Broken kingdom

Chapter 38 Oakley

I shouldn’t be mad at her.

I knew what I was getting myself into when I agreed to be friends. 

But goddamn it, I’m fucking furious. 

Even if she doesn’t find her way back to me, no way in fuck should she be with him. 

The douchebag is all wrong for her. 

Anyone who’s paying close attention can tell she’s not nearly as happy as she’s pretending to be with him. 

“You can take your lunch break now if you want,” my boss informs me as I place the mop and bucket back into the closet. “You look like you need one.” 

I don’t say a word as I slam the closet door and start trekking across campus. 

Resentment mixed with pain simmers in my gut as I head toward the lake. 

My head tells me to walk away from the bullshit… 

But my heart tells me to fight for her. 

Because she’s worth it. 

Because I love her.

Because she went down fighting for us. 

“You better stay the hell away from her,” someone snarls. 

When I look up, I realize I’m face to face with the biggest scumbag on the planet. 

Unfortunately, he picked the wrong day to confront me. 

“I suggest you walk the fuck away before I rip your puny arm off and bitch slap your ugly face with it.” 

I want to wipe the arrogant smile off his lips when he leans in. “Last time I checked you were technically a faculty member, so I suggest you stay in your lane unless you want to lose this piece of shit job over assaulting a student.” 

Jesus Christ. What a fucking pussy. 

He’s too scared to approach me without a safety net because he knows I’ll beat the living shit out of him and make him regret the day he was born.

Edging away, he pops the collar of his shirt. “Like I was saying, stay away from my fiancée, chump.” 

“Ex-fiancée,” I remind him. “Or did you not get the memo?” 

He bristles before he recovers. “You mean the memo that she’s still wearing my ring.” 

He’s got me there. 

However, I’d rather die than let him know how much that guts me. 

“Not for long,” I muse.

Taking a step back, Stone cackles like it’s the fu

Pure wrath races through my veins and my hands are wrapped around his throat before I can stop myself. 

He starts coughing and choking, but that only makes me tighten my grip. I want nothing more than to squeeze every drop of life out of him and get rid of this problem forever. 

Closing the distance, I bring my lips to his ear because I want him to hear what I’m about to say loud and fucking clear. 

“I might be a murdering junkie, but you’re nothing but a scared little boy whose balls still haven’t dropped.” I can tell I’m scaring the shit out of him because his eyes widen with fear. “And you have every right to be scared…because she doesn’t look at you the way she looks at me.” 

She never will. 

This weasel is just a pathetic, piss-poor understudy. 

I’m the man she loved first. 

“Oakley, stop,” someone who sounds a lot like Dylan shouts.

Next thing I know, she’s trying to wedge herself between us and pry us apart. 

“Oakley, please,” she begs. 

“I’m go

Goddammit. 

I flip him the bird. “Suck my dick, you pussy motherfucker.” 

“Not so fast,” Dylan says when Stone brings his phone to his ear. “You’re not calling the police.” 

“The fuck I’m not,” Stone argues. 

I step toward him. “Do it, bitch. I don’t give a fuck. I’ll finish whooping that ass before the cops show up.” 

It will suck to go back to jail, but I’m sure as shit not go

I can see the panic in Dylan’s eyes as she places her hand on my chest. “He’s my family, Stone.” 

Stone starts pressing buttons on his cell. “I don’t care.” 

I seriously regret not popping his head off like the goddamn weed he is. 

Dylan snatches his phone away. “If you do this, I’ll be upset…and you really don’t want to upset me. Because if you do? You’ll upset Jace. And we all know what happens when Jace gets upset.” 

Yeah…he puts people in the hospital. 

Like Stone’s piece of shit brother Tommy. 

He seizes his phone from her hand. “Whatever.” 

With that, he runs off like the little bitch boy he is. 

Dylan turns her furious glare on me. “What the hell is wrong with you, Oak? Are you trying to go back to jail?” 

“He started it.” 

She cocks an eyebrow. “Seriously? What are you, five?” 

“It’s the truth,” I growl. “I was minding my own business and he started with me.” 

She rubs her forehead. “And somehow your hand ended up wrapped around his throat because…”

“He’s a motherfucking piece of shit pussy bitch baby.” 

Exasperated, she throws up her hands. “Gee, that really clears things up.” 

“I’m serious, Dylan. The douchebag can’t deal with the fact that Bianca doesn’t want to get married and called off the wedding, and he thinks starting with me will fix it.” 

Dylan opens and closes her mouth like a fish. “Bianca called off the wedding?” 

“Yeah. Last I heard anyway.” 

She blows out a breath. “Wow. I mean, I definitely don’t think it’s a bad thing.” She wags a finger in my face. “But what is a bad thing is you fighting.” 

“The fucker deserved it.” 

“That may be true, but you have a rap sheet now and the last thing you need is to be on the cops’ radar again because they will haul you back to jail.” She puts her arm around my waist. “Come on, I’ll buy you lunch and we can talk.” 

We start walking…until I recall what she said the other week. “Dylan?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Do you really think I have what it takes to be a songwriter?” 

She smiles. “I really do, Oak.” 

I mull this over for a hot minute. 

Stone’s comment about me only amounting to a janitor shouldn’t bother me. 

But it does. 

All my life I’ve always done the bare minimum. Never branching out. 

Never believing in myself. 

Because I’ve been too afraid of screwing shit up to even try in the first place. 

“Do you think you can give that Landon dude a call?”