Page 159 of Collided

Marie and Hope’s voices fill the hallway.

Derek smirks at us. “I guess you two will be just fine.”

Marie enters the room first and curses. Hope looks at Sebastian and then at me.

“What the hell happened here?” Marie approaches us, dragging Hope along with her.

Putting her hands on her hips she sizes up the two of us. “I left for twenty minutes and you two look like you had a wrestling match of your own.”

“Yours truly started it,” I grumble.

“And you nicely reciprocated,” Marie rebukes me and I shut up.

“Look babe, I’m sorry. I swear—Ah!” Sebastian holds his jaw, his face morphing into pain.

“Sit your ass down right now.”

Ignoring the three of them, I take the stairs. Derek passes me in the hallway with a questioning look, but I spare him no glance.

In my bathroom, I remove my shirt that’s stuck to my skin because of sweat. Leaving my pants on I look in the mirror and find a few bruises on my stomach.

Asshole. I hope I left some on him, too. Though Marie would be on my ass for hurting him.

My split lip is bleeding, and my knuckles are scraped.

There are a hundred ways this evening could’ve gone, but none of them involved Sebastian and me fighting like animals. He landed good hits. Not that I’d ever tell him that.

My phone vibrates on the nightstand. I see Mom’s name flashing across the screen. She’s called me ten times today, but not once I felt the desire to hear her voice. While Dad hasn’t called me yet, I know he will. He calls me every day even when I don’t pick up.

There’s a knock. No one will have the courage to face me right now. Everyone knows I’m in a bad mood and won’t hesitate to bite their head off.

I fling open the door, ready to yell, but the sight of Hope stops me.

She’s wearing the same dress. White summer dress with strawberries on it. It fits her tall, skinny figure perfectly and ends a few centimeters below her knees leaving her long legs exposed. She’s wearing sandals, earrings, and her bracelets.

She looks beautiful. Just like she did when she stepped out of the bookstore and stole my breath away. She was everything my eyes wanted to see, and so did my heart.

Hope blushes and her eyes wander all over my upper body. I look down and realize I’m half-naked.

I clear my throat, and she meets my eyes.

“What are you doing here?” My temper gets the best of me.

Hope doesn’t look offended. After my afternoon outburst, I can’t fathom how she’s here. I made her cry, for fuck’s sake. I feel awful about it. It’s why I’ve decided I should stay away from her. I want to hurt a lot of people, but she’s not one of them. Intentionally or unintentionally, I never want to be the person who makes her cry. For fuck’s sake, when she cries it’s like acid seeps into my skin and burns me.

“I thought you might need some help,” she says.

She doesn’t give up.

“I don’t need help. I’m fine.” Turning around, I walk back into the bathroom, not expecting her to follow me. I can’t be alone in peace even on my birthday. Who the fuck did I piss off?

“You should go,” I say, leaning against the sink and folding my arms over my chest.

“I will after I clean your wounds.”

“You’re stubborn.”

Hope doesn’t reply. Instead, she looks through the cabinets until she finds the first aid kit.

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