I said nothing else, hurrying back to the elevator landing. It’d been empty the first time I’d passed it. She must’ve already gotten on before I came. Without a second thought, I spun on my heel and hurried to the stairwell again, practically running down it. I pushed out of the side door, my head turning everywhere as I looked for the turnaround where parents pulled in to pick up their kids, where students parked to unload their cars.
I found it, about fifty feet away to my left.
I found her.
Kelsey was busy throwing a bag in the backseat of a small car, her lips drawn into a frown. Her brown hair was wild and messy, the wind not helping anything. It was as she went to get in the front seat that she turned her head forward and spotted me.
I tilted my head slowly, wordlessly asking her not to get in that car, not to close the door and drive off with what looked like her mother.
Though we were far apart, I could see her dark eyes narrowing, her stare hardening into something of a fuck you. Kelsey said nothing, did nothing but get in that car and slam the door shut.
Oh, fuck that. Fuck that. If she thought I was just going to stand here and let her go, she was wrong. I was not above making a scene. I wasn’t above running to that car and knocking on the glass—and that’s exactly what I did, since I couldn’t open her door. She’d locked it.
Her mom looked like she was asking about me, who I was, what I wanted, and I watched, leaning down to the car, as Kelsey simply shrugged, shrugging me off as if I was no one to her. Too little, too late. Everything I ever did was always too late and not enough.
My back straightened, and I took a step back as the car started to roll away, out of the turnaround and into the adjacent street. My eyes followed the car, and I saw Kelsey turn around. She must’ve rolled down the window, for she was able to stick a hand out…and then she curled all of her fingers but one into a fist, flipping me off.
I had no idea where she was going this weekend, but I knew the weekend before Halloween was prime partying hours. I didn’t want Kelsey to find another guy to lose herself in, another guy to touch and kiss and everything else. She wasn’t mine, we weren’t dating or together, so it was a selfish desire. Still…it was impossible not to wish that, not to wish she was mine again.
Damn it.
I’d fucked up royally, and now I had to pay. Now I had to live through this weekend, knowing Kelsey was off forgetting me. Call me a pussy, but in my mind, there was honestly nothing worse.
Kelsey would be mine again, goddamn it. I would make her see that what we had wasn’t a joke or a prank. I’d take all of Sigma Chi down with me if I had to, and I’d start with Dean. He thought he was the only one who could secretly install cameras? I was sure it wasn’t that hard. My mom would give me some money if I told them it was for a school project.
And it was.
The school project of capsizing the Sigma Chi boat and all of its inhabitants.
Chapter Twenty-Seven – Kelsey
I had no idea what Levi thought he was doing, finding me, tapping on the glass and acting like he needed to talk to me. Bullshit. He’d said all he needed to say, and I’d said my peace. Couldn’t the dickbag just let me be done with him already? Why couldn’t he see that I was trying to move on from him?
I didn’t need him dragging me down constantly. I didn’t need the drama he brought along, or his fucking baggage.
Baggage. Hah. Right. Like what he did to Mel last year was simply baggage. No, it was so much more than that, and so much worse. What he did to my poor roommate was unforgivable. There were some mistakes you couldn’t take back, some things words couldn’t undo. I wasn’t going to be one of those girls who laid back and let the guy constantly fuck up, all the while loving him because I needed his body and his dick.
No, thanks. Dicks were a dime a dozen, and so were nice bodies. There was absolutely nothing special about Levi.
But if that was true, why did I feel something heavy in my chest as I pulled in my arm and rolled the window up? Why did I avoid my mom’s knowing gaze as she drove us away from SCC?
My mom knew. She had to have known.
Then again, she wasn’t the master at relationships I’d thought she was, with her and Dad divorcing.
“You want to tell me what that was about?” Mom asked, glancing at me. Her two hands were on the wheel, her seat pulled up close to the wheel thanks to her short frame. Yeah, I inherited my height from my wonderful mother.
“Not really,” I muttered, keeping my eyes on the road ahead of us.
Mom was quiet for a few moments, but not for long. “Seemed like he really wanted to talk to you, Kelsey.”
“He’s an asshole.” There. That should be enough to shut my mom up, right?
“Is he? Or are you just trying to write him off?”
Okay, at that I had to glare at her. “What are you talking about?”
Mom let out a sigh. “I know you, honey. I’ve seen what you do. Anytime a boy gets too interested in you, you close him out. Remember when that poor
