I’ll be free of Killian.
“Why were you talking to the new girl?” Killian’s voice is stiff, harder than I remember, and still warms me from the inside out. I don’t answer him because I’m not sure what to say. Anything I do say will only make him angrier. I know him and his reputation. He doesn’t really want to know why I was talking to her. He wants me to know that he has the ability to tell me, or anyone for that matter, who I can or can’t speak to. He’s angry at me, and has been for a long time. I used to think it was because he thought I up and left him and Kai. I know their grandmother didn’t tell them what she tried to do. I didn’t have any other choice other than to bite the guy, push past Mrs. Pierce and run out the backdoor. I went looking for Killian a few days later, but he was gone. Neither of the Pierce brothers were in school for a week. Then Kai returned and wouldn’t say where Killian was. He made it clear that I wasn’t one of them anymore, and without Killian as a buffer, I’d simply kept my head down and tried to avoid Kai and his crew at all costs. Before long, Killian was back and rumors were swirling about him being in jail, their grandmother dying, and about me being the town whore. I was almost positive Killian started those rumors about me, and I was even more sure that he didn’t believe them. I don’t think he’s ever forgiven me for abandoning him.
“Why do you suddenly care what I’m doing and who I’m talking to?” I use my free hand to hit him in the arm, which does absolutely nothing besides make my knuckles burn and incite his temper more than I already have. I haven’t been alone with Killian in so long, and I’m not mentally prepared to have a one on one encounter with him now. I need to make him angry out here in the hallway. No one will help me. But at least I won’t lose myself in him. That’s my biggest fear.
He stops abruptly, and when he turns to glower at me, I run into his hard chest. He grips my jaw painfully and I’m forced to look up at him. “Just because I’d rather you didn’t exist in my world, doesn’t mean I don’t know every time you blink. I’m always watching, Ava.” He studies my face for a moment, and I will myself to not shed any more tears for Killian Pierce.
He doesn’t deserve my tears.
When he’s satisfied that he has my attention, he roughly drags me down the hallway, not caring if my short legs can’t keep up with his long strides. He’s not the same boy who held me when I cried. He’s not the same boy who I gave my virginity to just days before I ran away.
My face flushes as we pass by students in the hallway, and they openly stare at us. I'm used to flying under the radar. Aside from him calling me some names loud enough for me to hear, but not directly to me his first day back in school, Killian hasn’t spoken to me. I heard the rumors though, that he said I was a dirty slut. That I ran off with some man old enough to be my father. None of that is true, but I don’t correct anyone anymore or stand up for myself. There’s no point. The Pierce brothers run Blackcrown High school, and what they say is scripture.
He swings open the door to an empty classroom and slams the door behind him. I take a few steps back, adjusting my top nervously. I’ve seen him angry before. I’ve seen him do a lot of unsavory things. The boys taught me how to drive way before I was old enough to legally do so. I was their fucking getaway driver. That’s how close we’d been.
“Why were you talking to that girl?”
“I was showing her around because…” I start, but he advances on me, stepping so close to me that I have to tilt my head back to look up at him. I jut my chin out in defiance. He may have told the whole school I was a dirty whore he threw away. He might’ve turned everyone against me, but I won’t let him see that he’s hurt me.
“Still a liar, Ava?” he sneers, reaching down and running his fingers over my long, blonde braid. I see something cross his features, like he’s remembering something, but it only lasts a moment before he lifts me up and sets me on the teacher’s desk with a thud. I wince because my floral skirt does little to soften the blow. I reach out and grab onto his biceps to prevent myself from falling backward with the momentum, but he slaps my hands away.
“Don’t fucking touch me.” He steps back almost as if my touch burned him.
“Why do you hate me so much? Do you honestly think I would run away with some old guy?” I snap, pushing forward to get off the desk. But he’s there before I can move, clamping his fingers down on my thighs and pushing me to lie back on the desk.
He expertly spreads my legs and leans over
