All Chapters of The Night Before I Knew Him: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

JuneMy foot taps furiously on the floor, arms crossed over my chest like a shield.Leila sits beside me with that infuriatingly neutral expression, while across from us, Kayla lounges in nothing but a towel, gnawing on her fingernails like a child.Her sex partner is thankfully gone, but my anger once again? It's still very much here."Kay," Leila begins, after a solid thirty seconds of awkward, useless silence, "did you inform June that you were using her room for… uhm—""Getting smashed by a rando?" I cut in flatly, rolling my eyes.Kayla sighs, pulls out her phone, and hands it to Leila like she’s the damn victim."See for yourself. I sent messages—several, actually. She just didn’t read them. I mean, I get it, you’re busy at Apex or whatever, but still read your messages."I scoff, arms dropping to my sides. "You have got to be kidding me."I shoot up from my seat, ready to throw hands, but Leila blocks me with one arm."Calm down, J. We agreed to handle this peacefully, remember

~Hermes~Alan is a fucking worthless, incompetent therapist.Because what kind of professional says something like:"Maybe what you feel for her is more than sexual obsession."Tsk.That single sentence, that stupid, careless remark, was the trigger.The scolding, the overreaction, how I treat her... Alan put those thoughts in my head. He's the reason this is happening.And now she’s fucking lying in a hospital bed.I stare at her sleeping face. My foot won’t stop tapping, like a fucking metronome counting down to nothing. The doctor still hasn’t come back. Shouldn’t someone be here by now? Shouldn’t she be awake by now?I detest his. I detest how my chest feels tight, how my fingers keep twitching. She’s doing this to me. She crawled under my skin and now I can’t sit still.Fuck.None of this would’ve happened if she hadn’t… if she hadn’t leapt into my hands like some damsel in a bad romance—because of a cockroach. A fucking cockroach.And I laughed. I actually laughed as she scrambl

~Hermes~A loud sigh escapes my lips as I watch Gary start the car engine. Another car.The one I brought her in? Let’s just say it had an incident with the traffic police.But that’s the least of my growing problems.I look down, nodding slowly like it’s become a routine now—The damn bulge in my pants.Not only is she irritating, she’s also completely air-headed. What the hell was she thinking about that she didn’t notice a fucking deliveryman tailing her?Is her plan to drop dead right in front of me?Tsk.I need to deal with this immediately, but in a new way.I pull out my phone and send a message to my arrangement guy.This might be the solution. If it’s not, then…At least I’ll know. I’ll be testing.Now, I’ve got to get home. In a cab.Fuck. When was the last time I took one of those?Fuck, June. I wish I was doing that literally.I can’t be in the same car with her when I’m like this.I sigh again, quieter this time, and lower my gaze.Just as I step out of the parking lot, a

JuneMy pen dangles between my fingers, the cap nudged against my teeth.I lay flat on the bed, stretching my arms, like I’m posing for a crime scene. The ceiling above me has exactly twenty-one panels — no, wait, twenty-two....Wasn’t it twenty-three last night?I squint up and count again."One... two... three..."I sigh. "They always change. Shifty bastards."The pen cap clacks against my teeth as I bite it lightly, trying to chew my way through the fog in my head. That moment keeps replaying. Mr. Grande pulling me away from the speeding delivery bike. How his arm wrapped around my waist, his fingers clutched the fabric of my dress like he was scared—He was scared, I'm definitely sure I saw the shift in his piercing grey eyes, but I’d barely blinked before he’d locked it all down again. I shut my eyes, swallowing the memory, "No," I mumble, "That’s just how anyone reacts when they stop someone from killing themselves."But what if... What if he was scared for me?I blow air thr

~Hermes~ Fuck.She came in today. I thought she was sick. Should she even be here?My eyes hurt. Consequences of spending the whole damn night between two girls — trying to fuck June out of my system.My body? Satisfied. A wrecked kind of satisfaction, but my mind? Still filled with her.She’s still in my bloodstream. It's my third failed test. And now she’s looking at me like I’m the weirdo.It’s your fault, dammit."G-Good morning, Mr. Grande," she says softly. As though I didn’t spend last night imagining her doing unspeakable things to me, and I didn’t come just from the memory of her mouth.I don’t answer. I shut my eyes and sigh. Thank God she can’t see my eyes behind these shades — if she did, she’d know exactly where I’m staring.Her shirt’s tight, showcasing the swell of her perky breast right there, just above the lanyard, and my eyes are glued to it like a goddamn pervert.I move to my office, straight to the cabinet to drop my jacket, and then I see it: My coat, the one