Page 139 of Scrimmage

“How about Koda?”

“Really? Are we going to keep returning to this?”

“You will,” she snickers. “Cause he’s coming here with Alexi.”

“Fuckingwhat?”

The door flies open and the two assholes step through. Koda has a fucking know-it-all smirk on his face. “Hey, baby girl.”

“Don’t call me that,” I snarl.

“Woah, I’m too sober for the tension to be this high,” Alexi laughs, grabbing Penny’s bags.

“I can’t believe you. You fucking bitch,” I hiss.

Penny wraps me in a hug. “You can. Love you. Talk to you later. You can’t kill him because there’s no one to help you bury the body.” She practically skips out of the fucking house because she's so pleased with herself.

“Aren’t you going to the airport?” Koda asks.

“No.”

“Right. Emotions.”

His presence shoves all of the hurt to the side and manages to replace it with sarcastic anger. “You don’t know anything about emotions. Why are you here? Back for your sloppy seconds?”

“Oh, you’re mad about what I said to Cole when I punched him?” He looms over me then leans down, an inch away from my face. “You are my sloppy seconds, Ash. I know I’m yours.”

My breath quickens. What the fuck. “You’re nothing to me.”

He chuckles darkly. “I know you don’t believe that.”

He slaps something onto the counter. My eyes slowly roll to it. It takes me a minute to realize what it is. My missing sketch book. He fucking stole it. My lids widen in surprise then narrow with anger that could rival Satan’s. There are so many questions being eviscerated in my mental fire, but Koda interrupts them.

“Oh yeah, baby girl. I stole it. Why do you think I got you a new one?”

If it was possible, fire would be coming out of my mouth. He stole it. He gave me the new sketch book because he felt guilty. Maybe he wanted to psychoanalyze me and find ways to fuck with me further. Manipulative prick.

“I. Fucking.Hate. You.”

“So I was right. We aren’t nothing.”

I scream in frustration. “What is this? Some kind of blackmail?”

I know what’s drawn in there. My terrors. My heartbreaks. Evil drips from those pages as if they’re soaked in all of the blood that was spilled for years. Koda has seen all of that. I don’t know when he got this, but he’s such an asshole that I know he looked through it. He seems fucking pleased with himself.

I reach for it, trying to snatch it, and he smashes his hand on top of mine on the cover. “Not so fast.”

“What do you want?”

“You’re going to be my girlfriend.”

What? I’m shocked. I’m confused. I don’t even know what the fuck this feeling is. It’s angry and excited and uncomfortable all at once.

“The ‘roids have gotten to your head. You’re insane.”

He presses my body into the sink, the edge of the counter digging into my back.

“I am." He grins. “I pretend I’m not, but I am. Did you know that I know everywhere you go? Did you know that I have access to your phone? Smith didn’t call me that night, Ash. He didn’t even know you were there. After you left, I tried to stop watching you because you were right. It was all out of hand. On New Years I thought about going into another year without you, and I realized I just didn’t want to. I told you this isn’t over until I say it is.”

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