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Side by side, Bria led me down Jude’s wing and through his door. Once we were both inside, she released my hand and plopped down over his mattress.
“What are we doing here?” I was losing patience. Tyler and Jude walk through the door, and Tyler’s eyes refused to meet mine as she took a seat on the mattress. Standing tall and on a mission, Jude stepped toward me until my back hit the wall. “Get away from me,” I gritted out.
Jude smiled and dropped his hands on both sides of me. I pushed against his chest, but he didn’t budge. He leaned one forearm over the wall, and his face came an inch from mine while his other hand fished for something from his pocket. “You know what snitches get ya, don’t you?”
Pale blue eyes bounced between mine. My heart leaped, but I didn’t dare show an ounce of fear on the outside. Jude dropped his mouth to my ear, and he inhaled a deep, sickening breath. My muscles went stiff as he dragged an object along the sliver of bare skin of my abdomen. “Now say you’re sorry to your friends.”
“Fuck you,” I spat, yanking my head to the side. Tyler and Bria watched us from the mattress in anticipation. Is this why they brought me here? For a fucking apology?
A smirk stretched across his face when he placed a cigarette behind his ear. His fingers wrapped around my chin, forcing my eyes on his. “C’mon, Mia. It’s not that difficult.”
“I didn’t do shit.” I pushed him off me, and he took a step back and held his arms out in the air. My chest heaved as I dragged my gaze between all three of them.
Then they all burst out laughing.
“You should have seen your face!” Bria struggled to get out through her fit and shoved Tyler in the back. “Ah, that was totally worth it, yeah?”
“You suck,”—I pointed at her— “I’m leaving.” I turned to walk back toward the door, and Jude jumped out in front of me.
“Aye, not so fast.” He tilted his head and dropped his chin to face me. “You still owe your girls over there, and I’m kind enough to give you two options.”
“Yeah? And what’s that?”
Jude’s smile reached his eyes when he turned his focus over my shoulder to Bria and Tyler. “Become one of mine, or don’t.”
“One of yours?”
“You see, Tyler and Bria came to an understanding. I can protect you, too, Mia. And from the looks of it, you need some protecting.”
“I don’t need anything from you.”
“Because of Ollie, right? If you haven’t noticed, Ollie can’t even protect himself.”
Bria, I could understand agreeing to something like this, but Tyler? She wasn’t the type. I looked her over, and she still couldn’t look at me directly. “Is this what you want, Ty?”
Her head snapped to Jude before turning back to face me. “I have two years here.”
Shaking my head, I faced Jude again, sca
“Easy,” he smirked. “Bria and Ty are off-limits. But I promise it won’t be long before you come ru
I forced my body from flinching. Jude wanted to see me squirm, and I refuse to grant him that small victory. “I can take care of myself.” With that, I freed myself from his grasp and left, wondering if Tyler knew exactly what she had gotten herself into. You’d see these kinds of things in a prison, not here at Dolor, and I wondered how the rest of the students were going to take to it. Sure, relationships were forbidden, but this was something straight out of Prison Break.
The cold towel was like ice against my hot skin, and I wanted it to touch every inch of me. It started at my hairline, and over my face until the towel pressed against my lips. Cries echoed, and I couldn’t tell what was real anymore. The chill swept along my neck and my shoulders, and I shivered but wanted to dive into it and drown myself in the cold.
My brain protested, half of me held hostage in the nightmare, and the other half of me stuck in the darkness behind my stubborn eyelids. The cries somehow stopped, and I couldn’t fully gain consciousness, as if my soul left my body and watched me from above. My limbs were heavy and too tired to move. Trapped.
A dark figure loomed over me, but I feared more from the state of paralysis I found myself in. Low hushing chanted in my ear followed by, “I’m right here.” My head knew it was Ethan, but my heart so desperately wanted it to be Ollie, and the part trapped in the stage of sleep couldn’t respond either way. The bed moved as the figure climbed in bed beside me.
My eyes finally opened and I instantly calmed, fusing to Ethan, thankful to be released from whatever hell I was slipping from. Ethan moved the hair clinging to my cheek as I turned to face him. “What was it about?” he asked, referring to my terror.
“I can’t remember. I can never remember.” I glanced up and found his blue eyes. They no longer held the electric I’d grown accustomed to. His static had faded, and he ran a palm down his face as if he read my mind. Inching away, I asked, “Where have you been the last couple of nights?”
He looked away, but slid that same hand over my hip and dragged me until my chest pressed against his, right where he needed me. “Things I had to take care of.”
“Right,” I said, dragging out the “I.”
“You’re shaking.”
“No, Scott,” I said through an exhale and flit my eyes to him. “That’s you.” One other time I’d seen him like this—shattered—and it was when Haden took his life. “You okay?”
“Let’s not talk, alright?”
“Why even come?”
“Do you want me to leave? Because I’ll go. Just say the words.”
Panic rose. I shook my head and grasped him tighter. Afraid to face the night on my own, I’d become attached to Ethan and the way he saved me from the terrors. Deep down, I wasn’t ready to let go. But I had to. The only way to get Ollie back was to let this charade with Ethan go. It had been going on long enough.
Biting my lip, I looked down as Ethan’s muscles twitched against me. He knew too. We couldn’t keep doing this. It wasn’t fair to anyone.
Ethan lifted my chin. “One more night.”
“And then we’re on our own?”
“And then we’re on our own.”
And we laid there as I stared into bright blue eyes until my lids grew heavy, surrendering to the depths of his ocean, knowing I was safe in his arms from terrors and the hell begging to suck me back in.
It wasn’t the sun that woke me, because it was still dark in my dorm.
What woke me was Ethan’s hand inside my panties and his warm mouth over my breast. My body arched and my eyes snapped open to see red wild hair and shoulders flexing in the dark. My tank had been lifted up to my neck, and eager fingers slid my panties to the side and rolled over my clit. A desperate moan vibrated from within me, responding to a touch I’d been craving for so long.
“Ollie,” I instinctively whispered as my body begged for more of what he was giving to me.
“No, Mia, It’s Ethan,” his voice thick and course, and his hard-on strained against his boxers, “and that is the last time you will ever call me by his name.”
Wet lips traveled up the center of my chest, across my collarbone and over my neck as he moved on top of me.
I didn’t want him to stop, and my hips matched every movement of his, wanting the same thing. But something inside me was screaming.