My stomach dropped. Zayne. Again.A smirk tugged faintly at the corner of his lips as though he had rehearsed this moment and was waiting to see how I’d react. “What kind of a creepy devil are you?”He came fully to view. By the desk, then he raised a thick brow, “Creepy devil?”“I guess my friend’s threat didn’t work on you. What are you doing here?” I shot the question at him. But he didn’t look fazed a bit. “Well, that’s not how to say ‘Thank you’ for helping you out earlier.” His British accent sang.I exhaled. “No one asked for your help. You are to stay away from me.” He tilted his head slightly at the rose still extended between us. “My wrist is starting to ache, so how about you save me the pain and just take it, pretty?”I rolled my eyes and leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms. “Do you ever listen when people tell you to back off? And I didn’t peg you as the type who give roses.”Unbothered, Zayne lowered himself onto the edge of the desk in front of me. His presenc
The boy’s smirk curved cruelly as he folded his arms across his chest. His voice was loud enough to gather glances from passing students.“This isn’t about you, sweetheart,” he said to Carol with a scoff. “Shift back and let your precious friend here face us. What do you think, Jeremy’s sister?” My heart gave a painful squeeze in my chest, and it suddenly made sense. This wasn’t random. It was personal. My pulse quickened as heat crawled up my neck.I forced myself to step out from behind Carol. My voice shook but I tried to sound braver than I felt.“Wait…this is about Jeremy, isn’t it?”The boy tilted his chin and jabbed a finger at his friend, the one with the medical neck brace strapped stiffly around him. His skin was pale, and I could see the way he tried to shrink into himself as if ashamed.“It was your stepbrother who did this,” he sneered. “He beat him till he couldn’t stand. Till he had to wear that thing.”The one with the brace shook his head quickly, tugging at his frie
I bore witness as the Chris’ pretty face reddened, my mouth hanging open. I couldn’t believe she had actually slapped him.“What the hell was that for?” He demanded after recovering from shock, his brows furrowed.Even Carol blinked, almost as if she hadn’t realized what she’d done until the sound of the slap echoed back to her. For a heartbeat, she looked startled too. Then her chin lifted, gaze sharpening like she had decided not to regret.“Get your gayish ass off me, Chris.” She warned sternly. If I wasn’t her friend, even I, would be so shaken right now.Chris froze. His lips parted like he was about to say something, but the words stalled. He blinked at her, stunned. “So that’s why you’ve been pulling away and just…actually slapped me?”She turned to face him. “You don’t get to fucking squeeze it as a small deal after your lying ass made me believe I have your cold heart wrapped in my hands. You lied to me!” “Carol…seriously? Instead of jumping to conclusions and lashing out li
It’s been three days since I left my dorm to stay with Carol. I didn’t pack much, just a duffel with clothes, my laptop, and the bare essentials. Carol had been inquisitive more than ever and to escape her numerous questions, I had been spending more time in school and the library, burying myself in coursework that I didn’t need several hours to understand. Thankfully, she was not usually in her dorm as well. So we’d barely seen each other.She had only asked me about Jeremy once and I dismissed her. I hadn’t come across Jeremy since the day he dropped me off and left me reeling. Hadn’t seen Zayne either. Sean had called me so many times I was scared he might finally show up at my dorm unannounced, only he wouldn’t find me there.I didn’t tell Carol about any of it. I just hoped she would allow me bail. But I was wrong. Today, she was driving me to Kingston’s auto shop. My nineteenth birthday was in two weeks and I had been saving enough to purchase the Audi A5 Coupe I had wanted for
I let out a silent shaky breath. “But why?”“Teyana, Jeremy and Zayne don’t like each other. Zayne is my brother, Jeremy is yours. We can’t really co-exist peacefully. And with the way I saw things yesterday…your brother…”“Step-brother.” I corrected. She shrugged. “Whatever. He seemed quite possessive of you. And finding out you and Zayne had history? That was a shock.”“The history is that we kissed once, okay? And I was drunk off my ass. It shouldn’t have happened. You don’t have to worry, I won’t even talk to your brother anymore.” I hated that I sounded desperate, but I didn’t want to be the reason she left. Or maybe I was starting to get fond of her too.She shook her head slowly, still disagreeing with me. Then she grabbed her phone from the bed, scrolled through quickly, then held the screen toward me.“Have you seen this? If not, you should.” I leaned forward and gasped. “Yeah. That’s what you caused.” In her phone was a blurry clip of Jeremy’s fist colliding with Zayne’s j
Teyana’s POV“Drop me here,” I said, the moment we got a decent distance across my dorm.Jeremy’s bike, one I’ve come to know was a Ducati Davel 1260 rumbled to a stop, the sound vibrating up my legs even after he cut the engine. Well, I didn’t know about bikes. I had once looked it up online because it looked so luxurious. The price didn’t disappoint me. The boy was stinking rich.I didn’t wait after climbing off. The second my feet touched the ground, I stormed off.“Teyana, wait up.”I wanted to keep walking, but my body betrayed me and stilled. I turned, and it almost hurt to look at him. He was sinfully magnetic in the morning light, his eyes narrowed under the growing sun, his hair still slightly disheveled from the night before. The bruise on his lips had darkened, and the memory of tasting the faint blood there when we kissed twisted in my stomach.His eyes pinned me. “I thought we stopped in front of your dorm. Where are you heading to?”I swallowed. “Well, I still have some