Toxic

"Give me a reason to stay that won't piss me off."
"Stay... so you can hurt me as much as I hurt you."
"You're not afraid of what I might do?"
"To me?"
"Yeah, to you. Know what I dream about every night?"
I offer in hopeful tones, "My tits?"
"Try again."
"My ass?"
Scowling, Dax shakes his head.
"Making me cry?"
He nods and finally smiles. "While ripping your heart out."

✘✘✘

Everyone at school knows that Cleo Fitzgerald is to blame for putting her boyfriend, Fairmont High's golden boy, Travis Reynolds, in a coma, and they hate her for it. Bitch has shown no remorse over causing her boyfriend's accident. There are even rumors that she's cheating on Travis while he's unconscious in the hospital.

When an outsider, Daxton Cole, enters Fairmont's social scene, he befriends Cleo's brother, Brookes, and is immediately drawn to Cleo despite her reputation. She's nothing like the psychopath everyone paints her out to be. The two troubled young lovers strike up a brief but fiery romance that ends in heartbreak when Travis wakes up from his coma.

After graduation, Dax joins the military, and Cleo returns to Travis' side.

Years later, Dax has yet to forget Cleo. He learns that a traumatic event has triggered Cleo to act out in violence against Travis. After Cleo is committed to a mental institution, Dax gets himself hired to become a guard there. As Dax is forced to follow Cleo around day in and day out, he begins to notice troubling cracks in the veneer of Cleo and Travis' seemingly perfect relationship.

Old feelings begin to resurface, and Dax realizes that Cleo's secrets have secrets, and she needs him now more than ever.