Page 2 of Royal

Just once I wanted to hear him sayI love you. Maybe it’d eventually happen. I knew hedidlove me, but when he said it back to me, it was either a ‘you too’or ‘same.’

I knew Grayson almost better than I knew myself. When he threw up his walls, I didn’t let it bother me. I’d keep hacking away at the stones until he let me in.

“Someday, after we graduate college and get good jobs, I’d like us to find a house together near the lake,” I said, my fingers toying with the light dusting of hair of his happy trail.

He tensed. “Buy a house together?”

“Yeah. Maybe get married.”

Grayson sat up and scrubbed a hand over his face.

“What’s wrong?” I propped myself up on my arm and stared at him, confused.

“It’s after nine,” he responded, searching for his clothes. He put on his boxers, then his jeans, before slipping his shirt on over his head. “Gotta be in my criminal justice class at ten-fifteen.”

“Shit!” I flew up out of bed, too. “My speech class is at nine-forty-five.”

Grayson grinned, although it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Better get moving, then.”

It wasn’t until I was sitting in class, huffing and puffing because I’d had to run across campus to make it before the professor walked in, that I wondered if Grayson had really been worried about making it to his class on time…or if he’d just been eager to get away from me.

I wanted us to build a life together. He was the man I wanted to marry someday.

Something told me he didn’t feel the same.

***

I was going to kill Grayson.

The night before a big exam, and the douche had dragged me to some party and disappeared without a trace. The weirdness between us had started about two weeks before, after the morning in my dorm when I’d talked about us getting a house together. We’d started arguing since then, about little things that weren’t that big of a deal. The only time we hadn’t argued in the past few weeks was when we were too busy fucking.

So, I’d agreed to come to the stupid party in an attempt to show him I was trying. I’d partied hard during the first two years of college but had recently taken a step back to get my head on straight.

Grayson was still inparty mode, though. Probably always would be.

“Have you seen Gray?” I asked Ron, the guy throwing the party.

“Dude, he’s your boyfriend,” Ron shot back, irritated that I’d interrupted his make-out session with the curvy brunette he had pushed against the wall. “Not my job to keep track of his ass.”

I called him. No answer.

Ron lived in the dormitory, and the party was spread out amongst all the other rooms in the wing. People were crammed together down the hall, drinking and dancing. Some were behind closed doors. I looked over people’s heads. Grayson was tall, and so, if he was in the hallway I’d be able to see him.

I sent a text.

Me:Where the hell are you? If I don’t find you soon, I’m leaving.

He texted back instantly.

Gray:Fine. Leave.

Me:Wtf? Where are you???

Gray:Just leave, Royal. Shouldn’t have asked you to come.

Yep. I was going to kill him.

Things had been okay when we’d first arrived. Gray and I had hung out with some friends and drank some beers. Beers turned to shots. We’d kissed and groped each other a little. But then we’d gotten into an argument, and he took off.