AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What the fuck are you here for?” I asked, wincing at the sound of my voice. I’d spoken too loudly. I needed to roll over and go back to sleep. Although, with my hands caught like this, rolling over wasn’t possible. “Never mind,” I whispered. “Help me out of these.”
Travis only continued to stare, his chest rising with a great breath as he filled his lungs with smoke. His blue eyes looked…unimpressed.
News-fucking-flash: I wasn’t impressed either. Not with myself, not with anyone around me. In fact, the whole fucking world was full of shit that didn’t impress me. Giving me that look didn’t make Travis special.
“Ash did this,” I added, knowing Travis had a thing for her.
“I know,” he finally said. When he exhaled, the air around him filled with smoke. “Those chains are mine.”
I blinked, my hungover mind trying to piece it together. If Ash did this, and the chains were his… “You helped her do this?” Every word I spoke felt like knives shoved into my brain, but I couldn’t sit there quietly. No, I had to know the truth.
“She came up with the idea all on her own, I just supplied her with some necessary equipment for the job.” Travis threw his cigarette down, burning the carpet before he shoved his heel on it and put it out. He didn’t care about any singed holes; he knew I had the money to fix it before I stopped renting the place. “She’s upset with you.”
Upset with me because of him, because of Brooklyn. “You showed her the video. You fucking took that video!” I grimaced as I shouted at him, my headache only intensifying. Damn this hangover. Damn Travis. Damn Ash. Damn every single fucking one of them.
“You still don’t get it,” Travis said, sounding pensive. His lips were drawn into a thin line as he walked over to the bed. I knew better than to try and reach for him, so I simply watched him saunter over like he ruled this roost. “Ash is the queen, and you’re just a pawn, Sawyer.”
My jaw tensed. I didn’t like his insinuation that I was just a pawn in the game. “If I’m a pawn, what are you?”
Travis’s blue eyes sparkled as he glanced at the cuffs on my wrists, and for a moment I grew worried. I might’ve been hungover, but I recognized the darkness lingering behind his stare, and a pit started to form in my stomach.
That, or I needed to throw up.
“I’m her knight,” Travis said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out…the key. The fucking key. Of course he had the key; who else would have it? Certainly not Ash, because that would make too much goddamn sense.
“She’s not my queen,” I muttered, watching as he went to unlock me, wrist after wrist. Once I was free, I felt like grabbing him, beating on him for the shit he pulled, but I held back, rubbing my wrists as I sat up, feeling new waves of nausea bubbling inside.
Travis took a step back, tossing the key onto my bed, clearly in no hurry to get his chains back. “Ash is everyone’s queen, and right now she’s in danger. I only came here to let you out, but I have to go back.”
Was he shacking up in her dorm room, then? I scoffed, doubting Declan liked that. They seemed to flock to her like love-obsessed boys who’d just discovered what a cunt felt like around their dicks.
“She’s in the hospital,” Travis whispered, his azure stare clouding over with something I couldn’t name, and my head hurt too much to ask.
Ash was in the hospital? Good. It meant she’d stay away from me for a while, then. It meant I had some time to myself. I didn’t give a single shit that Ash was in the hospital, or even why that was. “Then go,” I whispered lowly, running a hand through my hair.
My hair…which was covered in crusty pink stuff?
Fuck.
Travis stared down at me, a muscle in his jaw tensing. “You don’t even care.”
“No, I don’t fucking care,” I hissed, doing my best to ignore the headache pounding away in my skull. “I don’t fucking care about Ash at all, Travis. I’ll leave that honor to you.” I got up, pushing past him as I headed to the bathroom. My jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw my reflection.
Pink fucking hair.
Of fucking course.
Travis said nothing else as he headed down the hall, leaving me alone. I stripped out of my clothes and hopped in the shower, scrubbing my hair with a fierceness that only made my aching head hurt worse.
Alone.
I was alone, just like I always was, and even after I graduated Hillcrest, even after my parents introduced me to whoever it was they wanted me to be with, strictly for monetary purposes, I’d still be alone. Which was fine, because it was something I’d grown used to. You didn’t get to be a Salvatore and have real friends, or real, down-to-earth girlfriends.
Once I was done in the shower, once I saw that my hair was still a terrifying shade of pink, I knew I needed to take something for my head. I practically tripped myself as I went down the stairs, my fingers itching with a need to take something a little stronger than Tylenol.
I found myself in the corner of the kitchen, standing before a certain drawer.
I think, after everything, I deserved a little break.A break from my life, from the pain. A break from it all.
