Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
It doesn’t take long before we both have each other’s numbers, and I’m heading back to my dorm while they go the other direction, back toward Sorority Row.
The walk to Delaney, the girls’ dorm, is a short trek through Wheaton, where the teachers’ offices are, and then a quick jog across Broadway. There are people everywhere, despite the fact that it’s late, and I feel surprisingly safe even though I’m by myself.
The door on the Broadway side doesn’t have a key scanner to get in when the doors are locked—a fun little fact I forgot—so I round the corner onto 116th Street to go in the entrance at the end of the building. I dig in my bag for my key for a full minute before finally finding it, and unfortunately, by the time I look up, there’s no time to turn around.
Dane. He’s sitting on the steps in front of the door, hard eyes on me as I approach.
“Where the hell did you go?” he questions, his mouth set in a firm line. He stumbles to his feet just as I reach the first step. “I’ve been waiting for you here for hours.”
I know for a fact that it hasn’t been hours—it’s only been a little more than an hour since I left the party altogether. He’s just too drunk from all the alcohol he’s consumed tonight—I can still smell it wafting off him—to have any real concept of time.
“I don’t want to talk to you right now.”
“Scottie, don’t be like that. Let me come up.”
“No.” I shake my head, and when he tries to grab my hand, I yank it away from him.
“What the fuck, babe?” he questions and steps closer to me. “Just let me come up.”
I crowd the door, but I don’t unlock it yet. “Good night, Dane.” I don’t know what I think he’ll do—if he’ll rush the door and overtake me or something—but he’s been just unpredictable enough tonight for me to question it.
“Why are you being such a bitch?”
The tension in my shoulders and the knot in my stomach tighten like vises. I’m stretched to the max capacity, my heart feeling like it’ll jump outside of my chest at any moment from pure desperation, and his words are my tenuous hold’s undoing. This conversation should be happening tomorrow, when he’s sobered up, but I can’t do this anymore.
I need finality now.
“Dane, it’s over.” The words are harder to choke out than I expect. There’s so much history, so much heart between us. But more than that, in this moment, there’s fear. A whole hell of a lot of it.
And that’s a giant red flag. I won’t allow myself to ignore it.
“What did you just say?”
I swallow hard. “I said, it’s over.”
“You’re breaking up with me?”
I nod.
“You’re breaking up with me?” he questions again, a scoff leaving his lips. “Wow, Scottie. How fucking pathetic are you?”
I shake my head. It’s so disappointing to watch someone you once loved become so cheaply callous. “Goodbye, Dane.”
“So, that’s it? Two years together and that’s all you’re going to say?”
With the way he’s treated me for the last month and a half, I don’t know where he finds the audacity to be sentimental about all the time we’ve spent together, but it does strike a nerve. I don’t want it to, but it does. “We aren’t who we used to be, Dane. Either of us. You crossed a huge line tonight, and regardless of the past, I’m unwilling to let it happen again. I can’t be with you.”
“You’re such a bitch, Scottie.” A maniacal laugh jumps from his lungs. He steps closer to me, and for the first time, real dread sends a chill down my spine and into a tingle in my toes. His previously mellow eyes are a harsh storm of malice, and I don’t know what he’s going to do next.
“Everything okay here?” an uncharacteristically strong female voice asks. I look around Dane’s imposing body to see the source. It’s a girl from my dorm, obviously coming home for the night. She’s got copper-red hair and fairylike features, but I swear the tone of her voice made her sound six feet tall. I’ve never met her, but I’ve seen her around.
“Everything’s fine,” Dane slurs. “Mind your business.”
The girl looks at me for a real answer, and I know by the way my teeth are chattering that my smile is shaky at best.
She reaches out to grab my hand, boldly putting her body between Dane and me. “Ready to call it a night?” She’s asking, but she’s not asking. We haven’t stopped moving since she gripped me.
I don’t dare look over my shoulder to see what Dane is doing. Instead, I clutch her hand probably way too tightly as she unlocks the entrance door with her keycard and puts herself between me and Dane.