Page 3 of Drown in You

“Fuck,” Stephen hisses.

But Marcus doesn’t budge from his position on top of me. “Stay out of this, Juliet.”

She glowers at him. Half his size but completely unafraid. Nothing scares Juliet. “Get the fuck off her, Marcus. Now.”

“How the fuck are you still taking her side?” His lip curls into a snarl. “You were there that night. You know exactly what happened.”

Juliet steps closer, emerging from the darkness beyond Stephen and Kade. While most adults still confuse me for a high school student, no one expects Juliet to be any younger than twenty-five. If not for the youthful tautness of her skin, most would note her regal posture and the lift to her chin and expect her to be the CEO of a multimillion-dollar company, not a college student. A goth queen in a short black skirt, inky thigh-high socks, and an unzipped jacket. In her hurry to get to me, she didn’t have time to slip on her usual array of white gold jewelry.

People respect her. Fear her, even. She’s the only reason I’m not already dead.

“Sienna was just trying to be a good friend. It was a mistake.”

I squeeze my eyes shut. A mistake. A mistake I didn’t know I was making until it was too late.

“What were you going to do?” Juliet demands. “Rape her?”

“Of course not,” Marcus spits. “I wanted to scare the shit out of her.”

He finally slides off me and fresh tears spill down my cheeks. This time in relief.

The flashlight from Juliet’s phone lands on my face. “It looks like you did a lot more than that.”

Pain from the strike against my temple radiates down to my eye now. When my fingertips graze delicately over the skin, it’s already swollen.

“She deserved it,” Kade hisses. “She ruined our boy’s life.”

“Really?” Juliet’s glare burns a hole in Kade’s skull. “Because it seems like he’s trying to ruin it himself by getting thrown in prison.”

Stephen laughs, tossing my phone onto the ground beside me. But every part of me aches too much to reach for it. “Like the cops will ever lock him up for something he does to her.”

“Want to find out?” Juliet’s threat almost convinces me she believes the cops would actually give a shit. That anyone in this town would choose me over the golden boys.

Maybe if Marcus wasn’t here, Stephen and Kade wouldn’t let her stop them. But Marcus won’t let anything happen to Juliet. She didn’t cause this mess.

I did.

Not to mention, it’s Juliet’s parents paying for Marcus’s medical bills and physical therapy.

“Juliet—” he starts to protest.

“Get out of here, Marcus.”

His jaw clenches, but he hobbles past her. He’ll never move as fast as he used to. Never again be the star quarterback. Never play in the NFL.

Because of me.

I ruined his life. I stole his future.

When the football players finally retreat into the darkness, I spit up blood. Every part of me aches, stomach and legs and head crying out in agony. Now that the terror is subsiding, the pain grows unbearable.

This won’t be the last time. Next time will be worse. Next time, I might not survive what they do to me.

Juliet crouches, her dark boots inches from my nose. Her long, black hair streaked with shocks of red is tamed into a side braid, freshly wet from the shower. Her blue eyes roam over me, examining my injuries while her hand rubs soothing strokes over my shoulder.

She bites her lip. For perhaps the first time in her life, Juliet is scared. “You can’t stay here, Sienna.”

“I know,” I whisper.

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