Page 26 of Breaking You Open

In case you need me.The words are stuck at the back of my head. I want to hear them again, and I want Louis to take the truth of my answer to heart. Idoneed him, but how do I convince him he needs me too?

Despite the many stares I get, I manage to survive walking into the lecture hall. The rest of the day passes by, and as promised, Louis comes to meet me after class. I resist the urge to run toward him and jump into his arms, and instead we make our way to the dorms in quiet.

If people stared when he dropped me off by the lecture buildings, it’s nothing compared to the looks we get in the hallways. One girl even drops her books when we walk past, eyes wide as she stares at Louis’s towering form striding next to me.

I can’t wait to get out of here as soon as possible. If we’re lucky, Lilith will still be in class.

But of course, we aren’t that lucky.

I open the door to the dorm room, and my jaw drops at what we walk in on.

Lilith is straddling a guy on the bed, making out passionately, her only clothes a black lacy bra and a checkered miniskirt.

Her gaze flips toward us in a glare. “Haven’t you ever learned how to knock?” she snarls, and she jumps off the bed but makes no move to put her top on.

The guy on the bed gets to his feet. He runs a hand through his wild mass of curly blond locks, flashing a charming smile. He has the same jaded, half-lidded look in his eyes that Aaron used to get when smoking weed with his friends.

“I’m Asher,” he says, holding a hand out to me.

“Sparrow,” I say, taking it.

“These your friends or what?” he asks Lilith.

“This one sure isn’t.” She points at Louis with a sharp black fingernail. “What the fuck is he doing here?”

Louis leans against the door, leather vest creaking as he crosses his arms. “You just worry about getting your clothes back on, little girl.”

“What the fuck are you doing with him, Sparrow?” Lilith snaps. “I thought I told you he’s sketchy as fuck. Is this why you haven’t answered my texts?”

“I’m just here to get my things.” True to my words, I grab my laptop and toiletries and stuff them into the backpack that, thanks to Aaron, is already half-full of clothes.

“For what?” Lilith asks, eyes narrow.

“Then I’ll be out of here.”

She stares at me, then at Louis, and her eyes widen in understanding. “Out!” she yells. “Both of you.” She herds Asher and Louis toward the door. “Sparrow and I need to have a little talk.”

“Um…” I start to sweat. Louis sends me a questioning look, and I nod at him. “It’s okay.”

Louis and Asher disappear into the hallway. Lilith turns to me and crosses her arms, still dressed in her lacy bra.

“What the fuck happened last night?” she hisses. “When I got here this morning, my mirror was shattered in a million pieces. Looked like someone had broken in or something.”

“Uh…” How the hell do I explain to her that my ex broke in and tried to kidnap me back to my hometown?

“Well? You could at least have answered my texts. I was worried sick, you know,” she adds with an overdramatic flip of her hair.

If she was really that worried, why was she making out with a guy in our dorm room with seemingly no care in the world?

“Can you keep a secret?” I ask, trying to ignore the discomforted feeling Lilith always seems to leave me with.

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, sure.”

“I had a fight with someone.”

“A fight? You?” Her gaze travels up and down my body in a way I’ve learned to hate. Happens all the time—people underestimating and mocking me because of my short build and slight frame.

“With my ex,” I clarify, not in the mood to explain any further, but if I’ve read Lilith correctly so far, she won’t let me off the hook until I’ve told her everything.

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