology. Do you accept mine?”
I couldn’t help but notice he didn’t actually say sorry. But I quickly dismissed the thought. Some people just had an issue apologizing. I knew he meant it and that counted for me.
“I just need to know if you were using that night.” I looked down at the table, unable to look back up at him. As soon as I said it, I realized I really did need to know this. To me, if he admitted it, we could make something work. If he didn’t, well, I wouldn’t worry about that just yet.
Kingsley reached out and gently pushed my chin up. “Yeah, I did. I’m sorry I lied to you. I was embarrassed that I’d sunk to that level. I was just devastated and didn’t handle it right. That’s why I yelled at you. Under normal circumstances, I’d never speak to you that way. I want you to know that.”
“Are you intending to use again?”
“I can promise you that it won’t happen again. I’ll even go see the school therapist about my issues if that will make you feel better. If I get their help, I won’t need to use. I just, I don’t always know how to handle all the thoughts in my head. But I’m done with that life. Will that work for you?”
“Actually, I think seeing the therapist would be a good idea.” I really liked this plan. It was the perfect solution. I could tell Violet and Christie he was going to do something about the drugs and then they could see the amazing guy I normally saw.
“Then I’ll make an appointment and get that sorted out. Please say you forgive me.”
I looked at him and felt that tingly sensation in my stomach again. It was his eyes. They were clear and bright and obviously full of love. They completely took me over and I couldn’t stay angry with him if I tried.
“All right, go see the therapist and I’ll forgive you.”
Kingsley smiled big, practically showing me his wisdom teeth, and pulled my chair close to him. I laughed as he pulled me in for a kiss. “I don’t actually have your gift on me, but I promise it will be wor
th it.”
“Kingsley, you didn’t need to get me a gift.”
“Uh, don’t say that. I want to spoil my girl and make up for my actions. Let me make it up to you.”
I nodded and kissed him. The terrible feeling in my gut seemed to melt away as I felt a whole different emotion flowing through me. I definitely needed to get a handle on it. I should not have been that horny while sitting in the middle of the school building.
***
Kingsley and I separated and went to our next classes. He was on call that night so he said he couldn’t meet up, but he’d be planning something fun for Saturday night and I’d get my gift then. I spent most of the night with Violet trying to figure out my statistics. She had taken it last semester and passed with a B. Berneli had helped her out and, eventually, she grasped the concepts. When that failed, we also got together on Thursday with Berneli in the EET office for another lesson.
Violet was desperate to see him and I was desperate to pass my class. They figured I’d be a good buffer and no one would assume they were up to no good if I was in the room. I was happy to help if it meant I could pass my class.
Even though Violet mooned over him and there were some stolen kisses when I was trying to apply the notes Berneli gave me, he really was a great help. I generally had an idea of what was going on, or at least I thought I did. We left the office and I felt a lot better. However, Violet did not.
“I’m just not sure what I’m going to do about Saturday. In reality, I don’t know what to say to him and I really don’t want to see him anyway. It’s not going to help the terrors. I just hoped the investigator would have more information for us by now. Maybe I need to transfer schools before they find out.”
My heart sank. How could she leave me here? Okay, that was selfish. Would changing schools actually help her? No, it couldn’t. “Stop, I don’t think that’s the solution in the middle of a semester. School just started, so you’re not going to be able to get accepted in another school this semester and you can’t drop out. Then he wins. I know you hate waiting, but you need to let the investigator do his job.”
Second Snowfall (Elton Hall Chronicles Book 2) Page 17