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Is he serious?Ali internally screamed. I want you to get the hell out of my car so I can go back home.
“I can’t,” Ali said firmly. “Coach Crawford is waiting for me.”
Graham nodded. “You don’t want to.”
Of course, I don’t.
A cloud of exhausted frustration swept across Ali. “I have to get home.” She looked at the clock on the dash, drumming her fingers against the steering wheel. “It’s getting late.”
“You can just say you don’t want to.” Graham’s voice shrilled with annoyance. “You said it before. You’re not my adviser anymore. You don’t have to try to be nice to me. It’s not your job.”
The fast slide of his seatbelt made Ali jump. Graham slammed the door behind him, stumbling before righting himself as he headed toward the dark house. Ali moved the gear to reverse, but the gentle shake and slump of his shoulders made her slide it into Park.
“Shit,” she muttered before stepping out of the car. Letting him go into an empty house all alone, drunk and upset. I can’t leave it like this. It’s not fair, even to him, Ali told herself.
“Graham, wait a second.” Ali left the car door open behind her and approached him. “Look, you’re right, it’s not my job to tell you these kinds of things anymore, but I will.” Graham turned, and Ali pocketed her hands, burying them deeper into the hoodie. “I know it feels like it’s the end of the road for you. But I promise it’s not. You have to get some help. I… ” Ali paused, looking down. “I don’t know what happened or didn’t happen that brought you here in the first place. All I know is you have a lot going on in your head, and you need to sort it out.”
Graham scoffed. “You think I’m crazy?”
“No, of course not. But you’re angry,” Ali said with a nod. “At who, I don’t really know. But you’re a lot of other things too. You’re smart. And talented. You’re outgoing. Other people will see that if you get help with the other stuff.”
“Then help me,” Graham said, stepping closer.
I don’t know how.
“You told me you would.”
“I know I did.”
Graham adjusted his hat, his inebriated state leaving it crooked on his head. “I remember that day. In the cafeteria. When you promised you would help.”
But this is beyond me.Ali would have tried to help, and she knew Cornell would have too. She took in his split lip and the dark, empty house behind him, a second home his parents rented so he could attend Hopperville and not live on campus.
My dad said it’s better for everyone if I stay with my mom.
Ali hadn’t given much thought to it before. Living with his parents seemed fitting, considering how controlling his father was. She opened her mouth, but something stopped her—Graham’s eyes. It wasn’t the look, it was the color, green with an ombre effect, dark in the center and lighter outward. Ali had always taken the uniqueness of Graham’s eyes for depth, intrigue.
But when the small hairs on the back of her neck rose, they no longer appeared that way.
“You were wearing that dark blue shirt. The sleeveless one with the white polka dots. You have these freckles.” Graham pointed to her shoulder, eyes now smoldering.
Oh, my god.
Ali skirted back when his tongue darted out, wetting his dry lips. From the way he zeroed in on her, the step he took closer when she retreated, Ali realized that maybe by wanting to see the best in Graham, she had dismissed the fact that there still was something dark and dangerous in him too.
And maybe the now empty house had been leased for protection—both for Graham and from him.
Run. Run, Ali.
Even though Graham couldn’t hear her thoughts, the smirk and the excited intrigue that danced across his face let Ali know he was going to be thrilled about the chase.
The heat from the running engine fanned across her back. Ali knew the door was open, just a few arm lengths away. Taking a wide step, Ali turned, her sneakers barely gripping the concrete as she scrambled to her car, slipping into the driver’s seat.
Graham’s speed didn’t allow Ali to even let out more than a millisecond of a scream before he covered her mouth, her screams of objection left with nowhere to go.
No. No. No. No. If he gets me out of this car, it’s over.
But no matter how hard Ali clung to the steering wheel with all her might, it only took one of Graham’s strong hands latching onto her forearm to yank her from the car.
Like no other student, her relationship with Graham wasn’t a two-way street, and it hit Ali hard, just as hard as her body slammed on the concrete of the driveway as he dragged her. There had been no trust for trust, no respect for respect, no caring for caring.
It had been a one-way road only.
The traffic of empathy she had fed in Graham’s direction all led to the moment he slammed her onto the hot hood of the car without a care—but all the force—in the world, looting the breath from Ali’s lungs and forever stealing all the hope and trust from her heart.
