Page 27 of This Blood That Breaks Us
The bell rang and we’d gone through the doorway at the same time, and our shoulders bumped.
“Do you wanna let me through, princess?”
“Excuse me?”
“Did you expect me to roll out the red carpet for you or something?”
Okay, I’d resented her a little.
“What the hell is your problem?”
“I don’t know. Spoiled rich girl. What do you think it is?”
To my surprise, she pushed me into the lockers while locking eyes with me.“You don’t knowanything about me, so don’t act like you do.”
I couldn’t respond through my shock.
Luke appeared behind her.“Hey, Ash, you good? Is my brother bothering you?”
Of course Luke was friends with her. That was before she became best friends with Sarah. Mr. Popular could have any girl he wanted. Because unlike me, he wasn’t an asshole. The girls literally flocked to him. I think knowing he didn’t date made them more desperate to try to change his mind.
“I can handle it.” She scowled at me, then moved away.“Thanks, though.”
She winked at my brother as she left.
My mouth hung open as she walked away.“Holy shit.”
“Uh-oh.”Luke knew the look in my eye.
“She’s . . . ”
“Too good for you.”Luke smiled.“Which means she’s exactly your type.”
“You gotta get her to talk to me again.”
“Well, be nice. Have you tried that?”
“Shut up.”
If Ashley could see me now, she’d probably slap me. She’d hate the person I was choosing to be. She’d never forgive me. Because by doing this, I was betraying her and myself, but more importantly, I was betraying Sarah.
Ash had wanted the four of us to go to college together, and sometimes, I wondered what would have happened if we had.
The college gig wasn’t really my thing. I could forget sometimes and play my role as the college fuck boy, but Luke and I differed from everyone around us. Not just because of the vampire issue. I couldn’t shake the feeling we weren’t meant to be there. Like we didn’t fit.
I scoffed at the thought.Fuck fate.
Sometimes, I missed certain parts—like the way most people had nothing to worry about with their petty fights about stealing girls and failing classes. There was something therapeutic about getting drunk and listening to it all. I’d gone out of my way to take the most useless classes possible. One being an entire class on the study ofDante’s Infernoand the Theology of Hell. I took it as a joke, but somewhere in there, I enjoyed the distraction.
Dante’s self-inserted story sounded like something I’d do. Make myself look blameless while deep in my core, I was a prick.
The coldness of reality brought me back to the present in my concrete prison.
I dodged another one of Sirius’s punches but caught the tail end of a kick that sent me flying into the wall. The fucker didn’t hold back.Ever.
“Can we take a break? How long have we been doing this for?”
The whole day could have gone by and I’d have no way of knowing. My body never tired and there was never an ache in my muscles, but mentally, I was drained. There were no windows, and our training was nonstop. It was a blank slate of concrete on all sides. The main purpose being to paint the walls in black blood.
