Don't Hold Your Breath

Chapter 13

When I returned to my apartment, the first thing I did was tell Cass what had happened at the party. Up until then, she had just known that I had left early and that the police arrived shortly after to question everyone about one of the guests. To say she was pissed was an understatement, she was furious that she hadn't been with me and that she missed her opportunity to put "the creep" in a chokehold. She took it upon herself to walk with me to school every day, studying in the library if she didn't have a class at the same time as me.

On Tuesday, I was walking out of bio-chem when Jack caught up with me in the courtyard.

"Hey Indigo! Crazy party, right? I can't believe the cops showed up."

"Yeah, super weird." I agreed, a little dryly although he luckily didn't seem to notice.

"Although I had fun right before they showed up." He gave me a flirty smile. "What are you doing this weekend?"

I felt myself cringe slightly. "I'm really sorry if I led you on Jake, but I'm not really dating right now."

"Really?" he sounded surprised, as if no one had ever turned him down before. "Ok, well that's cool. Here." He quickly opened one of the binders he was holding and jotted something down before ripping the paper off and handing it to me. "Call me if you change your mind."

I stared after him, paper still in my hand as he walked off, a little bewildered by his self-confidence. I shook my head in astonishment before walking over to a garbage can by a tree and throwing the paper away. I was about to turn away, but a movement near the tree caught my eye making me jump.

"I thought you didn't like parties."

My eyes widened and I stared up into the face of the last person I expected. Dex showing up at the party was one thing, but Zeke showing up at my school was almost more than I could handle.

"I don't, what are you doing here?" I demanded, brushing off his earlier comment.

"What did you do to lead him on?" Zeke asked, walking a little closer to me and ignoring my question.

"None of your business." I responded, taking a small step back.

"He seems like an arrogant prat." He continued with a derisive snort.

Nope I had been wrong; that was about all I could handle. I quickly closed the distance between us and slapped him across the face. He seemed shocked at my action and touched his cheek, looking back up at me.

"Indie, I didn't mean to-"

"Just stop it." I cut him off, closing my eyes when he used that nickname for me. "You were the one who told me to have a normal life. Dating is part of that, you know."

He lowered his hand, clenching his jaw and looking at me with angry eyes.

"What are you doing here." I repeated, articulating the words carefully.

He didn't drop his eyes from mine as he took out his phone. "I got a disturbing text message and wanted to check on you."

I took the phone from him and opened his messages to find one from an unknown number. There weren't any words, but it included a few photos and there were shots of me and Jake talking, dancing, and lastly one of us kissing. I wrinkled my nose at that one and pushed the phone back into his hands.

"Dex is a fucking creep." I muttered.

"Have you seen him?" Zeke demanded, quickly turning to business.

"Yeah, at that party." I admitted. "He showed up and tried to pretend you two were still working together, saying that you sent him there to pick me up."