by Hart, Lane
“That’s the spirit! Now, how exactly are we going to make him pay?” Sophie asks with a sinister smile.
“We can plot my revenge all you want, but that’s it, okay?” I tell her. “I’m not doing this to try and get Hannah back.”
“Don’t you want to at least make things right, prove to her that you’re not the asshole she thinks you are?”
Do I care what she thinks about me?
Fuck yes, even though I wish I didn’t. And after hearing that recording, knowing how she must see me…I can’t leave things like that. It’s a goddamn miracle she even let me touch her that one night at homecoming.
So yeah, I need to set the record straight, to make amends and convince her to forgive me for everything I’ve put her through over the last few years. But that’s it. Nothing more.
Whatever happens, I absolutely, positively, cannot let myself fall in love with her all over again.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Hannah
Going to prom with Garrett isn’t exactly a fairy tale dream come true or anything, but it’s better than missing out. He’s exactly the type of guy I should want to be with.
That’s why I’m going to try my best and give him and tonight one hundred percent of myself. It’s the least I can do for him taking a chance on being my date when no other guy will even speak to me.
I just wish we could’ve gone with Maddie and Aric, but of course Royal said no.
“You look beautiful,” Garrett says after we order dinner. “Sorry. I’ve already said that, but it’s true.”
“Thank you,” I tell him as I sip my glass of water just to have something to do. Being here, alone in a fancy restaurant with him is awkward.
When he reaches across the table to cover my hand with his, my first instinct is to pull away. I have to fight the urge to avoid hurting his feelings. Unfortunately, there’s still just no spark. Not even the faintest flicker. I feel…nothing for Garrett other than friendship.
Maybe…maybe I just need to dive in headfirst and sleep with him.
That would be crazy, yes, but I feel like I’m going to go insane if I can’t find some way to stop thinking about the boy who took my heart and my virginity.
“Are you okay? Your hand is cold,” Garrett tells me as he gives the top of my hand a squeeze.
“I’m fine, just a little nervous about seeing everyone at prom,” I say, although I secretly can’t help but wonder if I’ll ever warm up from a man’s touch again. But that has to be impossible, right?
Eventually, one day, someone will light that fire inside of me again. They have to. I refuse to believe there’s only one person in the world who can turn me on.
* * *
Royal
“Okay, so be cool,” Sophie starts as we each sip our modified punch in the ballroom, me in my black tux and her in her silver dress after she made me dance five songs in a row with her. I usually wouldn’t be caught dead dancing; but since Soph has been great, being there for me these last few months when Aric was too busy with his new girlfriend and Blake too busy with his pregnant baby mama, I caved.
“Okay?” I ask. I’m so hot sweat is dripping down my spine, dampening the dress shirt under my jacket. Time for something to go.
“She’s here,” Sophie says, making me freeze with both arms by my side as I try to remove my jacket.
“Where?” I ask, accidentally hitting Sophie upside the head when I spin around and pull my arms free as my eyes search the crowd. “I don’t see her.”
“What part of ‘be cool’ did you not understand?” she asks while slicking her blonde hair back into her updo. “She’s in the photo line with her back to us.”
Finally, I spot a sexy bare back and know it’s Hannah’s before I even check out her head or her ass. Yep, it’s her. Her brown hair is down but swept over the front of one shoulder where her braid usually hangs, out of view. Her dress is gorgeous, shimmering gold, similar to the one she wore to homecoming but only longer. From across the room, she twinkles like a star in a pitch-black night.
There’s a tug on my shoulder before I realize I’m heading in her direction. “Not yet. Be cool,” Sophie reminds me.
Rolling my shoulders, I turn my back to the couple before I get a glimpse of the asshole with her. “I’m totally cool.”
“No, you’re not, but at least you didn’t run over to her.”
“I wasn’t going to run,” I grumble. “I was just going to stroll briskly…”
“Right, well, just be patient and wait until he goes to the restroom. Hopefully Hannah will go too, and then it’s showtime.”
“What if this plan doesn’t work?” I ask.
“It’ll work.”
“How can you be so confident? Part of me is sure it’ll just make everything worse when I get rid of her date.”
“At first, she may be pissed; but if you can get her to listen to you, everything will come together,” Sophie explains. “And I guess we’re going to find out either way, because they’re heading for the restrooms right now!”
“Shit, okay. Keep an eye out and text me if Hannah comes out before Garrett.”
“Will do,” she agrees. “Oh! And luck is on your side, because Maddie just went inside too, so I bet she’ll keep Hannah talking for a few extra minutes. Now go, and good luck!” she adds with a shove to my back in the direction of the restrooms.
I step into the men’s room right as Garrett is zipping his fly and turning away from the urinal.
“Royal! Hey, man, how’s it going?” he asks like we’re friends or some shit as he walks over to the sink to wash his hands.
“How do you think it’s going?” I ask him when I’m standing so close the front of my chest is brushing against his shoulder because I’m several inches taller. “You’ve got some balls showing up here with my girl after the shit you pulled.”
“Wh-what? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says. “You hate Hannah.”
“You know, once I started thinking about it, I remembered something important about the SAT. You were one of the few Mercy students at the retake, and everyone I talked to said it was you who told them Hannah outed me for cheating. But that wasn’t the whole story, was it?”
“I-I don’t know what you mean.”
“You seem to always be in the right place at the wrong time, man,” I tell him. Removing the recorder from the inside of the breast pocket of my tux, I slam it against his chest, and Garrett catches it before it falls to the floor. “Now, you’re gonna take that and get the fuck out of this bathroom, out of this ballroom, out of this fucking hotel in the next five seconds and never speak a word to Hannah again, or I swear I will drown you in one of these toilets.”
Like the pussy I know he is, he takes off running in a full sprint out the door; and a moment later, my phone dings with a new text from the front pocket of my pants. Pulling it out, I see a message from Sophie.
Nice job! The asshole is out the door and there’s no sign of Hannah yet.
Good. Part one of my plan worked.
I text back, Let me know when she comes out.
Sure, I could’ve gone after Garrett weeks ago, kicking his ass right after I found out he was taking Hannah to prom or learned about him screwing me over with her years ago. But Sophie was right. It’s going to be much sweeter to steal her from him tonight rather than bloody him.
I am not my father, and I’m not going to let my anger control me anymore.
Now, all I have to do is give Hannah a few more minutes and wait for her to get annoyed that Garrett disappeared before I step up and start trying to make amends for the hell I’ve put her through.
Time is running out, but there’s no way I can leave until she forgives me.
* * *
Hannah
“Hey!” Maddie says when she walks into the bathroom and I’m standing at the sink counter, reapplying my lipstick.
“Hey!” I reply. “You look awesome, girl.”
“So do you
, hot stuff,” she tells me with a grin. “Are you having fun? How long have you been here? I haven’t seen you on the dance floor.”
“Garrett and I just got here a few minutes ago, actually. Dinner ran late, but it wasn’t like I was in a big rush to get here.”
“Yeah,” Maddie agrees. “I figure we’ll only stay another half hour or so before Aric insists on going up to our room.”
“You two have a room here?” I say in surprise. “Seems like a waste of money since you two sleep together every night,” I add with a grin.
“Yeah, well, it’s prom, so we’re making it special. What about you and Garrett? Any plans to let him take you upstairs?”
“God no,” I answer without hesitation.
“That was a quick response,” Maddie points out with an arched red eyebrow.
“I didn’t mean it like that. Garrett is nice and sweet and handsome. I’m just not…physically attracted to him.”
“Does he know that?”
“I’ve made it clear we’re just friends,” I say.
“Because…”
“Because we’re just friends.”
“And you’re just friends because…”
“I don’t understand where you’re going here, Maddie,” I huff.
“You said it yourself. Garrett is a nice, sweet, attractive guy. There’s no reason you shouldn’t want him, except for one – you want someone else.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Come on, Hannah! Just admit it. If Royal wasn’t a dick, you would be all over his dick again.”
My mouth involuntarily lifts in the corners. “That is so not true!”
“Yes, it is.”
“If you came to prom with Royal, you would love to go to a hotel room with him, wouldn’t you?”
“I-I don’t think so.”
“Good thing you’re not Pinocchio or your snout would be a foot long by now.”
“Ugh, do I wish things were different with Royal? Of course. But they’re not, and I have to move on eventually. I’m going to try moving on with Garrett.”
“I thought you two were just friends.”
“I’m trying to see him as more!”
“But it’s not working?” Maddie asks.
“Not yet.”
“Well, good luck. And if I don’t see you again, try to have fun,” Maddie says before she throws her arms around me for a rare hug.
“Thanks,” I tell her. “You too!”
Since it’s time to face the music, I inhale a deep breath and walk out of the bathroom with my clutch in my hand to go find my date.
Only, Garrett’s nowhere to be found. We both went to the bathroom at the same time, so he should be out by now since I was talking to Maddie for several minutes.
I keep standing there waiting and waiting until I finally pull my phone out of my clutch to send Garrett a text.
While my head is bent over my phone waiting to see if the three little dots will appear or not, a finger or a knuckle runs from the top of my bare spine all the way to the bottom, which is my tailbone, making me gasp, not only in surprise but also with desire.
Oh, thank god!
My body has finally decided to flip the on switch for Garrett. I was starting to think I was broken and would stay in the off position forever because Royal broke me.
Except, when I glance over my shoulder, it’s not Garrett standing behind me, still lightly touching me.
It’s Royal.
There goes my optimism for moving on.
“You shouldn’t touch someone so intimately without their permission. It’s inappropriate and will get you slapped,” I say as I take a step forward, out of his reach, looking away from his face that’s fixated on the back of my dress.
“I sort of like getting slapped,” he says gruffly when he steps into the space I just vacated. He’s close enough that I feel his warm breath on the back of my bare neck. “Good things usually happen afterward that make it worth the short-lived sting.”
I swallow hard at his husky words, hating myself for hitting him twice before I knew about his dad hurting him. From what Sophie told me, Royal’s suffered enough physical abuse from his father.
“I’m sorry I slapped you,” I tell him sincerely without facing him.
“Yeah, you already apologized after the first time, remember?”
“Sort of,” I lie. As if I could ever forget that day. It’s just surprising that he remembers such a small detail.
“I’m sorry I threw your sketch book out the window,” he says, making my throat feel like it’s swelling up. “I never apologized before, but it was a dick move. I was just trying to get your attention.”
“Yeah, well, you got it.”
“A psychiatrist would say I have a problem differentiating between good attention and bad attention.”
“Probably so.”
“Will you dance with me?” he asks, trailing his fingertips as light as a feather over my back, barely touching my flesh but making it impossible for my body to not notice or react.
“Why…” I start to say, but my mouth is so dry the word barely comes out. “Why should I dance with you? You hate me.”
“I want to dance with you because you hate me.”
Finally, I spin around to face him. Looking him right in his whiskey-colored eyes, I tell him the truth. “I don’t hate you, Royal. And I never have. I only hate that I still care about you too much to ever hate you when I really, really want to hate you so damn much!”
Before the first tear falls down my cheek, Royal grabs me by my hips and pulls me to his chest. Reluctantly, I eventually wrap my arms around his neck, so that to anyone else, it probably looks like we’re slow dancing off to the side near the restrooms when we’re only just holding each other.
“Garrett’s not coming back tonight,” Royal says against my ear.
“W-what? Why not,” I ask in confusion, not exactly disappointed with my face still buried in his chest, inhaling his familiar, soothing scent.
“Sophie played the recording for me.”
“She did?” I’ve been waiting weeks for the fallout that never happened, so I thought maybe she changed her mind. I didn’t want to ask for fear of reminding her in case she forgot about it.
“Yeah, and right before the recording started, Garrett told me a few things, things you had said to people about me.”
“Like what?” I ask, pulling back just enough to see his face.
Royal uses his thumb to wipe away a tear underneath my eye before answering. “That you told some of the girls you regretted being with me.”
Gasping, I say, “I never said that!”
“You told me after homecoming that you regretted that night…” he trails off.
“That was different. You had been awful to me for months and said horrible things! I shouldn’t have let things go that far….”
“The horrible things I said on that recording were out of anger. I didn’t mean any of it, Hannah. I swear.”
“Actions speak louder than words, Royal. Seeing how you acted that last day with Claudia, leaving with her, that only confirmed everything you said.”
“Nothing happened with Claudia! I tried to talk to you, and you kept running away.”
Shaking my head, I tell him, “I didn’t regret what we did together, not until I thought it had all been a lie.”
“It wasn’t. And that wasn’t all the fucker told me either. He said you told the girls I didn’t last long and that it wasn’t good for you.”
“That’s not true! I’m pretty sure one of the other girls started talking about the guys she had been with who didn’t last long or whatever. But I never told them details about us or you, only that we had sex. I was trying to be their friend, and it worked. Last summer, they didn’t treat me like a leper.”
“You went back to camp last summer?”
“I went to the beach for a few weeks, and then I reported to camp as a counselor. And unlike Claudia, I didn’t try to sleep with
any of the campers.”
“That’s good,” he says. “I know you liked going, so I’m glad I didn’t ruin it for you…”
“Oh, you definitely ruined it for me. But I still went,” I tell him.
“Are you going back this summer?”
“Yeah, for the last time.”
“I want to come too,” Royal says.
“Come to what?” I ask him.
“Camp with you.”
“No, you don’t. You hated every second of camp!” I remind him.
Arching one eyebrow, he says, “Not every second.”
It takes me a moment to recover from his deep voice and the meaning behind those words, and then I’m shaking my head again. “I’m not going to sleep with you again.”
“How can you be so certain about that?” he asks. “Unless it wasn’t good…”
“No, it’s not that it wasn’t good.” Jeez, if anything, that’s the problem. The sex was so good I would even give in when Royal was being a jerk. “It’s just that, I can’t go through all of that again.”
“So we won’t fuck.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
Chuckling, he says, “Oh no. I really want to fuck you. But if you don’t want to, then we don’t have to.”
“Why do I feel like you’re full of crap right now?”
“Because you only think you know one version of me – the dick. Maybe you could take a chance to get to know the real me without anyone talking shit or interfering. Let me try to make it up to you. Just give me the summer, and then I promise you’ll never have to see me again.”
“Just the summer?” I repeat, not fond of the way he phrased the part about never seeing him again.
“That’s right, the summer.”
“Okay,” I agree. “Camp starts on July first.”
“I’ll see you there,” Royal says with a grin.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Royal
Graduation day.