Page 87

Me: I’m gonna kill him.
Colt: You and me both.
After class, I do the same as I did in English. I grab both our things and lead her out. This time, Dax meets us in the hall. He wraps his arm around her, but she finches again. Looking up at him, her eyes are wide with fear.
“Hey, hey. Just let me hold you, okay?” Dax says softly to her.
She falls back into her own head, and Dax wraps his arm back around her. This time, she lets him.
I nod to Dax and Colt as they take off to their class. I should be in art, but I need to go find someone and pay them a visit. I head over to the fitness center, knowing where my target is at.
When I stroll up into the weight room, I find him on the bench press. I walk around to the footplate out of his sight and pull the pins out of the bar rests, they fall down along the uprights. That’s when he notices me.
“Hey! What the fuck?” Chad looks up and realize he has nowhere to rack the bar. “Fuck, Turner. Put that shit back! This is getting heavy.”
“Yeah, that sucks. Listen,”—I lean on the upright—“a little cunt of a birdie told me you had her drug Phoenix at the party, the night of your party where we took her out of your bathroom completely passed out.”
Chad starts to struggle to keep the three hundred pounds from falling on his chest. He starts to try to sit up, and I shove his sweaty head back down. I wipe my hand off and grimace.
The bar lands on his chest, and he groans. “Come on, this fucking hurts.”
“Hm. That’s weird. I still don’t hear an acknowledgment to what you did.” I lean forward, gripping the bar and putting my weight on it. Crushing it into him.
“Fine,” he wheezes out. He grunts and tries to push back up, but he’s too weak. “Yeah, I did.”
I help flip the bar off him and onto the floor. He struggles to sit up but finally does. I walk around and stand in front of him.
“Are you still fucking with her? Sending her things?”
He pulls his brows together and looks at me for a moment in confusion. “What? No.” He rubs his chest where the bar pressed against.
“Better not be. If I see you look at her, talk to her, touch her, even fucking say her fucking name, I will end you.”
“Really? That’s rich coming from you. All three of you, actually. You don’t own her. You can’t tell me—” My fist connects with his jaw. His eyes roll back, and he falls back on the bench.
Lights out, mother fucker.
* * *
I skipped class and headed back to our dorm room, and now I’m just waiting on them to get here. It’s normally our lunch period, but we all decided we needed to do something to shock her out of this.
And I had an idea. Rare, I know, but I’m good for one or two a year.
I run my hand through my hair and let out a sigh. I’m hoping this works. Otherwise, I’m not sure what we should do. Maybe call that doctor of hers, but that would raise suspicions since she hasn’t shared that with us yet.
I hear the door open, and Dax walks in carrying Phoenix. She’s clinging on to him, like he’s going to let go. Her head rests on his shoulder, her eyes still painfully blank. Colton brings up the rear, shutting the door behind him.
“How’s our girl?” I ask.
“Still in her head.” Dax runs his hand along her back as he brings her over to the couch and sits down with her in his lap.
“Colt, you got those pictures?” I turn towards him.
He nods. “Yeah, on my laptop.”
“Good, bring them out,” I order. He takes off to his room and comes back quickly. “Lay her on her side, facing the coffee table. Colt, pull up the pictures and run them on some kind of slideshow.”
“Think this will work?” Dax looks at me.