Page 26

Landon

The rest of the weekend was spent tangled up with each other and making love on every available surface of the apartment. Come Monday, we were dead tired but happy as we could be when we dragged ourselves off to class and baseball conditioning.

? I walk into the weight room, and Gabe and Mason are eyeing me with goofy grins that say I look pretty well-fucked.

? “Well?” Gabe throws his arms out in question.

? “She loves me,” I say dreamily with a goofy smile and do a little jig.

? “Looks like she does.” Mason beams and shakes my shoulder in a manly congratulatory fashion, and I catch his innuendo. I lightly punch his shoulder back.

? “Alright fuckers, let’s get to work.” They both giggle like high school girls, and Gabe cranks up the music at the front of the room. He teams up with Jameson. Mason and I head over to the squatting station.

After a few sets, I’m feeling great. My ribs aren’t talking back too much, and I’ve already managed to add some more to my weight limit for squats. Hopefully my leg press situation will be similar. I’m surprised because, shit, my legs got one hell of a workout these past couple of days. I was seriously dreading leg day.

I ignore Trevor. I don’t give a flying fuck if he overheard that Kate loves me. He glared at me the entire session, but he can suck my left nut. He will not steal my joy. I’ve waited so long to exchange those three little words with my girl.

The guys all have my back, and someone is always between Trevor and me in order to keep any repeats of last week from reoccurring, Jace being the only exception. He’s wary of Trevor, but he’s not privy to the extent of what that fucker’s been up to. Since he hangs with him, we all concluded he might be more of a liability. We won’t chance him possibly opening his trap and saying something to tip Trevor off that we are onto him.

When I get out of the shower, I go to grab my clothes but notice my bag has already been opened and rummaged through. My shirt is missing. So is my glove. Mason sees me glaring at my bag and asks what’s wrong.

“My glove and shirt are gone.” I look under the bench. Mason’s lips are pursed in annoyance as we both start opening random lockers. He checks the trash. I check the toilets. Nothing. We start moving section by section of lockers when Gabe hollers out.

“Somebody missing half a shirt?”

Mason and I roll our eyes and walk toward where Gabe is in the back. He gestures to the floor with his finger, but his eyes are zoned in on the back corner bench of the locker room. His lips are cast in a thin line as he squints at something.

“You missing a glove too?” Gabe asks grimly.

My stomach drops when I look toward where his eyes are planted. My glove lies in pieces on the far bench. We all approach the area cautiously to survey the damage. The air is charged with our collective inhales.

“Are we having a party back here or something? What the hell?...” Jameson walks between Mason and I up to the glove Kate’s dad bought me the summer before my senior year. My blood boils, and I look around the locker room.

“He left bout ten minutes ago,” Gabe remarks, his eyes not leaving the glove.

“Landon?” Mason questions, resting his hand on my shoulder.

“Kate’s dad got me that glove for my senior year. He died that winter,” I deadpan. Anger and fear swirl in my gut.

“Maybe we can fix it?” Mason walks up to it and reaches out to grab the glove, but Jameson stops him.

“Let me get a few pictures first. You know, just in case we need them later.” He pulls out his phone and snaps a few from different angles. He definitely picked the right major. Criminal justice suits him.

“She still in class?” Gabe looks up at me, worry written across his features. I nod once harshly and look back down at the mess. The laces have all been torn out of my glove, its fingers splayed wide, clearly pointed up to display the word, “ MINE”. It’s spelled out messily with the ripped-out laces. I gulp back the bile trying to rise in my throat.

“That’s fucked up...” Mason whispers and starts cleaning up the mess. He carries it back to my bag. He throws me an extra shirt he had in his locker. “ MINE”... the word echoes sinisterly in my mind. Over my dead body .

“C’mon, let’s get to campus and get eyes on her.” He looks just as anxious as I feel. It snaps me out of my stupor. I throw on the shirt, once again thankful that Mason always seems to have a spare of something.

Gabe and Jameson are waiting by the door for us. We all walk in silence to the lot, eyes scanning our surroundings, to ditch the bags in our trucks.

“There’s the other half of your shirt.” Mason calls out when he reaches his truck close to where I’m parked.

The shirt is tucked around my handle. When I pull it out gently, the writing unfurls in big, black sharpied letters. “ MINE!”

“Fuck!” I hiss between my teeth. Jameson snaps another picture before we toss our shit inside and head back toward campus. We discuss schedules and split up watch duties. Not a single one of them tries to make up an excuse to not help out. They see what I see, and they know what she means to me. I’d do the same for any of them and their girls.

Gabe and Mason send texts out to Melissa and Sarah telling them vaguely to keep eyes out for Trevor. They’ll know something is up, but they don’t want to get into details and scare them.

“The girls are planning on going shopping for costumes for the campus parties Wednesday night after they get done with classes today,” Gabe shares.

“I’ll tag along. They’re used to me being around anyways,” Mason throws out.

“You think that’s a smart idea? Letting them still go?” Jameson questions nobody in particular.

“I will not lock her up and have her live in fear of him. I don’t think she’d let me anyways.” I chuckle because my girl has quite the independent streak.

“Okay, but she doesn’t leave our sights,” Jameson states, as if that was ever a possibility in the first place.

Kate

I’m sitting in Theology class listening to the professor drone on about Plato when my phone starts buzzing like mad in my purse. Grabbing it, I see that Landon texted me to let me know that Mason was tagging along costume shopping with the girls this afternoon. That’s not weird to me. It’s a pretty typical thing having him bustling in and out of whatever we girls are up to whether it be to steal a kiss or plop up his feet and ‘chill with the ladies’. What is weird is that Landon is letting me know that he’s coming.

? That can only mean that something’s up and Mason is there for more than merely a hangout. He’s on watch duty. Fucking Trevor...

? I see that I have twenty-seven other messages waiting to be opened. My stomach twists in knots when I see they just happen to be from Trevor.

? Trevor: You should be with me.

? Trevor: Me not him.

? Trevor: You’ll see.

? Trevor: You’ll see Kristy meant nothing. She was just fun. I don’t want her anymore.

Trevor: I want you.

Trevor: You belong with me.

Trevor: Why won’t you talk to me?

Trevor: You’re going to be mine.

Trevor: We will discuss this, and you will see how much you want me back.

Trevor: MINE!

Trevor: MINE!

Trevor: MINE!

My hands shake as I continue reading through the next fifteen texts from him. I don’t think I will ever be able to see or hear the word ‘mine’ without thinking of Trevor again. I look out the windows of the classroom, suddenly nervous that I’m going to see him standing under a tree watching me Michael Myers style. Fucking Halloween. Only adds to my already tight-as-coiled-barbed wire nerves.

I sigh in relief, snickering quietly at my fraidy-cat antics, when I don’t see Michael Myers or Trevor outside ominously staring at me.

Me: Is everything okay?

Landon: ....It’ll be okay. You’re safe.

Me: He’s texting me again. It’s not great. I’ll show you when I get home later.

Landon: Damnit...okay. Don’t answer him. It won’t do any good. Don’t delete them either. We may need proof of them later.

My stomach drops at the thought we may have to take this to the police. I know, at this point, it’s pointless. They won’t do anything. I hate to think of what it might take for them to step in.

Me: That scares me.

Landon: Me too.

Me: I’ve been wracking my brain for weeks. I can’t think of a single thing that I said to him that would warrant this kind of behavior. Okay, I take that back, one thing. When I told him in the library that I wasn’t ‘his’. I don’t think that was anything out of sorts though. Any girl would react that way.

Landon: You didn’t do or say anything wrong, Kate. This is on him. Something is wrong with him.

Kate: I promise, I didn’t lead him on.

Landon: I know, sweetheart.

Kate: 3 3 3

Landon: xoxoxo

I get through the rest of my classes with zero Trevor sightings. Afterward, I meet Sarah and Melissa at the coffee shop for a pick-me-up and for a much-needed shopping trip to find our costumes. Mason meets us at Sarah’s car.