Total pages in book: 215
Estimated words: 199344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 997(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 997(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
The tears stream down her cheeks, and my fingers itch to reach out to her and take away her pain, but I can’t. I don’t get to have the best of both worlds. I don’t get to be the asshole who hurts her and the one to take away her pain. That’s not fair.
She rinses out the towel and wrings it again before dragging it up and down her arms, mopping up as much of the sticky drink as possible, but the only thing that’s going to help her now is a shower. When she finally gives in, realizing it’s useless, she grips the sink and hangs her head, much like I was only a moment ago.
“Congratulations,” she says, her broken tone cutting right through my chest as she glances up and meets my stare once again. “I hope that watching me suffer sparks some kind of light in your cold, dead heart.”
Fixing her gaze back to her own reflection, she hastily wipes her eyes before storming to the door, refusing to look back at me. She grips the handle, and I will myself to back down and keep my mouth shut, but I can’t help myself. “Where the hell are you going?”
She pauses, the door half open as she looks back at me with furrowed brows. “Where do you think I’m going?” she scoffs. “I’m going home, asshole. Isn’t that what you spat at me? Go home. You’re drunk. You don’t belong here.”
And with that, she storms out into the party, and I clench my jaw, anger swirling through my chest.
Don’t go after her. Don’t go after her. Don’t go after her, you fucking idiot.
“FUCK!”
I go after her.
I storm out of the bathroom, following the mop of dripping chestnut hair through the crowded bodies. She walks up ahead, and I watch as people laugh at her back, the word trash echoing through the crowd. She passes her friends, Tarni, Abby, and Cora, and I watch the moment Tarni notices her and slips further into the crowd, not wanting to be seen with Zoey after everything that just went down.
My jaw clenches, and I shake my head. I always told Zoey when we were kids that Tarni was a shit friend, and she never believed me, no matter how obvious it was. Zoey figured I just wanted her to myself, and yes, I suppose I did, but I was also being honest. Tarni is a piece of shit. She’s not nearly good enough for Zoey.
I continue after her, watching as she slips out the front door, not even bothering to tell anyone that she’s leaving, not that her friends would care anyway. I expect her to walk down the street a little and call her parents, maybe her dad. She wouldn’t dream of calling her mom to come get her this late.
I follow from afar, wandering down the street and keeping enough distance for her not to notice me, only she doesn’t stop. She just keeps walking, and I realize that she had no intention of calling her parents at all. She’s walking the whole way home.
What the fuck is wrong with this girl?
Not able to stomach the thought of her walking through the streets by herself in the middle of the night, I keep walking, no longer giving a shit if she knows I’m here or not.
We walk for ten minutes when she finally takes enough notice of the space around her to realize someone is here, and I watch as her body tenses and she picks up her pace. A smirk pulls at my lips, but I stay silent, not prepared to put her out of her misery. Hell, if I were some creep in the night, I’d be the one in danger. With the mood she’s in, I wouldn’t be willing to cross her.
I can almost feel how her heart races as she strides up the street, and after a minute, she finds the courage to glance back over her shoulder. Her gaze comes right to mine, and the second she makes me out in the darkness, she doubles over with relief. “Holy shit, Noah,” she yells back at me, bracing her hands on her thighs and blowing the air from her lungs. “What the hell is wrong with you? What kind of asshole stalks girls through the street like that? I thought you were trying to kill me.”
I stay silent, slowly creeping in closer, and she sends me a wicked glare before giving me her back and storming ahead. She doesn’t want to accept that I’m walking her home, but I don’t give her much of a choice.
We walk in silence with at least another twenty minutes to go. Had we driven, it would have taken ten minutes this time of night, but I’ve had too much to drink to even think about offering. And to be honest, I don’t think I could cope with being in a confined space with her again tonight. I need some time to cool down and pretend her words didn’t tear me to shreds.