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Winter
With the anxiety of Asher meeting my parents being over, and my fake dating plan finally paying off, I could focus on other things in my life for a morning. It was then I realized that Selena still hadn’t come back from visiting her mom over the weekend. She’d texted me while I’d been busy with Asher saying she wanted to go home for a while. She was close with her mom, so it wasn’t any surprise. Now though, it had been days and days. It wasn’t like Selena at all. I wondered if she’d ended up going to Trent’s party at his super special VIP club, the one he had been trying to make me go to.
I searched for her all day. I called her, sent her texts, but they all went unanswered. I was betting on her coming home to get her cheer uniform for the game that night, so I took the precaution of hiding it in case she tried slipping into the room and grabbing it while I was busy.
It worked, because when I got out of the shower and went to our room, she was waiting for me on her bed.
“There you are! Have you seen my stuff? I can’t find it anywhere,” she muttered. She looked pale and thinner than usual.
“Yeah, I’ve seen it, but first…nice to see you,” I said, trying to get a measure of her mood.
Selena rolled her eyes. “Where is it?”
“I’ll get it in a second. When did you get back on campus?”
“Just now.” She evaded my eyes. It felt like a kick in the teeth.
“You’ve been gone for ages.”
“Have I?” she evaded.
“Why do I feel like you’re lying to me and avoiding me? Is it because of Asher? Because you had your eye on him now that he’s back from Denver?”
She snorted. “I wish my problems were just worrying about your fake relationship with Asher Martino. Some of us have bigger problems.”
“Like what? Is it your sister? Your mom?”
Selena opened her mouth to speak and then turned away. “No. It’s not them. You don’t have to worry about it, okay?”
“No, it’s not okay. I want to know what’s wrong. Can I help?”
“Believe me, you did what you could. I’m just too fucking stupid to listen to sense and got what I deserved.”
“What?” I stood, mirroring her as she seemed to decide to go for the door. I stepped in front of her, blocking her path. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“Why? Why do you even care? You shouldn’t care what happens to me.” A tear splashed down her cheek and froze me to the spot.
“Please, just tell me what’s wrong,” I repeated.
“I got what a mean dumb bitch like me deserves, okay?” She said in a hard tone.
“No, it’s not okay. I want to know what’s wrong. Can I help?”
She scoffed again, but this time it was ragged. “It doesn’t even matter, okay? It’s dumb, and I’m just embarrassed, and I don’t want anyone else to know.”
“Tell me anyway. I’m not going to give up until I know. What did I warn you about?” I hunted for an answer, and then a name slapped me across the face. Fuck, it was so obvious. “Is it Trent Fitzgerald? Did something happen with him?”
Selena stared at me, her words all gone. She blinked hard once, twice, and then a long line of tears sprang from her eyes and dashed down her cheeks. She wiped them away angrily.
“What happened? Tell me,” I demanded, panic escalating in my chest. I reached out to stop her from leaving, gently grabbing her forearm. She hissed in pain.
“Are you hurt?” I grabbed her sleeve just as she pulled away. Her sleeve slid up and revealed an oozing sore. It was red and crusted with blood, and the surrounding skin was inflamed.
“What is that?” I gasped, trying to hold onto her, but not wanting to press her skin too hard.
She ripped her arm out of my grasp. “Nothing I didn’t have coming.”
I followed her as she headed again for the door. “It’s Trent, right? Something happened with him? Did you go to that club with him?”
