“Take your seat, Miss Jett. This class doesn’t revolve around you,” the professor hissed. My feet moved in front of me toward an empty chair on the opposite end as my insides burned to a crisp.
During the entire hour, my focus was on Maddie. The way she shook her head to move her bangs out of her eyes. The way she turned in her seat to smile up at Ollie. The way she would prop her elbow on his desk behind her, a chance to get closer. I tapped my foot vigorously, impatiently waiting to be dismissed.
“See you all next week,” the professor said, releasing us. Quick scenarios ran through my head. Do I ignore all of this and run out of here? Do I confront Ollie? How does he know her? Does he even know her?
Quickly gathering my things in my arms, I stood too fast, and all my belongings plummeted to the floor. “Shit,” I grumbled and hunched down.
Ollie’s black Chuck Taylors appeared in front of me before he bent down and searched my face. “You okay? You look pale.” He reached for my cheek but dropped his hand before he made contact.
Shaking my head, I said, “I’m fine.”
Ollie gathered my things for me and helped me off the ground, and there she was—Maddie—standing right behind Ollie with a faux surprised expression.
“Mia! Looks like I don’t need to introduce ya to the fella I told ya about,” she said sweetly, but toxins rode the wave of her voice. The boy she had told me about? I thought back to our conversations. The porridge. The cards. The secret boyfriend. My eyes raced back and forth between them as a sickness knotted in my stomach.
“You two know each other?” Ollie asked, surprised.
Maddie gently laid her fingers over his arm. “Mia and I were in the psych ward together.”
Ollie honed in on my expression. He knew me. He knew what I was thinking. “Mia, no …” He snapped his head to Maddie. “What did you tell her?”
“She told me enough,” I said, taking my books from him and walking away before he could stop me.
My eyes blurred while I made my way back to my dorm. As I locked the door behind me, my mind sprinted a million miles a second. It had been Ollie all along. Ollie was her boyfriend. Maddie’s boyfriend was Ollie. No matter which way I deciphered it, it still wasn’t making sense. My breaths ran closer together as I paced my room, running my fingers through my hair. This couldn’t be happening.
Then there was a knock at my door followed by Ollie’s urgent tone. “Mia, open the door.”
I stayed quiet.
“Mia, please …”
I shook my head violently as if he could see. The thought of his lips on hers. The thought of him inside her. It was all too much. My hand shot over my mouth to suffocate my cries as tears streamed down my face.
“Dammit, Mia. Please … let me in so I can explain.” There was pain in his tone, but I wasn’t a fool.
And eventually, Ollie left.
I curled up into a ball over the mattress and brought the sheet over my head, forcing my cries to put me to sleep. Sleep replaced Ollie as my new cure, because otherwise, the hot fury would only send my fist through something. And the only thing deserving to be on the opposite end of my fist was Ollie, but one more mistake and my ass would be on a one-way trip to the mental institution.
During dinner, Maddie sat next to Ollie with Jake, Alicia, Bria, and Isaac. She walked back into their lives as if she had never left.
“Funny thing about all this, Zeke, is I was supposed to be the sociopath.” I glanced up at Zeke as he ate his spaghetti. “But I guess Karma’s a bitch, right?” Pushing my tray off to the side, I lay across my hands and forced my focus in front of me, to Zeke. “Is this what jealousy feels like?” I sighed. “I must be mistaken because none of this is making sense. I’m jealous and overreacting. But what if I’m not, Zeke? What if this whole time he had a girlfriend and only used me as a distraction?” Zeke didn’t move—as always. “But he said he’s in love with me, so I must have it all wrong and Maddie’s fucking with my head.”
Zeke looked up at me. His small eyes dilated as he blinked a few times. I forced a smile over at him, almost wanting to reach out and put my hand over his. But I didn’t. Zeke didn’t like to be touched the majority of the time. I’d learned this the hard way.
The feeling of Ollie’s warmth behind me and his breath against my ear stunned me. “Meet me in your dorm. Two minutes,” he whispered.
“No, Ollie.”
Ollie growled. “Dammit, Mia. If I mean anything to you, you’ll come.” He took a few steps away, paused, then turned back around. “Close your eyes, Mia.”
But I didn’t, and Ollie hung his head and walked back toward me. He planted his palms over the table and leaned in to capture my eyes with his in a plea. “Please, don’t do this …”
I closed my eyes and counted to ten because even though I was upset, I still couldn’t watch him walk away from me.
After he was gone, I opened my eyes and groaned. “If I have to hear one more ‘Dammit, Mia’ I think I will scream,” I said to Zeke, each word increasing in volume, but Zeke sat there stunned by Ollie’s swift presence. Ollie knew better. He should have acknowledged Zeke upon arrival. Groaning, I dropped my head in my hands for a moment before snapping my eyes at Zeke again. “Should I go? I should probably go. I need to hear him out, right?”
The door to my dorm closed behind me when I found Ollie standing in the middle of the room with his arms crossed over his chest. He unfolded his arms, took two steps forward, and grabbed my chin, tilting my face up to his. He let out an exhale. “Don’t do this, Mia. We’re stronger than this.”
I pulled my head out of his grasp and took a step back. “Were you guys together?”
Ollie shook his head. “Whatever happened between her and me was before you.”
“She told me you are her boyfriend, Ollie. Are. As in, currently.”
“No, she isn’t right, Mia. She’s delusional. You have to believe I feel nothing for her. Never did, and never will. It’s always you.”
“Or are you juggling two girls? Telling them both to keep the relationship a secret in case the other one finds out? Because”—a laugh pressed through my throat—”that’s fucking brilliant, Ollie. Well done.”
A rush of emotions played across his face, and I instantly regretted every word. In my heart, I knew Ollie. He wasn’t capable of it.
Injury pierced his eyes. “You really think that low of me, yeah? You think I would do something like that?”
Shaking my head, I instantly rambled my regret away. “No.” I closed the gap between us and laced my fingers into his. “God, no, I didn’t mean it. I don’t know what’s the matter with me, Ollie. I’ve never felt like this before. She told me she is your girlfriend. Then I see the two of you together. I feel sick about it. Explain this to me. Tell me what this is.”
Ollie brought my hand to his chest, pinning them and steadying me. Steadying us. “Truth?”
I nodded.
Ollie drew in a deep breath. His chest moved under my hand. He exhaled. Impatience was eating me from the inside out. “It was just Maddie, Alicia, Isaac, and me here in the summer. She was around during a time when I was on my meds. She was a diversion to pass the time. She was into me, and I took advantage of it because I was a different person on my meds. I didn’t have a care in the world—no fucking conscience. I was doped up to forget who I was. And the truth is …” Ollie let out a breath as I held mine “… I played her. I knew how much she was into me, so I fucked her.”
Ollie paused. I blinked three times. One for each word. I. Fucked. Her.
“Mia, say something,” he pleaded.
I dropped my hands from his chest and sat at the edge of the mattress. My stomach tangled in nausea as the picture of them together played out in my head. It couldn’t have been the same with them as it was with us. This was different. We were different. I had my past, and Ollie ha
d his. I looked up to see him standing before me. “And what happened after you fucked her, Ollie?”
He crouched down in front of me and took my hands from my lap, rubbing his thumbs over mine. “Maddie was convinced it was more than it was. She started obsessing, stalking, causing chaos. One minute she would be fine, the next she would grab Alicia by the throat if I so much as looked in Alicia’s direction. So then, after we cut her out of the group, I showed up to my dorm to find her lying naked in my bed, and I fucking lost it.” Ollie’s breath got shorter as his voice shook. “I grabbed her by the neck and threw her out before breaking anything I could get my hands on. Every piece of furniture.” Ollie dropped his head for a moment before looking back up at me. “She caused so much turmoil in my life because of one bloody night.”
He brought my palm to his mouth and pressed his lips to it, kissing any lingering doubts away before he continued. “Anyway, Conway took me off my meds, and Lynch had me in Solitary for two fucking weeks. The transition was terrible. And when I got out, she was gone.”
Ollie brought his hand to my cheek. “That’s the truth. As much as I hate to admit the way I treated her, that’s what happened, Mia.”
And I believed him.
I let out an unsteady exhale and nodded.
Ollie fell to his knees and settled himself between my legs, laying his arms across my thighs. “She told me she’s better now, been taking her meds, seeing Conway regularly. She told me she was sorry for what happened and she wanted to keep it in the past.”
Dr. Conway? Medication? Visions of her pretending to take pills flooded. Our conversations flooded. “I don’t trust her, Ollie.”
Ollie maintained my gaze. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” In all honesty, yes, I did and would trust him until he gave me a reason not to.
The air in Ollie’s lungs blew out through his lips before he placed his hands over my head and ran them down the sides of my face. “You never have to worry, love. You have me completely.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “You so fucking have me.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“She was my heaven, I was her hell.”
—Oliver Masters
“MIA!” JAKE SQUEALED as my feet landed on the marble of Jake’s dorm room. It took a circus act to get us here, but with the help of Isaac, we made it. Ollie’s hand lingered around my waist as I observed my surroundings. It wasn’t the posters or pictures on his walls that got my attention at first, or the fact he had an actual comforter over his bed, but it was who was in the dorm.
Maddie.
Wearing black yoga pants and a matching sports bra, Maddie smiled from ear to ear, laughing as she flocked to Isaac as soon as we arrived.
“Do you want to leave?” Ollie asked in my ear.
“No,” I said, and he kissed the side of my head from behind me.
Liam, Alicia, Bria, and Gwen were also here. Gwen was the short blonde from psychology who used to sit behind Ollie.
“Do you want me to make you a drink?” Jake asked, pulling me away from Ollie and toward his dresser lined with cups, liquor, and mixers. I turned my head back to see Ollie now engaged in conversation with Alicia.
“How did you get all this?” I asked Jake, taking my focus back in front of me.
Jake put a hand on his hip as he leaned against it. “You know better than to ask questions.” He giggled. “Here, I’ll make you my secret recipe. It’s delish.”
He then shook, mixed, and poured before handing me a drink.
Reaching to take the drink from his hand, Ollie swooped in and grabbed it from him. “Thanks, mate, but I’ll make her drink.”
Jake snapped a finger in the air before turning to leave.
Ollie took a red cup from the dresser. “You can’t be too careful.” He broke the seal of a new bottle of vodka and poured a shot in a cup. “Just sip on this,” he said and handed me the cup.
I raised a brow at him. “Paranoid?”
“Cautious.” He winked at me, then made himself the same. We clinked our red cups together. Here was to a long night of staying away from the only person I wanted to be around, to Maddie’s madness, and faking it.
Bria pushed her way through the small crowd and stopped before us. “Did you bring it?”
Ollie reached in his pocket, pulled out his phone, and flashed it in front of her. “Though, I’m keeping it in my possession … I’ll start some music.” Ollie stared at the screen while scrolling through the playlist. Bria whined, but the music quickly started, which changed her mood instantly.
Bria grabbed my hand and dragged me away, forcing me to dance. “No, Bria …” I moaned as she pulled me beside Alicia. I glanced back to see Ollie with a lopsided grin and his red cup in the air.
“You know, Mia, I think we got off on the wrong foot,” Bria said as she held my arm in the air. “Can we start over?”
Bria seductively twisted her hips as I stood there awkwardly. “Where is this coming from?”
Bria stopped and leaned over in my ear. “Alicia told me about Maddie. I think we’re better off in numbers.”
“You have a point there.” I took a sip of my drink when the song suddenly changed. It was The Fugees’ “Killing me Softly with His Song.”
“Yes!” Bria cheered, and I cocked my head in Ollie’s direction, who shrugged his shoulders with a smile, showing all his perfectly white teeth. “Have fun,” he mouthed to me.
An unstoppable smile spread across my lips as I remembered the time in his dorm room. When the beat dropped, so did my guard. Sandwiched between Bria and Alicia, we all danced—rolling our hips, feeling the flow, and allowing myself to enjoy this night.
“Sing, Mia!” Alicia requested out loud over the music. And I did. Turning to face Ollie, I belted the lyrics as my body’s rhythm continued. Ollie dipped his head back and squinted before a bigger smile played on his face. Jake joined in, singing and dancing with us until the song ended.
“Okay, I get it. I see why you dance,” I panted to Bria as the song changed.
Bria nodded. “Now, come on. Let’s get you a refill.”
Bria, nice? Have I crossed over into an alternate universe? Maybe I’d never noticed it before because of the way I was, or perhaps it was because there was another girl who’d shown up in the mix. Either way, I couldn’t complain.
Following her back to Jake’s dresser, she pointed at the bottles. “What’s your poison tonight?”
“Vodka, straight.” I leaned into the dresser. This was my chance to make things right between us. “Bria, I’m sorry for whatever I may have caused before. It’s not who I am anymore, and I have nothing against you.”
Bria kept her eyes on pouring, making sure not to spill as she swayed. “As I said before, we got off on the wrong foot. We’re good.” The little bit of Bria-weight lifted from my chest. One bad taste bud in my mouth was gone, a million more to go. Bria handed me my cup. “Now, how am I supposed to get Maddie away from Isaac?”
Shaking my head, I let out a laugh. Same old Bria. “I think Isaac is smart enough to know not to get involved with her.” Looking back at Bria, I caught a pain in her eyes as she watched the two of them together in the corner. Maddie danced up against Isaac as he stayed pinned to the wall. “Bria …” The look on her face was so familiar. “You like Isaac. As in like, like.”
Bria snapped her head in my direction. “No, I don’t.”
Smiling, I said, “Yes, you do. It’s written all over your face. You have a thing for him.”
Bria groaned. “Help me, then. What do I do?”
I glanced back over at Maddie and Isaac. Girl-talk was all new to me. “March over there, pull him away, and kiss him.”
Bria shook her head. “No, I can’t kiss him.”
“You always kiss him,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her.
“But I didn’t lik
e him like this before. It’s easier when you don’t have feelings for the bloke.”
She had a point. “You guys can play a game?”
“Ah, yes!” Bria grabbed my face and laid a peck over my lips before pulling my head away. “Mia, you’re brilliant.” I stood stunned as she marched away and announced a game of strip or dare to everyone.
Between the sudden hand on my back and the breath in my hair, I instantly knew who approached me from behind. “Did Bria just kiss you?” he asked amusedly into my ear. I nodded as Ollie’s breath sent goosebumps across the surface of my skin.
“I hate staying away from you, love,” he whispered again, and his fingertips dipped beneath the back of my shirt and grazed my bare skin. His warm touch pulled me like a magnetic force field. He pressed against me from behind. To hide my blushing, I brought my cup to my lips and took a sip.
“Are you two fucking now?” Liam asked. Ollie dropped his hand and took a step away from me, coldness replacing him.
“No, we’re not fucking,” Ollie scoffed from behind me.
“You really should,” he said, holding up his cup. “Because, mate, let me tell you, her pussy …” Liam shook his head. “Unbelievable.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Ollie take quick strides toward Liam. My fingers sprang to his wrist, holding him back and steady, not having to speak a word because he knew.
Ollie looked down at me and back at Liam, who wore a smug smile. If we weren’t at Dolor, I would gladly not keep Ollie back. But, we were at Dolor—observed and judged with our entire futures on the line. My past had already been stolen from me, and I wouldn’t let anyone take away my future.
Ollie stood tall beside me as I dropped my hand from his wrist. “Never again,” Ollie warned him before chugging the rest of his drink.
Liam nervously laughed as he turned and joined Bria, Maddie, and Isaac in the game of strip or dare.
Stay With Me (Stay With Me Series Book 1) Page 25