Chapter twenty-six
AVA
Idon’tthinkI can do this much longer. Not the stupid pranks—they’re nothing but inconvenient. I mean staying away from Stone. I feel his eyes on me every time I’m in his vicinity, and it takes every ounce of strength I have in me to not look at him. I can’t. Seeing his silver eyes will be my downfall. I want to know how he can have shared what we’ve shared and go straight back to this. But I’m doing it, so I don’t have a reason to ask. The next few days I stay out as much as possible. Cole and Millie are probably both getting sick of me, but I can’t be there with him. I know what happens when we’re alone.
Our shared Wednesday class is swapped for a study period now that our projects are handed in, and I’m so thankful they’re done. Being in class with them separately as they all blank me is one thing; working on a project would be too much. I miss Mason and Reid too. I berate myself for ever enjoying their company, knowing it was only temporary. They warned me it was only for the week, but I wanted to take the reprieve. I didn’t think it’d be harder to go back to this once I knew what they were really like.
I’m on my way to the last class of the day when I’m shoved hard just as I pass what I thought was a classroom. When I hit the far wall, it’s obvious it’s just a cleaning closet or something. The door slams behind me, leaving me in darkness, and when I try to open it, it’s locked. I won’t give the bitches giggling outside the satisfaction of begging to get out, so I settle in against the back wall, rubbing my smarting jaw where it connected with the brick. I’m not scared of the dark, and I don’t really know what the point of this is.
“Try not to pee your little pants.” Winnie’s voice comes through the door, speaking as if I’m a child. I’m even more confused until sounds start playing from her side. Sounds of a storm. Heavy rain, thunder, wind. My heart feels like it physically breaks. Not because I’m scared—it’s not realistic at all, and the cackling from outside makes me think they just want to show me they know and mock my phobia rather than actually scare me. No, it’s because I know exactly how they know about it. When I felt safe enough to tell the three guys about it, thinking we were sharing a moment and I could trust them with it, they were storing it to use against me once we were back at school. Why? Because I was from Highland? Honestly, it’s fucking pathetic. Slowly, the heartbreak turns into flames of anger. I hate them all. I don’t know who told Winnie and Caitlin out of the three of them, but it doesn’t matter, they don’t do anything without the others knowing. Murmurs get louder from outside and the phone cuts off.
“Spoilsport!” Caitlin whines as the door opens. The light seems bright after the darkness of the closet, and I squint my eyes to see Mason standing there looking stricken.
“Ava—”
“Fuck you,” I hiss, my anger fresh with the perfect outlet standing in front of me.
“What’s going on?” someone calls from behind the door. “Get to class now.” I take the opportunity to get away from them before I say something I regret.