Page 217 of Vile Boys

I climbup to her room at her sorority and peer inside. I’m surprised she’s already made her way back here.

Has she spoken with them and told them about our dirty secrets?

Did she tell anyone what we’ve made her do?

I stare at her as she’s curled up in her bed, clutching her pillowtightly.

Her soft whimpers break my heart.

I place a hand against the window, contemplating whether to break through just so I can hold her tight.

But I know she’d only drive that knife of hers straight through my heart just for touching her.

She hates us now …

Not because of my actions but because I can’t let her kill him.

When I first met her, I thought I wanted her to hate me. Because I was terrified of Ares’s obsession with her, of losing him to her. But I slowly came to realize he wasn’t the only one obsessed.

All I ever wanted was for her to be mine.

And when her mother came between us, I felt lost, confused, angry that she’d let it happen. I blamed her for my feelings when my heart was the one that had chained itself to her.

The one constant between us is Ares.

I love him, and he loves me …

But I love her too.

And he ruined that for me.

My hand slowly twists into a fist against the window, but I can’t bring myself to act.

She wouldn’t want me to. She made that very clear.

So I swallow away the frustration and slowly back away despite the burning flame inside my body, realizing she was destroyed by the one I love.

And with it, he destroyed me too.

CRYSTAL

I’m studying in the library, determined to make sure I at least succeed in my studies despite not being present for any of the classes these past couple of days.

I’m already glad the girls at Alpha Psi didn’t continue asking questions after I told them I’d been gone for a few days to camp in the woods with my mother.

It was only a half lie, but I felt bad about lying nonetheless.

Not to mention the fact that those Tartarus guys kept me from so much schoolwork.

Too much is at stake here. I promised my dad I would succeed. I’ve already disappointed my father in one aspect. I can’t risk this too.

But damn, those assholes really got the best of me.

I’m trying to keep my mind focused on the books because I really need to ace these tests that I have coming up, but it’s really hard when I know one of those boys, Caleb, is also in this very same room.

And I don’t want to turn around and see if he’s staring at me.

I grumble to myself and read the same sentence over and over. But every time I try to home in on some paragraphs, I hear his voice,and it makes me turn my head.

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