Nico Vaughan, the junior class "Nice Girl" wants to be free from her abusive and obsessive ex-boyfriend.
Valen Henford, the school's resident "Rich Guy meets Bad Boy" wants to spend his senior year with the girl he's been in love with for years.
W...
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"We went too far in our own thinking and forgot that our destinies are written" (Mahmoud Darwish).
|◁ II ▷|
We sit in the bathroom until the clatter in the halls is all gone, a sign that most people have left the building. We hear a cough from outside the bathroom door and look at each other. It's been at least ten minutes since the final bell rang.
I feel like we're playing some sort of game and the girls' bathroom is a safe place. A game with my mentally, emotionally, and sexually abusing ex-boyfriend, one of his sadistic friends, and two of his sweet, nice friends who I'm not even sure why are still friends with Hunter.
I wonder if the two sweet guys are gone. Owen and Sabe.
I check my phone. It's currently 3:18. Surely they're gone... I haven't heard anything in more than five minutes.
I grab my bag and wait for Amber to grab hers. She moves past me and opens the door. Nothing. We walk out of the bathroom, a sigh of relief leaving my lungs.
"Hey, girls."
Hunter and Jax both step out from the side hall that's about thirty feet from the exit. I take a step backward so they aren't right in our faces, but Hunter grabs my arm. Amber curses loudly and proudly, insulting both the guys' sizes. Hunter ignores the comments, but Jax's face heats up and he takes a step forward, making crude comments about her seeing it sometime.
I look at Amber, who has now taken a step back and is glaring daggers at Jax. Hunter laughs softly from beside me, the sound frustratingly comforting from the time before the abuse.
Owen and Sabe are both still here, standing to the side uncomfortably. Owen's eyes are glued to Amber and Jax, and I turn to look at them again to see Jax with his hands on Amber's shoulders, his tall frame hulking over her. Owen takes a cautious step forward, and I see Sabe with his fingers pinching his nose.
Hunter notices and sighs. "Jax, take three steps back there, buddy."
Jax does slowly, his deep brown eyes never leaving Amber. Owen's dark blue eyes are still stuck on Amber, as well, but in severe concern. I vaguely remember his little sister being on the volleyball team.
I look to Sabe, and he's glaring at Hunter and Jax. "Okay, enough. Let's go home."
Hunter ignores him, speaking to me in hushed tones about the words he spit at me during the whole week of our drawn-out breakup. I don't listen. I try to gage what's happening to Amber, because Sabe and Owen look tired. They look angry. They look done. And, right now, they're focused on Jax and his hand gripping Amber's upper arm as she cowers back.
They ignore me and Hunter, but I'm positive they know enough to know that Amber is not safe with Jax and his aggression. I am physically okay with Hunter. She is not with Jax.
