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.
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"The power of a glance has been so much abused in love stories, that it has come to be disbelieved in. Few people dare now to say that two beings have fallen in love because they have looked at each other. Yet it is in this way that love begins, and in this way only" (Victor Hugo).
|◁ II ▷|
"Valen," Her broken voice cries over the phone, and my heart immediately drops to my feet.
Feeling light-headed, my body jumps off the couch. I rush to the front door, yanking on my shoes and grabbing my helmet as I try to calm her.
"Nico? Baby, please," I beg, my eyes blurring as I try to get the shaky key into the motorcycle. "Please, I need you to breathe. What's wrong? Where are you? Are you home?"
Something is obviously terribly wrong. My body continues to shake with adrenaline.
All I can hear are sobs and a small shriek as a thud sounds. My heart beats frantically in my chest, wanting to rush out and reach her before I can. I finally get my bike going, and I blaze out of the driveway, not caring about the other drivers on the road or the police waiting in the dark as I speed close to triple over the speed limit.
Her voice is drowned out as my bike screams across the asphalt. When I slow enough to reach her neighborhood, I hear yelling through the phone, but it isn't her. All I can hear from her are sobs. It's a guy.
My bike skids to a stop in front of her house, and I see an unfamiliar red mustang parked off the road. I text Rikkard, "Nico's house," hoping he understands.
I hear more yelling over the phone, and when Nico screams "Hunter" and "Stop," I completely lose it.
I almost trip over the ruffled doormat in my haste, and my anger grows stronger as I connect it to the key that's been jammed into the doorknob.
I look around the living room for a couple of seconds until I hear Nico's sobs coming from the kitchen. My steps falter when my world spins at the sight in front of me.
Hunter has Nico backed against the kitchen stove, yelling and gripping her hips. Her sobbing face is turned to the side, but he keeps moving his face in front of hers, yelling nonsensically. Her knee shifts up, but Hunter counters it with his own leg, stepping on her socked feet with his boots.
My world stops reeling and anger grounds my body back into reality. My body jolts towards them, and my hands jerk forward and grip Hunter's neck, ripping him backwards and off of her. I let him collapse to the floor as his hands grip my wrists desperately, trying to relieve the pressure I'm putting on his neck.
