Unwritten Rules (Rules 1)

The fight is today.

The information’s not registering.

I turn on my phone, walk into the kitchen, and yawn. I need coffee. As soon as the screen lights up, notifications come rushing in one after the other, and confusing feelings consume me. I hope that he texted me.

Just so I can tell him to never text me again.

I know, I don’t make sense.

Seven messages await me.

At the exact same time, I receive an incoming call from Alex. They’ve probably been trying to call me for hours. I brush off the guilt weighing on me and pick up.

“Hello?”

“Well, hello, Miss I-Sleep-Until-It’s-Four-P.m. We’ve been trying to reach you.” I recognize Will’s voice.

I gasp and my gaze jumps to the clock on the wall. “It’s not even eleven yet. Stop exaggerating. I’m sorry for not taking your calls. I was exhausted.”

“I assume Haze kept you up all night? You weren’t too loud I hope.” I can literally picture him wiggling his eyebrows like the perverted idiot he is.

I curse. Of course they would know about Haze by now. I’m not surprised that Kendrick told them all about his stunt. The crazy part is, Haze did keep me up all night. But not the way he thinks.

“Give me that,” Alex says in the background.

Muffled voices and shuffling comes down the line. I can’t restrain a smirk from remolding my lips, listening to them fighting over the phone.

These guys.

“Hello, Winter? Sorry about that.” Alex’s voice indicates that he won the war. “Will—” He moves the phone away from his mouth. “Don’t eat that. It’s for my sister’s school.”

“Just a little bit,” Will’s distant voice replies.

I snigger. “What’s going on?”

“Damn it, Blake, can you take that cake away from him, please?”

I laugh.

“You guys are actual kids.”

“Tell me about it.” Alex exhales. “We’ll be there to pick you in fifteen minutes. Be ready.”

“Wait, what?”

The line goes dead.

I can honestly say I’ve never gone up the stairs faster in my life. I throw on a sweater and a pair of black leggings, pulling my hair up into a messy bun. That’s the best I can do today. I make sure to apply a little bit of makeup so that the numerous hours of sleep I didn’t get last night aren’t the first thing you see when you look at me.

While I wait, I select the other unread text messages I didn’t have time to check yet.

I have one message from my best friend, Allie.

And zero from Haze.

But that’s not what surprises me the most.

What I can’t believe is the messages from the unknown number I completely forgot about until now. They didn’t text me again after I left the hotel. I thought it was merely the result of someone messing with me. Obviously, I was wrong.