Hell.No.
“Hey it’s kind of a bad time, can I call you later?” I asked. A sniffle echoed in my ear. “Mom? What’s wrong?”
“Your grandmother,” she choked. Ice solidified my veins. “I don’t understand. She said if I don’t get you home- get you to go with them- they’re going to- toendall of you.”
17
Courtney
Pacingthebathroomforthe hundredth time, I chewed my thumbnail. What was keeping him? He clearly wanted to- he said he couldn’t even wait to get back to the dorm. I let him touch me in the middle of the library, he had to want to-
Thoughts suffocated me to the point I couldn’t wait anymore. I burst from the bathroom and stalked down the hall to our table. His laptop was there but he wasn’t. I scanned the vicinity; not a single tall, dirty blond demi-god in sight. A sharp pain in my thumb made me hiss. I ripped the nail.
Something was wrong.Reallywrong. He wouldn’t leave like that.
Would he?
I spun around helplessly when I spotted the emergency exit propped open. I didn’t question. Running out the door, I whipped my head around-
Crouched against the brick wall, his head in his hands and phone pressed to his ear, Ollie was hyperventilating.
“No- listen to me, I’ll come home- I’ll-”
He ripped the phone away, eyes glowing as it lurched into the grass. Heaving shuddering breaths, his hands raked through his hair.
“Fuck!”
His roar echoed endlessly, settling in my chest like an ancient ache. I inched towards him.
“I wouldn’t, Angel.”
“No one deserves the pain I see in you right now,” I whispered. He sprung up, fists clenched and eyes swirling. Each gasping breath had him trembling harder.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know what I’ve done or what I’m going to do.”
“I don’t care.”
His lip curled. “Then you’re delusional.”
“Maybe I am, but I doubt you’d do something terrible without a valid reason,” I growled back at him. He blinked at me, momentarily stunned.
“You don’t know that. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
It crashed into me then- I’d seen this moment, feared this moment, those eyes, that pain. I grasped his face.
“Then fucking tell me, Ollie.”
His mouth opened, but nothing came out. I didn’t know how long we stood there with him gaping at me, but slowly his breathing calmed. His eyes didn’t return to blue.
“I’m not a good person. I’m not the person you want or need or deserve,” he said, trying to pull back.
I tightened my fingers. “You don’t get to decide who you are to me. I decide that.”
His eyes slipped closed, shoulders sagging. “I have to go home.”
“Can you tell me why?”
He paused, keeping his eyes closed. “No.”