Reaching the top step, we file through the main entrance of Bradford Private, leaving the boys behind on the stairs. We’ve barely taken a step before Ilaria grabs my arm. “Girl, if you don’t tell me what the fuck went down between you two, I’m going to go insane.”
Point proven.
“It’s nothing,” I say, not wanting to get into it with the eyes of every last student in the corridor resting on me with scowls on their faces and the vilest thoughts spinning around their clueless minds. “We just … we’re not going to work out, especially now. Being with him is only setting myself up for the worst kind of heartbreak, and I don’t think I can handle it. We’ll just go back to being neighbors who can’t stand each other.”
Ilaria scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Right, because that’s exactly what you were.”
Arizona shakes her head and gives me a beaming smile. “In the words of Aaliyah, dust yourself off and try his friends … or something like that.”
“That is definitely not how that song goes,” Chanel laughs.
Ilaria scoffs, a smirk cutting across her full lips. “Sounds right to me.”
I roll my eyes as I reach my locker and stop to work the lock when I hear my name called from back down the corridor. “Brielle, babe. Wait up.”
My cheeks blow out in frustration, and I let out a soft groan, hearing the familiar holler coming from Riley. I glance over my shoulder to find not only Riley barging through the crowd, shoving people out of his way, but Jax and Hudson right on his heels. Riley’s brows raise as he catches my eye and puts up a hand, signaling for me not to take off before he gets a chance to say whatever it is he needs to say.
Ilaria laughs and presses her back against the locker beside mine, settling in for the show. “What was that thing Arizona was saying about his friends?”
“Don’t even think about it,” I mutter as Riley, Jax, and Hudson come barreling toward us, barely stopping before knocking us over.
“Yo, what’s up?” Riley says, his lips pulling into their usual flirty smirk as my gaze roams over the subtle bruising around his eye, an after-effect of Tanner’s temper tantrum at the track—something I could have avoided had I been quicker to handle it.
“What’s up with you?” I question, eyeing Jax and Hudson, suspicious about what they could possibly want.
"I, uhhh, thought you were gonna take off."
I arch a brow before reaching in and grabbing my things from my locker, finding them exactly where I left them yesterday before I was dragged out of here. “Thought about it,” I murmur, turning back to face Riley, willing the bell to sound. My gaze drops away and I stand awkwardly before them. “Look, I—”
“Don’t stress,” Riley says, reaching out and brushing the backs of his knuckles over the side of my cheek, a move that feels oddly intimate and has me shrugging back from his touch. “We’re not here to give you a hard time. We know you had nothing to do with what happened to Addie. We just wanted to check on you, seeing as though Tanner ain’t saying shit.”
I glance away. “I’m fine.”
“Really?” Jax mutters. “You can barely look us in the eyes. Two nights ago, we were chilling, discussing appropriate cum shot etiquette, and now you’re acting like a fucking stranger. You’re not fine.”
“I’m fine.”
“Bullshit.”
I let out a heavy sigh and lean against my locker, holding my books to my chest as though they’re some kind of security blanket. “What do you want me to say? My whole world is burning to ashes around me. My mom married Orlando, the whole school thinks I’m a rapist, and Tanner is … I don’t know what he is, but asshole comes to mind.”
Riley moves in closer, wanting our conversation to remain private. “What happened at the track,” he starts, his lips pressing into a hard line. “You have to know he didn’t mean it. He was just angry and didn’t know how to control himself. Addison had just been attacked for a second time, and there wasn’t anything he could do to help her. He’s going through a lot and trying to protect everyone around him. He needs you, babe. Surely you know how much you mean to him. The things he said—”
“The things he said were unforgivable. They hurt, Riley. He hurt me just as he always promised he would. How am I supposed to come back from that?”
Hudson moves in closer, his heart on his sleeve. “Don’t walk away from him,” he murmurs, reaching for my hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. “You’re the only person who can keep him grounded. Without you, I don’t know if he can handle this.”
I pull my hand out of his and indicate toward Riley’s black eye. “I’m sorry you got hurt, but I can’t willingly hand myself over to him knowing I’m going to get hurt. Especially now, after everything that went down yesterday. I can’t be somebody else’s rock when I can’t even be one for myself.”