Darker Than Love | ꪜ

Darker Than Love | 25

Michelle's POV

Weeks, weeks had gone by and finally today I get to go to Ryder's trial.

Over the past few weeks, a group of students miraculously found footage of Damien and Ryder pulling me into the empty classroom and them restraining me. It showed everything down to when I held the knife against Damien's throat, and instead of actually hurting them worse than I already did, I walked away.

The class that I was pulled into was a science lab and Mr. Gretchen was filming a plants progression throughout the weeks and it ended up recording the entire thing.

My parents thanked him with a million dollar check and I'll tell you I've never seen someone this happy in my entire life.

Why so much money? Because my father may be an asshole sometimes but he's a generous person and that was kind of his way of saying thank you because if it weren't for Mr. Gretchen I would have been the one on trial right now, not Ryder.

So as a thank you for basically saving my life without even knowing. . .a million dollars.

I tumbled into the family room and stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of everyone either leaned against the wall in distress or pacing the room. I cleared my throat and all eyes snapped towards me. "A-are you ready?" My father asked and I nodded my head stiffly.

Without another word, I pivoted on my heels and stalked out of the house with everyone trailing behind me. The chauffeur opened up the door to the limousine and with a thank you, I slipped in, followed by everyone else.

"Hey, you ready for this baby?" Sebastian asked in concern and I nodded my head slowly. "Yeah, I am, I'm ready for him to spend some time behind bars because he'll have a worse fate if he stays out." I spat and Sebastian snickered as he draped a hand over my shoulder.

"I'm glad all you guys are here, supporting me, it means the world to me." I said and Tristan smiled, "well who knew you were such a badass?" He chuckled and I rolled my eyes playfully. If only he knew.

"Don't worry we've already won this, at the preliminary hearing there was enough evidence for us to go on trial. It's clear as day in the video what their intentions were. Now we just need Ryder to tell his story and let the judge. . .well judge him." Sasha exclaimed and I nodded my head in agreement.

I snapped my gaze towards Mason and frowned. He hasn't been himself ever since someon-well ever since Kaleb threw that rock into my window. At least I think it's Kaleb, it might not be but who else would do this?

Still, for some reason, Mason has just been quieter than usual. He wouldn't have any snarky remarks towards me, he would barely converse with me, not even about the trial. If he did talk to me it would be for a few minutes and that's it.

Also, I need to break up with Brandon. We've been texting for the past weeks and we've met up a few times but it just feels wrong. It is wrong, I cheated on him and I barely act like we're together. I've barely been able to kiss him without recoiling back.

I need to break up with him because my feelings - whatever it is I was feeling for him, to begin with, is over.

Or maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to hide the real reason why I'm going to break it off with him.

There's only one reason and it's Mason.

•••
A/N:I have no idea how things go down in a courtroom so please have mercy on my poor soul and don't criticize me!

"Will the defendant please rise." I watched as Ryder rose from his chair and straightened out the crinkles of his shirt. We've been in here for over 30 minutes. Witnesses have come up, people who saw them pull me into the classroom and finally found the courage to come forward.