Page 244 of Out of Bounds

“Ryan!” Adam’s shout followed me.

I closed the door after me but a smirk met me behind the receptionist’s desk. I stared at him, dumbfounded, as he pushed up his glasses.

“I need to go upstairs,” I told him.

There was no way they only had one front desk employee, but it was the same guy, every time. Fucking every time. And the look on his face told me everything. I had a better chance at a lottery ticket than I did taking that elevator.

The words blurted out of me. "I need to get upstairs.”

He shrugged. "You are no longer allowed in this building. The chickens have come to roost."

"No. She wouldn’t—she wouldn’t do that to me."

"Sir, you areno longerallowed in this building."

My mind raced through all possible scenarios and I shook my head, trying to think straight. I fucked up, I did, but now I needed to apologize. I needed to make it right, and everything would be okay. It would be. It had to be. Any alternative was too painful to think about.

"Please," I rasped. "I just need ten minutes, I just need to see her."

"I have pepper spray."

Fuck, I’d take getting pepper sprayed.

The doors burst open and I heard them behind me before I even saw them. A hand went to my shoulder and I shook him off as quick as I could.

“I need to see Kassie,” I insisted.

“Captain.” Adam dug his hand into my shoulder. Both Adam and King dragged me back to the door. I could’ve fought them off if I wanted but I was still in shock and I didn’t know what to do about it.

“Leave thepremisesor I will be calling the police!”

“We got it!” King shouted back and the two of them brought me to the sidewalk.

I shook my head and took a walk back to the dorm. “I need to see her.”

“No, you don’t,” Adam told me and made long strides in front of me. “Dude. Stop. You have to havesomeidea how this looks. How the cameras are going to see it.”

“Fuckthe cameras—”

“Captain,” King said, his voice low, and stopped me too. “Take a breath.”

“I need to talk to her.”

King shook his head. “No,Ryan.”

Next to him, Adam snapped his fingers and grabbed me by the jacket. “Hey? Ryan, listen to me. Kassie wouldn’t like it. You know how she is, she wouldn’t be cool with this at all. Look at me. She wouldn’t be down for this.”

My eyes flickered off to the dorm and back to him. “Kassie wouldn’t like it?”

“No.”

King nodded in agreement and I was left looking back and forth between them, fucked up. I shook my head. “What am I supposed to do?”

“First of all, we need to get the fuck out of here.” Adam pushed me back to walk the opposite direction but I couldn’t look away from her dorm. She was up there and Ihurther. I had to show her how sorry I was.

I started walking back towards the dorm and the guys grabbed my shoulders, yanking me back.

“What am I supposed to do?” I asked them, dumbfounded. “What am I supposed to do?”

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