AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m not stubborn,” I said.
“If you say so.” Will’s lips quirked into a smile, and I felt a sudden heat rise in my lower gut. I told myself it was only because he looked like Declan, kind of like how Declan had called me Sabrina. Projecting feelings onto me. I was doing the same thing to his brother, because I’d come to care for him over these last few weeks.
It was impossible not to start caring about Declan. With the way everyone treated him, I still felt like he was a precious cinnamon roll, too pure. Even after seeing him get angry at Sawyer’s party, I liked him. That wasn’t to go as far as to say I loved him, but I did feel strongly for him. I’d be devastated if something happened to him and it was my fault.
“I do,” I whispered, watching as Will pulled out his phone, his fingers working fast on the screen. “What are you doing?” Seemed a horrible time to check the social media sites.
“I’m getting an Uber,” he said simply, not glancing up from his phone. The light from his screen and the parking lot lights were the only things illuminating the area. The moon was covered by clouds, which I was almost certain it wasn’t a few hours ago, when I’d been running from Travis’s place.
A few hours. That’s all it’d been? God, it felt like ages. Years. Time had slowed to a fucking crawl when I wasn’t looking.
“I said—”
He cut me off, “I’m getting an Uber, and I’m going with you to make sure you get home safe, and then I’ll come back here for Declan.” His hazel eyes looked at me finally, so intense I couldn’t look away. “You might be stubborn, but so am I. And if you think I’m letting you walk home in the middle of the night with a gimp hand, alone, you’re wrong.”
I stared at him, my words failing me as I watched him move to sit beside me, a mere few inches between us. “You don’t have to worry about me,” I whispered. “In fact, I wish you wouldn’t.”
Will let out a sigh before turning his head to me. “I have a feeling Declan would never let me hear the end of it if I let you walk back to the dorm. Plus, with that hand, what would you do if someone tried to take you?”
Honestly, I was a bit shocked he’d bring it up, but such was the world girls today were raised in. A lovely reality of not having a stick swinging between our legs. “I’d figure something out,” I said.
“I’m sure you would, but still, I’d rather tell Declan when he wakes up that I helped you get home safely rather than sending you off into the unknown by yourself,” Will said. His stare fell to my splinted hand. “What happened to your hand? Don’t worry, there are no nurses or doctors around. No one but me.”
Yes, he was right there. We were alone, sitting on this bench, the ER’s doors quiet. He was a stranger to me, and yet I felt oddly comfortable around him. Maybe because he reminded me so much of Declan. Or maybe because he was cute, and I hadn’t learned my lesson when it came to cute guys. Not yet.
I was a glutton for punishment, and not Travis’s twisted sense of it. Punishment meaning dangling things and people I could not have in front of me. Punishment meaning liking guys I shouldn’t. My roommate’s older brother? Definitely off-limits, and I knew it.
I knew it, and yet I still found myself sighing internally as I breathed in the air around us. He wasn’t touching me, but I could still feel his warmth, his heat. My mind was so fucked up, I’d just escaped Travis, Declan was in the hospital, almost dead, and here I was, ogling his brother.
“I told you,” I said, not liking the way my body reacted to his intense stare, “I fell on it.”
“Let me ask you one thing, and I want you to be one hundred percent honest,” Will started, waiting for me to nod before continuing: “Does it have anything to do with what happened to Declan?”
I blinked. “What?”
He leaned closer to me, and my back went rod straight. It took everything out of me not to inch away, not trusting myself to be so close to him. So near I felt his breath on my cheek, even if he was just leaning in to whisper, “If someone came after you because you’re his roommate, tell me, Ash.”
What would he do, if it was? I was tempted to ask, mostly because I believed, at their core, the two things were connected—by Travis. Will didn’t know me. He knew and cared for his brother, that much was obvious, but me? I was a stranger to him. I meant nothing to him. If the two things were connected, they were just that: connected. So what?
“I told you, I fell,” I was firmer this time, repeating myself for what felt like the hundredth time tonight. I was never going to tell anyone that Travis brought me to his room and chained me to the floor near his bed. What was even crazier was the fact that I went with him willingly.
“Okay,” he said, leaning back, away from me, giving me relief from his warm breath and his insinuating stare.
I didn’t like him. He was confident, suspected too much, and worst of all? He seemed nice. Nicer than Declan himself, maybe. Me and nice guys never mixed. But, I realized, as an Uber car pulled up, maybe we should start. Maybe nabbing a nice guy was exactly what I needed to stay safe.
A foolish thought, because no matter what I did, I was never really safe.
Chapter Five – Declan
I wanted to yank the IV out and go home. Maybe not home home, but at least back to the dorm. I didn’t like knowing Ash was there alone, not with what happened to me. I…I don’t exactly remember what happened, but I do know I hadn’t felt good all day, and I tried texting her, but she wouldn’t respond. As a last resort, I texted Will, my older brother, not knowing what else to do.
And then…then I woke up here, in the hospital, surrounded by nurses and doctors who thought I was suicidal.
I might’ve been, once. Right after Sabrina hung herself, right after the cops questioned me and I was forbidden from going to her funeral…but not anymore. I didn’t want to die. I wanted to live, and…I wanted to make sure Ash was okay. If someone got to me, if someone put something in my food or something, what was to say she’d be okay there by herself? What if they went after her next?
That’s what the sane part of me wondered as the hours wore on. I woke up sometime early in the morning to find Will slouched in the chair beside my bed, his neck bent at an awkward angle, his mouth hanging slightly ajar. My own neck hurt a bit, but I knew they had me hopped up on pain meds, thanks to my arm.
Stitches and a bandage. They also said that if it wasn’t for the quick-thinking of my roommate, I’d most likely be dead right now, which meant Ash saved me. She saved me, and I was stuck here, until they thought it was okay to let me go—or at least until I convinced them I didn’t try to hurt myself.
