Page 2 of Psycho

Travis ignored my question; he was doing a lot of that tonight, apparently. “Go downstairs, make sure she doesn’t come up here. I have to figure out what to say to get her to leave and go home, or back to wherever it is she came from.” He let out a frustrated sigh, scrolling through what I guessed were messages. Ash’s messages. His blue eyes scanned the phone quickly.

“Travis,” I started, not liking being kept in the dark.

The look he gave me right then and there stopped me cold. It was a dangerous, wild look. A look that told me if I didn’t go downstairs right this instant and do as he said, he’d be liable to rip my head straight off my body.

My throat became dry when I realized: Travis was worried about Ash, too. That didn’t bode well at all. If it was so bad even Travis was worried…

I said nothing else as I turned to walk out of the room. I made it to the door when I heard Sawyer moan about needing more, and Travis’s stern voice muttered a low, “No, you don’t, fucker.”

I paused near the door, looking back at the two guys who used to be my friends. Sawyer was either drunk off his mind or high as a kite—or maybe both. He was so out of it, his words were so slurred, he was barely comprehensible. And Travis…Travis wore a darkness that I never noticed before, a blackness that didn’t stem from the massive dragon tattoo on his left arm or the tribal design on his right. Someone else might be afraid of Travis and that dark scowl, but I wasn’t.

Right now, the only person I was afraid for was Ash.

Going down the stairs, I found Kelsey slumped over on the couch, her face in her hands, her phone sitting beside her on the next cushion. Her brown hair was a mess, covered in sweat. She’d looked better, definitely.

I sat beside her, making sure to put enough space between us. Truly, the only girl I felt good about comforting was Ash. Did that make me a terrible person? “What happened?” I asked. “Where’s Ash?”

“What happened?” Kelsey echoed, slowly bringing her watery gaze to me. In her dark eyes, I saw heartbreak and regret. They shook as she told me, “What happened is I’m the worst friend ever, Declan. What happened is I fucked up royally, and now Ash is so pissed at me, she’s not even responding. I couldn’t find her at the party. I…fucked up so bad.” Fresh tears streamed down her face.

Ash ran away again. Great. So why the hell were we sitting here? Why weren’t we out there looking for her? That girl had a habit of running when things got tough…

But wait. What did Kelsey do?

Since I was apparently the only one not at the party, I asked, “What did you do?”

“I followed my fifteen-year-old self’s dreams and fucked a vampire,” she choked out. “But that vampire turned out to be Sawyer.” Kelsey lifted a shaking arm, pointing to the stairwell. “Then that one somehow found us, and…”

And brought them here. Led them here, whatever. I could piece the rest of it together.

“I fucked up royally,” Kelsey was busy saying. “I should’ve seen the look on her face, but I was too in the moment. I didn’t realize—”

“It’s not your fault,” I told her. “You didn’t know.”

“I am the worst friend in the world,” she said. “The worst.” Kelsey was going to say more, but her phone dinged, and as I peered down at it, I saw that Ash’s name lit up the screen.

Ash, AKA Travis texting as Ash.

Kelsey read the message, a look of pure misery on her face. “She went home with someone. She…she wants me to go home.” Her shoulders began to shake even more as she added, “She says she needs time, that she can’t even think about looking at me right now.” She burst into tears again, and this time I felt even more uncomfortable.

I watched as Kelsey stood up, pacing the length of the living room, trying to call Ash’s phone yet again.

“Fuck,” Kelsey muttered, lowering her phone. “Straight to voicemail. What the hell am I supposed to do?” Her dark eyes looked to me, and I met her stare, knowing what Travis would want me to say, knowing what he’d want me to do.

“I think,” I started, getting to my feet, “that I should take you to the dorm, let you in so you can get your stuff.” Even though Kelsey already knew what I was about to say next, I still said it anyway, “And I think you should go.”

Kelsey sniffed, letting out a shaky breath. “But what if she…”

“You know how she is,” I said, not saying it. Hot-headed. Foolish. Stubborn. Ash was a lot of things, and if Kelsey was her friend, she knew it, too. “If she doesn’t want to see you, she’ll make sure to stay away until you’re gone. I think it’s best to leave now so she can come back.” I was talking about something I had no clue about, because, let me emphasis this, I had no idea where Ash was.

Did she really run away with a guy? Did she go home with a guy to have her own one-night stand because she was upset with Kelsey for sleeping with Sawyer?

If…if she was upset with her friend for that, it meant Ash had feelings for him. I knew she felt something for Travis, but Sawyer? God, everything just couldn’t be easy when it came to Ash, could it?

Ash liking Sawyer was not something I wanted to think about. Not something I could let myself think about while the man himself was out of it upstairs. Not while she was gone, off the rails.

“If she…if she talks to you about it, will you…” Kelsey blinked, shaking her head. “Just let me know when she comes home, please. I need to know that she’s safe, that I didn’t push her to do something stupid.” Her lower lip trembled, and I was honestly amazed at the emotion showing on her face.

Ash usually hid her emotions. She was so unlike Kelsey in every way.

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