Page 50 of Sweet Punk
* * *
“Hey!”I shout when I spot Raven and Lux up ahead of me on their way back to the dorm. I jog to catch up with them as they turn around. Their eyes light up when they see me.
“Hey yourself.” Raven’s head tilts to the side, assessing me. Gotta wonder what the hell that means. She gives me a tight smile. “Have you talked to Star?”
My brow furrows. “No. Why?”
Lux grits her teeth. “We didn’t see her all morning, then she got to our psych class just as it was starting, so we never got a chance to talk. She was closed off in class—like she wouldn’t have wanted to try to make conversation even if we were able. Leave it to Professor Severn to go on and on with a crazy-long lecture. We never got a break where we could ask if she was okay.”
“And she seemed jumpy. Upset.” Raven crosses her arms over her chest. “She took off like a bat out of hell the minute the lecture was over.” Spinning around, she scans the area. “She’d normally walk back with us, but she just left.”
I nod, a defeated sigh leaving me. “I don’t understand what’s in her head.” My jaw tenses, the muscle twitching.
Lux shakes her head. “I don’t get it either, and I know we all have our issues, but damn, that phone call with her mom and stepdad. That was just stupid.”
Itwasstupid. I hate hearing how they treat her. How they completely ignore her concerns.
Raven’s brow furrows, and she reaches out to pat my arm. “You’re torn up over it.”
I draw in a breath, unwilling to agree, but knowing Raven is spot-on. I run one hand through my hair, tugging on it out of frustration. “Would you tell her I want to talk to her?”
“Sure. If we see her.” Lux frowns as she notices my backward retreat. “Where are you going?”
“I need to think.” I hold up my phone. “Tell her to text me.”
* * *
At the gym,I let my frustrations out on a punching bag. I fire hit after hit, jab after jab, and hook after hook into the bag swinging from the ceiling, all the while imagining it’s that fucker Milo who’s been watching me while I had no clue. I feel like an idiot. But how was I to know that the enemy had crossed lines and was hiding in my goddamn bunker with me?
A snort from off to the side of me makes me jerk my head up. Hawk stands there, eyeing me like I’m about to go off the deep end. “If that damn thing were a real person, you’d have beaten him to a bloody pulp by now.” Hawk raises his brows. “I just got done in the weight room. Mad let me know you were here.”
My forehead pinches into a line.
He bobs his head, catching his lip with his teeth before raking them over it. “The girls told him they thought this is where you’d have gone. That or the art department, so I figured I’d check here first.” He heaves out a sigh, scrubbing his hands through his hair. “They’re as worried about you as they are about Star, who, by the way, isn’t talking to anyone. She’s locked herself in her room and won’t open up.”
I wince. I’ve been distracted by the phone sitting on the bench… the phone that hasn’t made any noise at all. I keep hoping that she’ll reach out. But she’s stubborn when she wants to be. Hawk steps behind the bag, holding it steady for me. “Talk.”
My teeth grind together. “That fucker Milo. He’s been in my speech class. You know, the one I’ve had trouble with. He’s been sitting right next to me, observing me, watching me struggle half the semester.” I slam my fists hard into the bag, first one, then the other. I stop, heaving out a breath. “I can’t fuckin’ remember when I noticed him. But he was there today, doing a partner exercise with me, just chummy as all fuck.” Hawk waits patiently while I hit the bag a few more times. “Then he started saying shit about how his girlfriend is big into computers.” Hawk says nothing, simply continues to hold the bag for me. “And how he wears her ring on the chain around his neck. He kept fuckin’ playing with it, sliding it back and forth on the chain.”
This time, Hawk’s brow arches. “Wait. Didn’t you tell me to keep an eye out for a silver ring that Star thought she lost in our suite?”
“Yep. Sure. Fucking. Did.” Each word is punctuated with a punch to the bag.
“So. Is all this about you thinking she’s like… cheating on you or something?”
“Fuck no.” I give him an angry look. “This dude has been messing with her from day one—with anyone who is close to her. I’m surprised it’s taken him this long to home in on me.”
“Or maybe he knows that you matter most.” Hawk’s head cants to the side so he can see me. “Am I wrong?”
I shrug. “Fuck. I dunno.”
One hand still on the bag, Hawk points at me. “Stop. You do so. You’re fuckin’ scared is what it boils down to. That girl thinks you’reitfor whatever reason. And she’s good for you and might help you get past some of the awful shit that’s happened to you. I know you haven’t ever told us the specifics. But I know it was bad. And I’m begging you. If this girl is helping you, don’t give up on her just because she has her own shit to deal with and she’s pushing you away.”
I look down at my hands, my jaw tense.
“Kellan, she needs you right now, man. Be there for her.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
