Page 102 of Broken Bonds

“Did that happen at the party?” His eyes flickered to my cast and then to my face, a frown tugging at his lips.

“Yeah, I tripped.” The lie fell so easily, and I hated it. Was I becoming one of those girls? “Were you there last night?” Swinging my bag over my shoulder, I walked out of the room with him, holding the conversation.

“Saw the whole thing between you and Scott,” he muttered, making me halt at the exit of the room.

My heart slammed against my breastbone, anxiety swirling in my gut. “What do you mean?”

An uncomfortable look passed over his face as he scratched the back of his neck, his eyes shifting around. “You didn’t trip, that’s for sure. He pushed you.” My defenses rose automatically. Nobody needed to know the truth—only me and Julian. Nobody would understand.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” I looked away from him and continued through the big double doors. He grabbed my good wrist, whirling me around to face him.

“He’s done this before, and he’ll do it again, Wilson. Get away from him while you can still walk.” Fear crawled through the pit of my stomach at the warning. Questions circled my brain, but as I opened my mouth to ask what he meant, I was roughly pulled into someone’s arms.

“Get your fucking hands off my girlfriend, Baker.” Julian’s voice floated past my ear, his threat directed at the football player. My wide eyes remained on Baker as he held his hands up in surrender before walking away with a shrug.

“Not worth my time, Scott,” he said over his shoulder before disappearing into the crowd.

Julian turned me around to face him, his brown eyes looking over my face and then down to my arm. “How’s the wrist, clumsy?”

I bit back a scowl, not wanting to put him in a bad mood. “Sore. Why weren’t you in class? We have a quiz tomorrow.”

He shrugged like missing the quiz today and missing out on the information he needed for tomorrow’s quiz was no big deal. It irked my nerves. “Hangover from last night. That party was wild, huh?”

The party was… wild? “I guess.”

“I went back after Amber picked you up from the hospital.” I wanted to punch him. “Totally sucked you couldn’t join me.” Red hot fury rippled through me.

“You broke my wrist, Julian, so of course, I couldn’t come back to the party!” His hand covered my mouth when I started screaming at him, his eyes darkening. Alarms rang in my head as he glared down at me.

“Shut up. The entire student body doesn’t need to know about how you tripped and fell after pulling away fromme!” he said loudly so everyone could hear.

Heads turned to look at us, and I hid my flushed face with my hair as I glared at him. “Julian, what the?—”

“Don’t swear at me, Celine.” Anger and malice flashed in his eyes, and I took a step back, shocked. “I’ll see you later.” He turned, leaving me in the spotlight as everyone watched the star quarterback leave his girlfriend in the hall after having averyloud fight.

“He said what?” Amber whispered in our next class together, her head bent next to mine as I told her about our fight. Shooting a glance at our professor, who hadn’t looked away from the board, I continued spilling what happened, needing to get it out of my system.

“He went back to the party after the hospital.”

“What the hell?” she exclaimed, getting the attention of the girls sitting in front of us. “Don’t look at us,” she whispered before turning her wide, green eyes back to me and frowning.

“Everyone was staring at us, Amber. It was so embarrassing.” She frowned, anger and sadness washing over her features.

“Just break up with him already. It’s becoming toxic. He’s no good for you, Celine.”

I sighed. “I really like him. I just don’t know who this version of him is. Maybe he’s just stressed about football and school. You know he has to keep up his grades to keep the scholarship.” Amber nodded, her eyes calculating before she turned her head to the professor, who just called her name.

The week passed by slowly, with no sign of Julian and no more secret warnings from Baker. Baker had arrived in class the next day with a black eye and wouldn’t even look at me. I knew Julianwas the reason for the black eye, and I saw the fear in Baker every time I came near him, so I stayed away.

There was a game Friday night, and Julian usually invited me every Thursday by giving me a jersey to wear with his name on it. So, I waited patiently for Thursday, my apology ready. I missed him and our late-night talks.

On Thursday, I woke up a little earlier and spent extra time on my makeup and outfit. I wanted to look pretty for Julian. I wanted to see him smile when he saw me because I knew he would come to class today… class he’d missed all week.

Today, my dad was giving me a ride to class on his way to work. I hadn’t driven yet with my broken wrist since my doctor advised against it for a few weeks. I was already starting to miss the Jeep. My parents had been horrified to find out my wrist had been broken while they were gone and I hadn’t told them.

They came home the night before, immediately becoming upset when they saw my broken wrist. I was careful to tell them it was my fault because I tripped over my own feet and fell. I hated lying to them, but I didn’t want them to hate Julian for an accident.

“Have a good day, squirt!” Dad called as I jumped from his truck with a smile and started walking to my first class with Amber. She was already sitting in the room, sipping on a Starbucks drink, her nose in that damn phone again.

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