Page 130 of Always: A Legacy Novel

A lot.

“Fuck,” he muttered, punching the closest thing to him.

A cinderblock wall.

His knuckles split and ached, but Cross barely felt it at all. He wasn’t one to make a show of himself, but too many pairs of eyes darted in his direction at his actions.

Cross didn’t bother to hide his glare he leveled on the other Academy students as he headed back down the hall. Screw classes.

He wasn’t here for this shit.

He just wanted to talk to Catherine.

Cross skipped his next two classes. He ignored his buzzing phone because the school had likely called Calisto to let them know he hadn’t shown up to his third and fourth period. He didn’t bother to pick up the call.

He was already being kept from the only thing that really mattered to him anyway. There wasn’t anything else anyone could do to him that was going to make a damn difference now.

Cross leaned in the doorway of an empty class. His position was just far enough in that people didn’t seem to notice him as they walked by, or at least not until they were already right in front of him. He waited until the one person he knew would be walking by that spot for her last class, and grabbed her arm the very second he saw her.

Catherine’s quiet gasp echoed in the empty classroom when Cross yanked her inside. He kicked the door closed behind them.

For a long while, she only stared at him, saying nothing.

Cross didn’t make her talk.

Finally, she said, “I’m sorry.”

Her voice was tired, and her words, weak.

Like it hurt to say it, but she had to.

And he knew.

Right then, he knew.

She was going to do it to him again. She was going to break his heart again. Maybe it was for the same reasons as the first time, or maybe it wasn’t.

He didn’t know that.

He only knew this.

“You’re avoiding me,” Cross said.

Catherine nodded, not even bothering to deny his accusation. “We’re supposed to keep a distance; school rules.”

“Fuck the school. And you’ve got a phone, too. You don’t know how to pick it up anymore?”

She glanced away. “Do you ever feel like maybe we went too fast here?”

“What?”

No.

“Because I do,” she continued in a whisper, “sometimes, Cross. I feel like a stupid girl, doing stupid things. I don’t want to be that person at all.”

“You’re not.”

“I am,” she countered, “with you.”