Page 28 of Destroying Everleigh

Amber shot him a flirty little smile as she took her seat, and I grumbled my dislike about the entire thing while simultaneously dropping into mine. My hands twitched as I reached for my binder and placed it on the table along with a few pens.

Professor Whitlock took the front of the room, going on and on about what we’d be doing this semester. “Teaming up with your group outside of class is highly encouraged, as you won’t get a lot of time to do it here,” she said, throwing her hands around animatedly.

I’d been excited for my second year of college up until I saw Ashton’s face. To make matters worse, I didn’t only have to deal with his bullshit in class, but we had to work outside of here, too. It wasn’t that I hated him. I could just tell that he hated me, and it made me uncomfortable. Especially after my run-in with Jameson and Kash at the ice cream shop. What would they have done to me if they’d managed to get me into that truck? My throat tightened at the thought, and I forced the imagery away.

Amber grinned, not even bothering to hide her excitement. “Looks like we’ll be working extremely close this year,” she said, looking at Ashton to gauge his reaction.

“Seems so.” He smirked. I was practically seated across from him with how spaced out our chairs were, but I didn’t miss him extending his arm beneath the table, placing a hand on her bare thigh.

For a second, just a single momentary lapse in judgement, I wanted to claw her eyes out. She might have been my best friend, but he was the guy I thought I’d always be with. He took my virginity, gave me my first kiss,lovedme. Now he was touching her, flirting with her, right in front of me like what we had never fucking mattered. I couldn’t even be mad. Not logically anyways. I was the one who messed up; I was the one who cheated on him. And not with anyone, but his brother of all people, which still didn’t make sense to me. I’d never been attracted to Dakota—not like that. He was older, married even, and wasn’t nearly as good looking as his younger brother.

I’d just gotten the news about my mom’s terminal illness. I’d left my last class of the day early and heartbroken. I texted Ash,telling him that we needed to talk, and that I’d skipped school and would be at his house.

When I got there, his parents were gone, but his older brother wasn’t. So, I confided in him, explaining why I left school early. He offered me a drink. I only remembered taking the one, but I must have had more if it made methatdrunk. One moment, we were sitting on Ashton’s bed. The next, he was on top of me and our clothes were off. I remembered calling out Ashton’s name, thinking it was him for a moment. But when my vision adjusted for half a second, and I realized who it really was, I asked him to stop. He obviously didn’t if Ash walked in and caught us, but everything went black, meaning he had to have been fucking me while I was unconscious.

Acid burned the back of my throat at the memory. To this day, I didn’t know how I ended up in that situation. But Ashton didn’t care to know. He started shouting, jerking his brother from my body, which snapped me awake. A thick fog was weighing me down as I watched Ash throw the first punch. He beat his brother so badly, he had to go to the hospital. And then he rounded on me.

“You’re nothing but a fucking whore, Everleigh. I was a goddamn fool for thinking I could ever trust you,”he’d seethed.

And then he left.

The other day was the first time I’d seen him since then. To say it brought up all of those old emotions was the understatement of the century. I was half torn between grabbing him to make him hear me out and running in the opposite direction. I ended up going with the latter. Especially when he looked at me the way he had—like he wanted to burn me alive and piss on my ashes.

As if somehow sensing where my train of thought had wandered off to, Ash’s lips curled into a snarl. He probablythought I was over here fantasizing about his brother, but hell no I wasn’t.

If Chemistry was bad, then Biostatistics was even worse. Jameson and Kash were seated on the far right side when I entered, my stomach hollowing out when our eyes connected.

I was so used to the funny, outgoing version of Jameson, so when he shot me a lethal glare, it had my chest constricting. I shouldn’t have thought it would go any differently than my run-in with him yesterday had. He was an asshole on a mission. I dropped down near the front of the room, my heart beating a mile a minute. The boys I used to hold so closely to my heart all hated me. But I shouldn’t have thought it would be any different. After the incident, they all blocked me on everything.

I chewed on my lower lip nervously, the tension in the air so thick that it weighed on my shoulders. Part of me was mad that they didn’t at least ask my side of the story, but the other part of me knew it didn’t matter. If they had, I wasn’t sure what I’d tell them. That I’d been so drunk that I didn’t even know what was happening? It wasn’t a very good excuse.

It just hurt seeing them look at me the way they were.

Professor Marshall gave us our books today and had us go over the first chapter. My head was so scrambled that I couldn’t even concentrate, and I had to work tonight to top it all off.

The day dragged on agonizingly slowly, and I was about to head to my last class of the day when some random girl stopped me in the hall with an iced latte clasped between her manicured fingernails. She was pretty, with long orange hair, and a dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose. I’d never seen her before, so she must have been a freshman.

“Jameson wanted me to give you this,” she said, showing me the beverage in her hands.

I swallowed thickly. “Tell him to fuck off.”

She nodded, popping the lid off the cup. “He thought you’d say that.”

Before I even knew what was happening, she was throwing the drink on me. A gasp got lodged in my throat, the cold liquid seeping through my clothes and down my shirt.

Excited murmurs erupted all around me, my eyes locking with Briley’s down the hallway who just stood there like a deer in headlights. Not that I expected her to interfere. It didn’t concern her. I heard the flash of a few phone cameras, humiliation sending tremors through my body.

I shoved past the redhead making her stumble, but she just giggled as I stormed down the hallway. I was willing to let them have their little glaring contests and snide remarks, but to have someone throw a fucking drink on me? Low fucking blow.

I pushed through the bathroom door, grabbing a paper towel and soaking it in water. How was it that Jameson already had little bitches he could throw his dirty work off on? It was his first fucking day for crying out loud. But I suppose when you were as hot as he was, nothing was a challenge. Rage simmered beneath my skin as I glared at the light brown stains coating my white blouse. He wasn’t the only person with minions. I was captain of the soccer team, and Lucas was head of a goddamn fraternity, as well as captain of the boys’ soccer team. I’d never felt the need to ask for personal favors before because I didn’t view people like they were pawns. But shit if I wasn’t tempted.

I blew out a sigh, bracing my palms on the edge of the sink.

It was one thing after another. It felt like I was drowning in bullshit at this point, and I had a sinking feeling that with these assholes around, it was only going to get worse. It’s been over three years since me and Ash broke up, and they clearly haven’t let my betrayal go. I didn’t blame Ash, it probably hurt like a son of a bitch. But Jameson was acting like I betrayed him, too.

I needed to get my point across to Jamie that I wasn’t to be fucked with. He was screwing with my schooling at this point, and it wasn’t okay. Getting my degree was my ticket out of here. My ticket to save my family.

Tearing my blouse from my body, I tucked it into my bag and peered into the mirror. Wearing a sports bra to class wasn’t ideal, but at least my professor can say that I tried when they inevitably told me to go home.

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