{18+ COMPLETE} For the past three years, Bren Hadaway has been preparing to die.
When he was sixteen, he watched his dad murder his mom. And ever since, he's been counting down the days until it was his turn to be at the end of a gun. And Bren has...
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I was walking blindly, not really knowing where I was going. There was a stream of people flowing down the hallway, and I followed along aimlessly.
The hotel's decadent splashes of amber blurred around me. Or maybe that was just from the tears that had formed in my eyes.
Bren's voice called my name, but I couldn't turn around. He'd been the picture of calm, blinking down at me as if our conversation had been misplaced. As if I was overreacting. Because unlike him, I was anything but calm.
I didn't want to have a conversation. I didn't want to talk. I wanted to kick something.
In my heart, I knew Bren was telling the truth when he said that everything between him and church-basement-girl was in the past. But what I couldn't believe was that he hadn't told me. About any of it.
And oh god, it hurt. It hurt so much to think that all the days when I'd felt empty without him, she'd been there getting her fill. They were together while we were apart.
I crumbled at the thought, quickly clutching onto a marble pillar that framed the entrance to the hotel's ballroom. Because my heart didn't care that it was years ago when they'd hooked up; my heart didn't care that it was in the past. Suddenly, it seemed fresh.
Moisture had leaked from my eyes and settled on my skin, dampening my mask. I whipped it off.
"Madie? Is that you?"
The voice that called my name this time wasn't Bren's.
I glanced up, blinking as Professor Evan's face came into view. I frowned until I remembered that this whole thing was put on by the university's history department. It shouldn't be a surprise that he was here.
Professor Evans stood a few feet away with his arm around a woman in a long black dress. I could only assume it was his wife, Lana, even though it was difficult to tell given the matte mask she wore.
"Hi," I said breathlessly, wiping at my face and thanking the heavens that I'd decided to wear waterproof make-up. But it was probably still obvious that I'd been crying, and my cheeks flamed in embarrassment. "Yeah, it's me. Don't mind the wig."
Professor Evans—Hale—frowned and broke away from his wife to walk over to me. He leaned down, putting a gentle arm around my shoulders just as I heard Bren call my name again from a distance.
"Is everything okay?" he asked softly.
Ignoring Bren, I nodded. Hale stood straight again, dropping his arm.
"Alright," he said, though he didn't look convinced. I fixed my mask back over my face as he invited me to join him and Lana. Since I didn't know where Nessa or Beau had gone, and I wasn't ready to face Bren yet, I followed him. As we walked back to his wife, he glanced over at me and muttered, "Have there been any problems with Brodie?"
