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Then she ended the call.
I was stunned. She just hung up on Logan Hudson. Logan freaking Hudson. Who did that?
“You just hung up on him?” I whispered.
Shelby curled her lip at me. “Um, yeah. He’s being an idiot.”
“But… he’s Logan?”
“Aaand?” she sang back.
Why wasn’t she scared? “What if he gets mad?”
“Oh please.” She waved her hand. “I have that boy wrapped around my finger.”
I didn’t get it. “Why would you stick up for me?”
Who was I to her? No one. I was nothing more than the quiet girl who sat at the same table as her in the cafeteria. And not by choice. If I had it my way, I’d have been in the corner alone.
“Why wouldn’t I stick up for you?” she asked while placing her hand on her cocked hip. “They’re being assholes.”
I hung my head and grumbled, “Maybe I deserve it?”
“No one deserves to be treated like that.”
She said that now, but… “You don’t know what I did.”
“Yes I do,” she said, making my eyes snap back to hers. “Logan told me.”
That didn’t make sense. If she knew what happened… what I did, then why would she ever talk to me? I didn’t want to talk to me.
She let out a long puff of air. “Look Harper, I don’t know what went down. If what you said was true or not. But we all make mistakes.”
“What if it wasn’t a mistake?”
As much as I regretted hurting the little boy I loved, if I had it to do over again I’d make the same choice. Mason may hate me, but he was still breathing.
Shelby thought about what I said for a second, then shrugged her shoulders.
“I’m sure you had your reasons. I’m the last person to judge.” She swung her eyes my way and I swear I saw a hint of guilt on her face. “Trust me.”
Her room suddenly seemed very small. I could feel the walls closing in on me as I sat there trying to figure out what to do or say. There was a big difference between making a bad decision, and destroying someone. Because that’s what I did. That’s what I was still doing by not saying anything. For the first time in my life, I wondered what it would be like to unburden myself. How relieving would it be to get this heavy weight off my shoulders?
Then again, it might just add more. Would Shelby, Riley, and everyone else look at me with disgust when they found out about the horrible things I’d done? The things my father had forced me to do. Would Lana hate me like Mason did? That was a thought that was too much to bare.
“I have to go.”
I jumped up and scuttled out of the room before Shelby could stop me.
Tears sprang into my eyes as I flew down the stairs and around the corner. Lana was already mad at me. I should’ve said something when she asked me about Daddy. I should’ve convinced her that everything was okay, instead of hiding from her. What if she started asking questions? What if she asked him questions? Daddy was my burden. It was my job to protect people from him. If she got hurt, it would be my fault. I had to call her. I had to fix this.
At least that was my intent, until I turned down the hall for my room and ran into something hard. At first I thought it was a wall that knocked the wind out of me and sent me spiraling to the floor. Then I heard a familiar growl.
“Where the fuck are you rushing off to?”
My entire throat bobbed as I swallowed my fear and forced myself to look up at the huge form looming over me. Rolling my eyes up Mason’s jean clad legs was agonizingly slow. I could not only feel the anger coming off him, I could see it flexing in the defined muscles under his dark t-shirt. Then my eyes met his bright green orbs, glittering with something dark. Whatever I was going to say was lost. I just stayed there, sprawled out on the floor, staring at him.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on why, but Mason looked different. Bigger, and more masculine. I was very aware of how easily those hands could hold me down. Like they had in the bathroom. Though I didn’t see what he was doing, I felt his arm moving. I felt the long strokes he was making. But were they long? It couldn’t be that big, right? Curiosity drove my eyes to trickle down his solid form.
