“I can’t do this,” Jaimie groans as we exit our English Literature class. She’s moaning and huffing in protest because our professor just assigned us a ten-page essay to analyze the main themes and supporting literary devices used in one of my favorite plays, Macbeth. I, for one, am excited for the assignment because it gives me a chance to dive into a favorite of mine for a good grade.
“Well, I can,” I say in a teasing tone, shaking my head side to side. I earn a sharp glare and a nudge from her, and I laugh, throwing my head back.
“Of course you can,” she says and rolls her eyes.
“If you ever get stumped or just need some help, you know where I live. I’d be happy to help you.” I predict I’ll be finished with it by tonight, and while helping her, I can have some company while I do it.
“Sure, but not tonight,” she says. “Julia and I are going bowling tonight. You’re welcome to join if you and lover boy aren’t getting it on tonight.”
“Bowling? On a Thursday night?” I couldn’t imagine going out on a school night. The weekend maybe, but not a night meant for rest for class the very next day. “No, thanks. Maybe another time?”
“Fine, you’re smart for not coming,” she says and looks at me with a mischievous smirk. “Bowling balls won’t be the only thing Julia’s fingers will be entering tonight,” she croons and bites her lip seductively, bouncing her shoulders. I nearly throw up on the spot, but I settle for a disgusted mewl and nudging her shoulder with mine, causing her to burst into belly gut-laughter.
We part ways for our next class. On the way to mine, which happens to be History AP, I mentally plan my outline for my essay since I have already written plenty of similar essays. But I’m interrupted on paragraph four when my back pocket buzzes. I pull out my phone from my pants pocket and swipe my finger across the screen.
Grey: Miss me yet?
A smile stretches across my face.
Olivia: Hardly. Enjoying tearing your knuckles apart?
Grey: I’d rather be tearing something else apart. I meant your pussy by the way.
He adds a cat emoji. I can’t help the giggle that leaves my lips. I chew on my bottom lip as I type back a response.
Olivia: Well now, I’m thinking of getting some protein.
I feel both dirty and silly for adding the banana emoji.
Grey: I freaking knew you were talking about my junk! My (chicken emoji) could use some love after my abuse this morning though.
I burst out laughing and shake my head at his brazenness. I love it.
“Who ya texting?” a high-pitched voice sounds. I look up from my phone and feel my mood plummet.
“None of your business, Diana.” I spit out her name like it’s poison.
She hums, tilts her head, and juts out a hip with her hands behind her back. “I bet it’s Grey, isn’t it?”
When I don’t immediately respond, a sly smirk cracks onto her face, and she shakes her head. “He came around real late last night, but after what we did…” She sucks in a sharp breath and squints her eyes. “I could not get a lick of sleep.”
My heart skips a beat, but I hold my ground and smile.
“Too bad I don’t believe you. Grey was with me last night.”
She curves her lips in a frown and hums sadly. “Aw, is that what he told you?”
“It’s what I know.”
“That’s what you think, Odelia,” she says, vile toxins dripping from her tongue.
“My name is—”
“Irrelevant,” she cuts me off and steps toward me; I hate that I take a staggering step back, because she catches it and puffs out her chest. “You may have him being a little bitch for you, but you can’t forget that I was the one making him scream my name last night after he got bored with you. I bet you haven’t even sucked him off yet. Have you?”
I don’t respond and look away from her.
“That’s what I thought,” she drawls and brushes my shoulder as she walks past me. “Oh, and tell him he has something of mine, will you?” She presses two fingers to her lips before winking and showing me her middle finger. I stare at her in shock, not knowing what to say. She giggles like a maniacal witch and winks at me before spinning on her red heels and sashays away while fluffing out her fiery hair.
I stand there in the middle of the quad with so many questions roaming around my mind. I try to ignore them and tell myself that she’s a psychopath, but I can’t help but let one float around from one end to another: is she telling the truth?
***
I am stuck. I started writing my English literature essay an hour ago, but I can’t concentrate. Diana’s words have been branded in my brain, unable to leave me alone for a solid second. I keep thinking back to what she said. About Grey being with her last night and the slick way she said it. Like it was true…but it can’t be. He was with me last night. I woke up in his arms, so how could she be right? I shouldn’t have even entertained her obvious lies. I should have more faith and trust Grey. She’s just a jealous ex-fling. Nothing more.
I smile to myself and pick up my pen to write more when the door suddenly flies open. I jump and scream in fear, but I stop when I realize it’s just Grey.
“Scaredy-cat, much?” he teases with a nauseating smile.
I reach beside me and throw my script of Macbeth at his chest. He dodges it, though, and tosses it back. “Do not do that. You scared the crap at me!”
“That was the point,” he says, scoffing, before falling onto my bed, making me bounce. I hit him with the script again. He grabs my wrist and pulls me onto his chest. I yell before erupting into laughter as he wiggles his eyebrows at me. He reaches up and tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear. The look of adoration and fervor in his eyes makes me heat up and glance away. “How was your day?” His voice is raspy and filled with concern.
“Could have been better,” I say. “I ran into Diana…” I look at him closely, looking for a reaction that could depict she was right. But he frowns and looks genuinely sour at the mention of her.
“Let me help wash away that horrible event from your mind,” he says before leaning up and connecting his lips with mine. Our lips move and caress each other at a slow pace. It’s sweet and ties my stomach into complex knots. His hands cup my face and bring me closer, so my lips are of free access. I cup the side of his neck with one hand while threading my fingers through his hair with my other hand.
I don’t ever want to pull away. It’s like he’s the soft breeze that is able to set my body on fire but also able to chill the flames. His lips taste the same as ever, toxic and bittersweet.
“You can’t forget that I was the one making him scream my name last night after he got bored with you. I bet you haven’t even sucked him off yet. Have you?” Diana’s words make their way into my subconscious.
I frown and find myself straddling his hips, tugging at the hem of his jeans. I remove my lips and look down between our bodies as I fumble with his belt. But before I can unlatch it, he wraps his hand around my wrist and tips my chin up so I’m facing his soft hint of a smile. An amusing smile.
“Are you okay?” He laughs, and I know it isn’t supposed to hurt me, but I can’t help but feel stupid. I drag my eyes from his intense gaze and push myself off him and scramble away from him.
“Um, yeah,” I say and shrug my shoulders, picking up my notebook and looking interested in the half-written page. “I’m sorry, I was just playing with you.”
“I wish you were, but I told you, you don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he says, shifting behind me, rubbing my arms and placing a sweet kiss on my neck. I close my eyes and briefly revel in his light touch.
“But what if I did want to?” I snap, shrugging away from him. I keep my eyes down and nervously tap the end of the pen against the paper. Why am I letting that girl get in my head? Maybe because you don’t know where you and Grey stand, my subconscious inquires, and I look at Grey, who is quiet, examining me.
“Grey…what…are we?�
�� I gesture between myself and him.
He frowns. “Human beings?”
I smile but shake my head. “No, no, I don’t mean like that.” He’s such a smart-ass.
“Then what do you mean, Princess?” He reaches forward and clasps his hand with mine, interlocking our fingers. The gesture is small but causes a massive explosion in my heart. I watch with a heavy heart as he focuses on rubbing my thumb with his.
“I mean…relationship-wise.”
He pauses in playing with my thumb and looks up at me through his eyelashes. “What do you want us to be?”
“I…” Before I can say anything more, there’s a knock on the door. I pull my eyes away from his and put the book and pen to the side before standing. “I’ll get that.” My voice is low.
I have no idea what I was going to tell him. Obviously, I want us to be more than friends, but what if he just wants to keep screwing with Diana and other girls more than he wants to be with me, virginity intact and all? Plus, it isn’t exactly a secret that I have no experience being in a relationship or anything like that. What if I screw something up and he ends up laughing at me?
I throw open the door and feel my heart drop. “Mother?” I squeak out and accidentally stumble back. Her vivid blue eyes flitter over to my bed. More specifically, the guy laying on it.
This is not going to go well.
Chapter Forty
“Mother.” I suck in a deep breath to calm my raging nerves, but it does nothing to help. “W-what are you doing here?” I’m more than a little confused as to why she’s here, and without notifying me. I don’t understand why she can’t comprehend that I’m an adult, as much as she wants me to remain a little girl.
“Your father’s birthday is Saturday, and he and I want you to spend the weekend to celebrate,” she tells me, stepping into the room, brushing my shoulder. I steel my hand around the golden knob on the door, sucking in a deep breath.
I press my head to the door, preparing myself for her screaming and lecturing. I turn around and stare at Grey, who is looking at my mother with an unbothered expression.
“I had a bad feeling and felt I should tell you in person,” she says and glances over at Grey with a disgusted expression that makes my hands ball into fists. “Looks like I made the right decision. Why is he here, on your bed, Olivia?” She turns to me and scowls through her pursed lipstick-plastered lips and the slight crease in her forehead.
“We were just hanging out—we’re…friends.” I know we’re more than friends, but I don’t know exactly what to call us yet.
She scoffs loudly in what sounds like a villainous bark. “Unacceptable. Did I not explicitly tell you you were not to be around this…boy?” Her words make me flinch, and I look around, avoiding her piercing eyes. “Speak, child. I know you’re bright, so I cannot, for the life of me, understand why you’re willing to waste your precious time here on this…this…delinquent.” Her words send a glass-like shard to cut against my skin.
I cringe and look between her and Grey, who is clearly holding back words I know would not help this situation.
“First of all, I am not a child,” I say, stepping up and facing her. “I am eighteen years old and in college, which means I am allowed to hang out and do whatever I want. Secondly, I am acing every single one of my classes and am still studying and doing everything I need to. I have made some really great friends, and I haven’t gotten in trouble or anything extreme. I’m doing really well, Mother.” I smile warmly in hopes that it will help soften her harsh, icy demeanor, but it does absolutely nothing.
“As long as you’re in college and are my daughter, I want what is best for you. And he—” She swivels her glowing blue eyes to Grey, who is now fisting the sheets with a murderous glare at me, as if he is discreetly pleading “let me at her.” “He is not that.”
“He is not as bad as you think, Mother,” I say around a nervous laugh.
“Oh, please! Just look at him. He is not the boy you should be around. He reeks of danger, and my baby girl does not deal with boys like him.” She crosses her arms, and I gasp and look at her as if she’s lost her mind. Actually, I think she has. Has she always been this judgmental?
She doesn’t even know him, yet she’s practically categorizing him as the devil. It isn’t fair, nor is it close to the truth. He may be an asshole, he has even admitted it, but once you get beyond that, he’s sweet and kind and hilarious and everything I never knew I wanted…
“Okay! That’s it!” Grey exclaims loudly, making me jump and look at him. He jumps to his feet and waves at my mother with a smile; she regards him with a disgusted look. “Hello, I’m Grey. Grey Wyler. Also known as your adult daughter’s friend, but wait, after what’s been happening between us, I guess you can say we’re a bit more than that. Anyway, who the fuck do you think you are judging me without actually knowing me? To quote a cheesy ass quote, but one that relates so much to this situation: you can’t judge a book by its cover, although my cover is pretty fucking amazing, thank you very much,” he says sarcastically with a grin. I almost laugh toward the end, but I stop before I can.
My mother gasps. I nearly see smoke spilling out of her ears and her head spin around like the little possessed girl from The Exorcist.
“Excuse me?” she exclaims, pointing a finger at him. “I don’t give a damn who you are. I just don’t want you anywhere near her. You are already becoming a bad influence. She’s speaking back to me as if she’s forgotten about all her manners. But I guess that’s what happens to everyone around you, huh?”
“You mean she’s beginning to speak her mind like she should be able to?” he questions, crossing his arms against his chest, unfazed by my mother’s intimidating aura.
“She’s back talking. There is a difference. Not that you’d know,” she says and looks him up and down. “But this is beside the point.” She turns to me, and her nose flares so that she resembles a dragon breathing fire. “How could you defy my clear orders? I thought we agreed that you were to focus on your studies and your studies alone—nothing else. Especially not him!”
“But I am focusing on my studies, Mother!” I defend myself and anxiously smile. “I’m just spending a little time with him because he keeps me grounded.”
She squawks out a scoff. “Keeps you grounded,” she reiterates while muttering something incoherent. She sucks in a deep breath and turns to me. “You do not need a boy to keep you grounded. You have class assignments to keep you grounded.” She puts up air quotes. “If anything, he is getting in the way of your future. A bright future we have mapped out. And he…he was not on that map!”
“Let me guess: her not being able to have fun or actually enjoy her time here wasn’t in this ridiculous map of yours?” Grey releases all his sarcasm. “College is supposed to be a place where you experiment and actually have a good time before you’re shipped off into the world. Not to study so hard that you end up in the fucking hospital!” he shouts toward the end, and I flinch. I didn’t want this to happen: them fighting, but honestly, I didn’t even see this coming.
“College is not a playground to have fun. It is a school supposed to teach kids and get them on the right path to a future they can actually be proud of. But I guess you just party and throw your life away and your professors let you pass so you will go away, and they won’t have to deal with you for too long,” my mother spits.
“I’m actually passing all of my classes, with top scores,” he says with a smug smile. I look at him and smile discreetly. I didn’t know that. Maybe because he always makes it seem like he doesn’t care. But I guess he does. I still feel like I hardly know him, but I may not be able to learn more about him with my mother pushing me away from him in a desperate attempt to control my life.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you bribed them or even blackmailed them,” she says with a snotty scoff. She turns to me and spits, “You were supposed to be doing so well, so why the hell are you hanging around this Neanderthal?”
; “Disrespect me one more time and I will not hesitate to show you how much of a delinquent I can be,” Grey warns through gritted teeth, taking a lethal step toward my mother. I gasp and rush forward, pushing my hands against his firm chest. He flexes and glares at my mother over my shoulder. “Liv can damn well make her own decisions. She doesn’t need her mommy making them for her. She is an adult, if you haven’t noticed.”
“No, what she doesn’t need is you messing with her education and what she needs. But I guess it’s my fault for not preparing her for low-life boys like you getting in the way of things.”
“Can you two please stop arguing over me like I’m not right here?” I plead, but my mother ignores me and steps closer to Grey, who doesn’t look intimidated in the slightest.
“Has she told you of her plans for a real future? A future that does not harbor a delinquent like you?” Mother spits, crossing her arms, shooting icy daggers at Grey.
“All she could really get out last night was my name, over and over and over again,” Grey replies with a wicked smirk, mirroring my mother with crossed arms. “Sounded something like…oh, Grey! Yes, Grey! Oh!”
“You are not helping!” I shout, putting my hand over his mouth. I can’t believe he just said that. My eyes widen, and I brace myself for her dramatic gasp and her pulling out her crucifix while reminding me of my promise that I will wait for marriage to do any unholy sexual acts.
She whirls me around before he can say a word.
“How could you?” she screams. “You were supposed to wait until marriage, not spread your legs like a whore for any boy who screams danger!”
I gasp at her words. It feels like she slapped me, and I am reeling back. “Mother.” My throat clenches, and I feel tears well in my eyes. I know that Grey isn’t even close to who she pictured me being with, but she doesn’t have to call me…that. I am not a whore.
Grey: The Encounter (Spectrum Series Book 1) Page 35