You are Thea Kennedy and you are a survivor.
As we get to the back of the building, I force my mouth open against the hand practically smothering me and clamp down on it as hard as I can.
“Bitch!” My attacker hisses as they yank their hand away from my mouth, and I taste the metallic tang of blood.
Their other arm is still wrapped around me, trapping my arms at my sides, but I don’t waste time. While they’re still caught off guard, I promptly lean back into them and swing my legs forward, gaining momentum before slamming my heels into their shins as hard as I can. It works, and as they release me, I go sprawling to the ground, landing face-first in the dirt.
I don’t even waste a tenth of a second to catch my breath before I’m scrambling to stand up to get away, adrenaline pumping through my veins. Before I even have both feet under me, they grab my wrist and spin me around to face them.
Dave.
I’m so shocked that it isn’t Tony that I freeze. I never thought I’d be so relieved to see Dave’s hostile, ugly face in my life. My ease is short-lived, however, when he pushes me up against the brick wall of the building, and I’m reminded that while Dave may not be Tony, he clearly intends to hurt me.
“Such a stupid little bitch!” he snarls at me, his grip on my arms tightening. “You’re not worth the trouble, but your boyfriend basically dislocated my jaw. I’ve been eating soup and banana mush for weeks because of you. He ruined my face, and I’m very fond of it, so how about we break something that he’s very fond of?”
Dave tosses me like a rag doll away from the wall, and a pair of arms catch me. With barely a chance to get a glance of the guy, I notice he’s one of Dave’s friends from the party, one of the original linebackers who blocked me from escaping after I took Dave down at Noah’s party.
This new guy spins me around so that my back is to him and I’m facing Dave. New guy practically yanks my arms out of their sockets as he grabs each of my wrists and pins them behind my back, forcing me to stay in place. Dave smiles an evil, satisfied grin, watching me pinned helplessly by the inhumanly strong linebacker behind me.
“This is going to hurt me as much as it hurts you,” Dave says with a sadistic smirk. “But just remember, what’s about to happen to you is all because of your little bastard boyfriend.”
Dave draws back his arm and punches me right in the stomach. I swear my lungs collapse and I double over in pain. My eyes water as I desperately gasp for air, and the only thing preventing me from falling to the ground is the monster holding me from behind. My ribs . . .
The linebacker yanks my arms back, forcing me to stand up straight and face Dave again. He has a sadistic gleam in his eyes as he puts his face near mine and runs his hand over my hair, smoothing it out. “Don’t quit on me just yet, darling, this is just the warm-up.”
Despite still trying to catch my breath, I spit right in Dave’s gargoyle face. It contorts into an expression of pure rage. The guy holding me tightens his grip, forcing my arms impossibly close together and practically dislocating my shoulders. Dave winds up his arm to drive his fist back into my stomach, but a blur of black suddenly tackles him to the ground before he can deliver the hit. The guy holding me from behind releases me and goes to help Dave, and I buckle over, holding my stomach, trying to recover.
I’m too focused on trying to catch my breath to pay attention to the fight. Out of my peripheral vision, I see Dave and the other guy scrambling away, realizing that they’ll lose this fight.
My breathing returning close to normal, I straighten up and turn to thank Aiden for saving my ass once again, only to stop short when I’m met with a guy who definitely isn’t Aiden.
In fact, I’ve never seen this guy before in my life.
This guy is tall and tan, with bright-blue eyes and buzzed brown hair, and looks like he’s in his early twenties. He’s on the skinnier side and doesn’t look very muscular, but he must be strong if he made Dave and his giant friend retreat with their tails between their legs.
I awkwardly stand in front of him, not knowing what to do.
“Thanks?” I say suddenly, remembering that I probably have blood on me from when I bit Dave’s hand, and wipe it away.
“He’s a dick, anyway,” the guy says nonchalantly.
I appreciate that he saved me from Dave and his friend, but I have this nagging feeling that something’s off about him. Plus, I don’t want to stay behind this building where no one knows where I am for any longer. I’m tired. I’m sore. I’m rattled. And to be honest, all I really want right now is Aiden.
I begin to walk back to the front of the building. “Right. Well, thanks again.”
“Wait!” he says quickly, coming closer to me but not invading my personal space.
I regard him warily. He’s not threatening, but I’m drained after what I’ve just been through, and I just want to get back to my friends.
“What’s your name?” he asks gently.
I at least owe him my name after he jumped in to help me out. “Amelia.”
“I’m Luke.” He smiles. “I wish we could’ve met in different circumstances.”
“Yeah, no one really likes being manhandled and punched so hard in the stomach that they taste colors,” I say, while trying to smooth out my hair.
“Been there, done that,” Luke jokes, before growing serious. “Listen, you’re friends with Annalisa White, right?”
My eyes narrow at him and my mind shouts Red flag! Red flag!
He must sense my alarm because he quickly adds “I saw you guys pull in together and you were talking to her.”
That doesn’t make me feel any better. I’m grateful that he’s here, since he’s the only reason I’m not a bloody mess right now—well, at least not a bloody mess with my own blood instead of Dave’s. Seriously, I think I tore a chunk of his hand out; there are bloodstains on my leather jacket from when he grabbed my arms. But if this guy is enough to make the always fierce Annalisa nervous, then maybe I should be careful around him too.
“Who? Oh, that girl with the red headband? No, she came up with some friends of my friends. We just met tonight. Well, thanks again,” I ramble as I slowly back up and then turn to run to the front of the building, leaving a very confused Luke behind.
Turning sharply, I run straight into Mason. He reaches out his arms and steadies me, preventing me from landing on my ass from ricocheting off him.
“Amelia? Where the hell have you been?”
Swirls of different emotions flood me when I see him. I don’t know how to feel about him right now. On one hand, Mason is a great friend and I love spending time with him. I want him to be happy, and it really shouldn’t be his job to protect me twenty-four seven. It’s not his job to make sure I don’t find trouble, which is inevitable anyway. On the other hand, he left me alone in a sketchy bathroom surrounded by even sketchier people who are into illegal shit. He literally had one job: to make sure I wasn’t left alone. He knew that Ryan and the Silvers who hate me and already did illegal things to me are here, and he left me.
What makes it worse is that he left me so that he could flirt with a girl. Like his booty call couldn’t have waited until I was done and back with everyone else? I don’t expect him to give up his life and devote himself to a life of service and protection. He just had to wait five minutes and then flirt with her when I was with Julian or Chase or someone.
I know I can’t blame him for what happened. It’s not his fault that Dave hates me and Aiden. But if Mason was with me, Dave would’ve never grabbed me in the first place, and I wouldn’t have just been beaten up and have a giant bruise forming on my abdomen. I’ll eventually get over it and forgive him, but right now, I need to be mad. That shit was traumatizing and I wouldn’t have had to go through it if he didn’t ditch me. He wasn’t even the one to save me. Like, did he not even notice that I was gone? He should know it doe
sn’t take that long to pee.
“K-bear? What’s wr—” He stops when he takes in my appearance.
I’m sure I look a mess. I know that my hair is tangled, and I can only hope that I got the blood off my face. My clothes are disheveled, not to mention the blood smudged on my jacket.
“Holy shit, Amelia. What the fuck happened to you?”
He grabs my chin and analyzes my face for damage, but I push his hand off, my anger brewing.
“It’s not my blood,” I answer coldly, and walk back to that awful bathroom to get cleaned up before anyone else sees me. I don’t want to answer any questions and I definitely don’t want Aiden to find out.
Mason quickly follows. “Amelia, stop. Tell me what happened.”
I get to the bathroom and step in before turning to regard him with cold and angry eyes.
“Why don’t you ask your booty call?” I snap, unable to help myself, before slamming the door closed in his face.
That was low of me, I know. It’s not that girl’s fault and it really isn’t Mason’s either.
There’s more blood smudged around my mouth and neck than there should be. With my adrenaline and anger dying down, I notice that my tongue’s throbbing in pain. I probably bit it hard. I wet my hand and start to get the blood off my face, out of my hair, and off my clothes. Before opening the door again, I double-check that I look close to normal. Satisfied, I swing the door open only to come face to face with a pissed off Mason, leaning on the wall across from the bathroom door, with his arms crossed.
He pushes himself off the wall when he sees me. “What the fuck, Amelia?”
I instantly go into defense mode. “Don’t ‘What the fuck,’ me, Mason! If anything, I should be ‘What the fuck’-ing you!”
I walk out of the run-down building and into the fresh air, and he quickly follows, stopping in front of me.
His face softens despite my outrage and he steps closer, reaching out to me. “Just tell me what happened.”
“What happened,” I snap, getting angrier with every word, “was that you ditched me to talk to some girl. I was left alone, which was what we were working so hard to avoid, and then I was kidnapped and dragged behind the building where two assholes proceeded to hassle me and one drove his fist into my stomach before some guy who wasn’t you saved my ass!”
I purposely decide not to tell him who it was. I may be pissed at Mason, but I still don’t want him to do something stupid like try to confront Dave.
Mason’s face drains of color as I snap at him, guilt spreading over his features.
“God, Amelia, I am so, so, sorry. Are you okay? Of course you’re not okay, what a stupid thing to ask! I’m so sorry; I never meant for this to happen. I never wanted you to get hurt! I’m the worst friend in the whole entire world; please forgive me. I promise not to leave your side ever again.”
His apology starts to melt my cold façade, but then that girl in the booty shorts and knee highs that he ditched me to talk to calls his name and waves him over enthusiastically, and I harden again. Mason looks over at her when she calls him and another wave of guilt washes over his face.
“Just go,” I say emotionlessly, stepping around him and walking back to where I think we parked when we got here. “Oh, and Mason? No one finds out about this. Especially not Aiden.”
I don’t wait for his response as I continue on my journey. I’m hurt, there’s no doubt about that. What aches the most is that I considered Mason one of my best friends, and he let something so horrible happen to me. I know it’s not his responsibility to protect me, but I still can’t help but blame him. I’ll forgive him . . . eventually.
The whole time I’m walking back to the group, Mason is trailing slightly behind me; I can feel his regretful gaze burning holes through the back of my head. When the group is within eyesight, I stop and wait for Mason to catch up to me so that we can walk up together.
He looks down at me expectantly with pleading brown eyes, waiting to see what I’ll say. I hold my ground despite my wavering resolve to stay mad at him, selfishly choosing to let him stay guilty for just a bit longer before I break and forgive him.
“No one finds out about what happened, ever. Got it?”
Mason hesitates. “Only if you tell me who did it. Was it Ryan?”
I don’t say anything and anger fills his brown eyes as he thinks about who could’ve possibly hurt me. “Just tell me, Amelia. I won’t say anything if you just give me their names and let me deal with them.”
“Drop it, Mason,” I say, my anger toward him practically gone.
“No, Amelia.” He holds his ground. “Someone thinks it’s okay to keep messing with you and get away with it. Hell, I’ll even tell Aiden and face his ass-kicking if it means he’ll fuck up the people who hurt you.”
My heart melts. “How am I supposed to stay mad at you when you talk like that?”
“I mean it, Amelia. Just say the name—”
“Why?” I interrupt. “So that you can go fight him? So you can get yourself unnecessarily hurt to defend my honor? That’s a stupid reason to fight. I don’t want anyone getting hurt on my behalf, Mason. It’s done. Luke saved me and I’m grateful, but I just want this to be over and done with and—”
“Luke?” Mason asks. “Where do I know a Luke from?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I say, steering his thoughts away from Luke, whom I shouldn’t have even mentioned in the first place. “Just promise me you won’t say anything.”
“But I really want to kick their—”
“Mason! If you promise me you won’t tell anyone and forget about this, I’ll forgive you,” I plead.
He looks at me skeptically, seeming to have an internal fight between his need to get revenge or to get my friendship back.
“It is always easier to ask forgiveness later, than permission now,” he reasons with himself.
“Mason! I swear, if you go around starting unnecessary fights I’ll be really mad at you! Would you rather get in a fight and lose a friend, or help me out and be besties again?”
He weighs the pros and cons for a few moments before finally giving in. “Fine. But if something else happens, I get to drive my boot up some asses.”
“Deal!” I exclaim, and wrap my arms around him, my anger already dissolved.
He pulls me in close, resting his chin on my head. “I really am sorry, k-bear,” he breathes in my ear.
“I know. It’s okay.” I reply honestly before we break apart and walk back to the group together.
Now everything’s fine between me and Mason, and no one will get in a fight over this. I don’t want this situation escalating any more than it has to. No one else is getting hurt on my behalf. We get back to the group, who are clustered around Julian’s and Mason’s trucks, and they all turn to us.
“Where the hell have you guys been? It doesn’t take that long to pee—unless . . . you guys were gettin’ it on in the bushes, weren’t you?” Noah jokes, moving his hips. “Bow chicka bow wow.”
We can’t help but laugh at Noah as Mason smacks him upside the head.
“He wishes,” I joke. “Mason kept stopping to talk to everyone.” I lie smoothly, knowing that Mason is well rounded and likeable enough that it’s believable.
“Yeah, right,” Mason adds, not sounding too convincing.
“Aiden was looking for you. I think he doesn’t want to set up the race with Ryan until you’re here,” Charlotte tells me.
A tingling sense of warmth spreads through my body when I hear Aiden’s name. After everything I’ve been through tonight, I want to revel in the comforting safety of his strong arms. But then reality hits and I realize that I can’t do that without seeming like a total weirdo.
“Why?” I ask.
“I think he knows that you don’t want him to punch Ryan in the face upon first sight, and the o
nly way he can respect that is if you’re there with him to keep him grounded,” Annalisa intuits.
Annalisa’s statement causes two different sets of emotions to rise within me. On one hand, Aiden is just . . . Aiden, amazing as ever. On the other, seeing Annalisa makes my stomach turn with anxiety and indecisiveness.
Seeing her reminds me about Luke and how he’s probably the guy she was so nervous about when we got here. Should I tell her I saw him? But that would mean admitting I heard her private moment with Julian, as well as to the incident with Dave. I don’t want to admit either of those, but what if Luke’s, like, her abusive ex-boyfriend or something? I thought he could be her brother, but he doesn’t look anything like her, so who else could he be? If she’s nervous about him being here, she should know that he is. I don’t want her being bombarded and caught off guard when or if she runs into him.
“Actually, Anna, there’s something I need to—”
“There you are,” Aiden says. “I was just looking for you.”
He pauses for a minute, looking at me while seeming confused, as if trying to figure out what’s different about me.
“What did you need?” I try to divert his attention.
He shakes his head as if to clear it. “Come on, we have to set up the race.”
I hold my sigh of relief, grateful that I cleaned up well enough to pass his inspection.
Seeing Aiden so self-confident and fearless makes me want to run into his arms and be comforted knowing that it’s him who’s holding me. But sadly, I can’t.
“Why do you need me with you?”
He looks at me with a sliver of an unknown emotion in his normally cool eyes. “Because if you’re not, I’ll do something that I promised you I wouldn’t.”
A warm, tingly feeling spreads throughout my body at his words, and I try not to turn to mush when he grabs my hand and intertwines his fingers with my own.
“Mason, grab Jonesy and bring him over to Ryan’s car,” Aiden instructs Mason, and then pulls me away from the group.
I look back longingly at Annalisa, knowing I should tell her about Luke right now, but Aiden’s pulling me away from her. Julian won’t leave her side and he’ll protect her. She’ll be safe with the group, and I’ll tell her the second we get back from setting up the race.
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