Page 27 of They Break Beauty

Then he’d gone and thrown me for a loop. His friends too, from what I’d observed and overheard that night.

I didn’t want to uproot my life yet again and start all over somewhere else.

At least not until I had my degree. Until I was ready for the next chapter.

I wanted to settle here for a while. Have some stability.

But with him being here, it put all that in jeopardy.

Unless I could get him off my radar, get him far away from me.

If we only passed by on the way to classes, I might be able to handle that.

But any more than that and it would be difficult for me to continue as I had been without what seeing him again represented to me—pain and darkness.

“Admit that you remember me.”

No.

I couldn’t.

I wouldn’t.

Not to him.

And especially not to myself.

I rose from the bench and slung my bag over my shoulder, making my way around the edge of the quad away from everybody else, including the foursome who were tossing a freaking football around right in the middle that was flying through the air like a missile with those playing clearly having no idea what the hell they were doing. They’d already smacked a poor passerby’s coffee out of their hand.

I didn’t get very far before a shock of platinum-blond suddenly filled my vision, making me pull up short.

I jolted and abruptly found myself face-to-face with none other than Colton Sharp.

He shoved a hand through his wavy mohawk and grinned at me.

Oh no.

What the hell did he want?

It had to be wishful thinking to hope it was just a coincidence that a friend of Levi’s who had never said more than a word to me last year had walked right up to me out of the blue.

He was dressed in his usual rocker chic way with his heavily-studded black leather jacket, a pair of tight navy jeans with what looked like a scarf covered in skulls as a belt and a partially shier metallic looking tee beneath.

“Can I help you?” I asked, hiding the edge that was just beneath the surface.

If I’d actually taken my normal route through the much more visible and populated areas of campus, then this wouldn’t have even been possible. His popularity and star power would have ensured there were tons of students swarming around him.

The only time I’d ever seen that not happen was when he was with Mason Hall. Although, he was often just a silent observer in crowded situations, he had an eerie edge to him and a threatening sort of presence that managed to keep people away without him needing to say a thing.

“Well?” I pushed, when he just continued standing there and roaming his eyes over me in an oddly studious way, some sort of curiosity sparking as he did.

My black hair was loosely curled today and falling about my shoulders and I was clad in my pink houndstooth jacket and matching mini-skirt, along with a silk scoop neck tank beneath and a pair of black knee-high boots.

“I need your voice.”

I started. “My… what?”

“Your voice,” he repeated, as though the ask wasn’t the least bit odd.

---