Page 36 of Treacherous

He didn’t look proud.

He didn’t look anything really.

He stared emotionlessly as I came towards him with my trashed guitar.

"You're jumping to conclusions, Thorn," Noah said coolly, about two seconds before I smashed my broken guitar over his head.

Well, I had aimed for his head but he was a lot taller than me so I connected with his shoulder instead. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Ellie and her friends standing a few feet to the side of us.

"Goddammit, Teagan, calm down," Noah snarled as he jerked to his feet and grabbed me by my arms. "Stop it."

"You're a cruel, heartless bastard," I screamed, tears pooling in my eyes, as I shoved free from his hold and lunged for him.

"And you're a hypocritical little bitch who jumps to conclusions," Noah roared, chest heaving, clearly livid, as he glared down at me. "You automatically assumeIdid this."

"You're a foregone conclusion, asshole," I hissed as I scratched and slapped every part of him I could reach.

Someone grabbed me from behind and lifted me away from Noah kicking and screaming. I realized that someone was Colton when he whispered, "Calm down, Beautiful," in my ear.

I tried to break free from Colt but quickly gave up when I realized his arms were like bands of steel around my body. All of a sudden I felt so defeated that the fight went out of me and then I did something I really hated doing.

I cried.

I heard Colt sigh heavily before turning me and wrapping his arms around me.

Hope, who was standing nearby, stepped forward and picked up what was left of Martin before turning to Noah. "Did you do this to Teagan's guitar, Noah?" she asked him in a level tone.

"No, Hope. To put the record straight I didn’t do it," he snarled as he wiped blood from his cheek – where I'd scratched him, I realized. Noah looked over Hope's head and stared directly into my eyes. "But I wish like hell I had."

****

I ended up with a week's worth of detention for my outburst in the parking lot – which I thought was pure crap considering Noah wasn’t even reprimanded for his part. Apparently broken guitars didn’t constitute as a good enough motive to attack a fellow pupil – regardless of how much sentimental value they had.

The principal had even gone as far as calling Uncle Max into school for a meeting about mybehavioral issues, so along with a week's detention I was also grounded and car-less.

I'd tried to explain to Max the reason why I reacted the way I did, but apparently I was too old to throwtantrumsand until I could get my violent urges under control I could walk my ass to school and back.

On top of all that I was currently trending on most social media platforms. One of Ellie's disciples had recorded the whole damn thing and uploaded it to the internet. So yeah, between the damn online video and rumors raging about me at school, my day had gone from bad to disastrous.

Hope texted me after Uncle Max left for work, inviting me over for dinner, but I lied and told her I'd already eaten. Within minutes I felt like a horrible human being and decided to bite the bullet – and break my grounding.

There's no such thing as ghosts…

There's no such thing as ghosts…

There's no such thing as ghosts…

That was my mantra as I stood outside Hope's red-bricked house with my finger on the doorbell.

No one answered so I rang it again and again, and then I let my mind wander therefore completely psyching myself out.

It was Halloween night, pitch black outside and I hated the dark, truly detested it, so when the front door opened inwards after ten minutes of constant knocking, and I was greeted by baby Carter, I bolted inside without a second thought for the ghosts – or an invitation.

"Come on in," Logan chuckled as he closed the door behind me.

I swung around to apologize to him for my lack of manners, but quickly turned my head again when I saw he was dressed only in a pair of gray sweatpants – which, by the way, totally complemented his gray eyes.

What the hell was it with these boys?

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