Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“What’s the sudden urgency?”
“I just need to know,” I say, not wanting to explain the whole story to him of how I’m worried about her and that stupid note.
“Well, I haven’t heard anything,” Tucker reveals. “I’m sorry, man.”
“Don’t worry about it, just let me know if—” My words are cut off by a high-pitched scream coming from the pool.
I spin around just in time to watch Tiana push a now fully clothed Wren into the deep end of the pool. Her body flies through the air with her arms flailing.
My legs move on their own, my bare feet pounding against the wooden deck as Wren crashes into the water’s surface. Her body goes under, disappearing into the deep while I jump into the pool headfirst.
My body glides through the water, and I open my eyes to see Wren struggling to get to the surface. I swim toward her as fast as I can. It can’t be more than a few seconds, but it feels like minutes before I get to her.
Her limbs aimlessly move around her, making it hard to grab her. When I finally manage to wrap my fingers around one of her arms and pull her upward, she stops flailing long enough for me to push us both up through the water.
As soon as we break through the surface, Wren sucks in a loud, desperate breath. I push my legs, still holding onto Wren and keeping her above the water.
She looks around frantically, and when her wild eyes find mine, her arms immediately reach out to me. She throws them around my neck, holding onto me like I’m her lifeboat. I use my legs and free arm to tread water long enough to take us to the edge of the pool.
As soon as it’s in reach, Wren releases me, and grabs hold of the side, where she quickly pulls herself out of the water.
I just jumped into a pool after her because she can’t swim, and Wren won’t even look at me. She gets out and stands up while avoiding eye contact with me. I saved her life, and she is fucking ignoring me.
23
WREN
What is with these psychos? They won’t be satisfied until they literally kill somebody.
“All right, you didn’t die.” Briggs climbs out of the pool and stands between me and everybody laughing themselves to death on the other side. “Don’t fucking cry about it.”
But that’s just it. I’m going to cry. I’m fighting it, but I’m going to lose the fight, because I almost fucking died and what is wrong with these people?
“Whoops!” Tiana calls out. I’m not a violent person. I’m really not. But the thought of smashing her face into the patio goes through my head in bright, vivid color.
Instead, I whisper, “Please, take me home. Take me back to the dorm.” He’s had his fun. I’ve been humiliated. I’ve been laughed at, and I almost drowned. What else does he want from me?
“We’ll leave when I say we leave. And I’m not ready to go yet.”
“What do you want from me?” I shoot him the filthiest look possible while wringing water out of my shirt. Everything is plastered to my skin—my hair, the leggings, my underwear. I feel absolutely disgusting.
But that’s nothing compared to everything that went through my head while I was down there. It’s amazing how many thoughts can rush past in only a few seconds. Even before I hit the water, my life was flashing before my eyes. Because there was one thing I knew probably wouldn’t happen. Nobody would help me.
But then Briggs did. Of course, because he likes keeping me around. It makes him happy to hurt me. It wouldn’t help if I were a corpse.
He sneers down at me, and I can’t understand how he can look at me like that after what just happened in the pool. We had sex, and he still wants to hurt me. Then again, I hate him, and I am completely weak for his touch.
“If you don’t know yet, little bird,” he informs me with a grin. “I haven’t been doing a good enough job getting the point across. Thank you for letting me know.” I have never hated anyone the way I hate him right now. Not even Tiana, who is now imitating the way I must have shrieked when she pushed me.
“Can we just go? Please?”
“You think I’m going to let you in my car, drenched like that?” He’s still laughing when his phone rings, and he goes to get it from on top of his pile of clothes.
I can’t really hear him over the other voices, but I see his face changing as he listens to whatever the person on the other end is saying. I don’t think he’s angry, really. Worried?
He moves so fast. He’s like a tornado, grabbing his clothes, pulling them on, and marching over to me. “Let’s go. We’re leaving.”