Mica: He’s here. You know I always send a text when he dips out. He’s asleep.

Me: Are you sure?

Gemma was packingup her things, pushing papers into a binder and forcefully shoving her journal down into her bag as I stood there, completely stationary. Who the fuck was in here messing with her computer? Better yet, are they still here? Probably one of Bain’s friends, just to fuck with me.

As soon as Gemma snatched her laptop, I was thankful she didn’t seem to notice. When she’d slammed it shut earlier, she was moving in a blur of anger. I wasn’t sure she even remembered doing so. But I remembered. I remembered because when she closed it, and my eyes landed on her face, the breath was taken right out of my lungs.

Mica: I’m four feet away from his obnoxious fucking snoring. I’m sure.

“I needyou to walk back to your room without me.” I couldn’t even look her in the eye. “I’ll have Cade meet you in a second.” The sound of papers rustling stopped. Her quick hands froze along the zipper of her bag. “I need to check on something.”

The zipper was quick, and the sound jutted out into the air like a fucking sword. “No, thanks. I’ll walk by myself.”

My head fell, and a heavy breath climbed out of my mouth. I knew what I needed to do. I let things get out of hand a few minutes ago. I didn’t regret it, but it was wrong. This entire situation was wrong. “Gemma, just wait for Cade.”

Her tongue clicked as she whipped her backpack off the table, likely not even sparing me a glance. I wouldn’t know, though. I still couldn’t look at her. If I looked at her, I’d see the regret and confusion on her face again. Or worse, the hurt. “I’m tired of doing things for other people. I will make my own decisions from now on, Isaiah.”

I growled, feeling frustrated by everything that was weighing down on me. “You can’t really be trusted to make your own decisions, now, can you? You went straight into danger last night! You’re being irrational and reckless! Just wait for Cade.”

Gemma stormed past me, and I grabbed a hold of her arm. Her hot glare was filled with moisture, and I immediately wanted to retreat. I wanted to apologize, and that was not something I did often. This wasn’t fair to her, and I was pretty sure nothing had ever been fair or easy in her life. “Please, just wait.”

Gemma whipped her arm out of my grasp, and a part of me wanted to smile at her bravery. She was valiant when she wanted to be. She just needed to dig down to that feeling like I needed to dig down into mine. Make her hate you. “I don’t owe you anything, Isaiah.” Her eyes clenched tightly, and her mouth pursed. “And you know what sucks?” She didn’t let me answer as she walked over to the doors that Mr. Cunningham had just gone through. “A big part of me wants to wait here, just because you said so.” She scoffed. “I guess old habits die hard. Always trying to follow the fucking rules.” Her brown hair swayed as she tipped her chin over her shoulder. “But I’m done doing what everyone else wants. No one tells me the whole truth anyway.”

“Gemma!” I yelled, ready to stalk after her, feeling torn between wanting two things. I didn’t like the idea of her walking down the dark hallway alone, but I also wanted to stay here and sneak through every last aisle to find out which one of Bain’s friends had been in here, messing with Gemma’s computer. My head told me to stay, and everything else told me to go after her. My bones were breaking with each stride she took.

I slammed my fist down on the wooden table, the book she’d grabbed from the shelf seconds ago flipping off and falling to the floor beneath a cloud of dust, and I followed after her.

Fucking hell.

Tags: S.J. Sylvis Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net