Page 5 of Velvet Thorns
“You hurt me. More than anyone else, it was you who hurt me.”
I don’t deserve a single piece of her.
“I’m sorry,” I rasp, my throat burning like I’ve been swallowing fire. “Fuck… I’m so sorry.”
She stares at me, eyes glassy with everything she’s held in, everything I broke. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.” I exhale, shaking my head because I can’t—I won’t—let that be true. “You don’t.”
“I do,” she snaps, louder now, trying to step back like she wants to run, but I won’t let her. “I hate you because you made me love you. You made me believe I mattered, and then you abandoned me.” The confession hits me like lightning, and suddenly, I can’t breathe.
“Say that again.” She tries to jerk away, but I hold on, fingers digging in, desperate to make sure I heard her right. “Shannen, say it.”
“Like you didn’t know. You were my best friend, of course I loved you.”
The second those words leave her lips, I move. My mouth finds hers in a kiss that’s two years too late—two years of silence, resentment, ache, and obsession all detonating in one violent, desperate moment.
This is how it was always meant to feel. Not soft or slow, but burning, consuming, and holy in the way only ruin can be. Shetastes like home and heartbreak and the parts of myself I left behind when I stopped choosing her. I kiss her like I need her to feel every ounce of the guilt and love I buried under years of pretending.
She breaks the kiss, gasping, her eyes wide and wild and locked on my mouth. It’s like the world stops spinning for a second, not just for me, but for her too.
“Jesus,” I whisper, my forehead pressed to hers. “That’s not enough. I need more.”
I lower my lips to hers again, breathing her in like I’ll never get another chance, when laughter erupts behind me. The sound freezes my blood and turns my veins to ice. My lips are still pressed to Shannen’s when I open my eyes and watch in slow motion as she starts to pull away, the spell shattering around us like broken glass. I turn, dragging her behind me with one arm, my body becoming a shield between her and whatever fresh hell is about to rain down on us.
“This is fucking gold,” Greg crows, grinning like the asshole he is, phone out with the camera pointed straight at us. “The trash is all in love and stuff. This is better than porn.”
“Aww,” Ava coos, fake-pouting as she lifts her own phone to record. “Look at the big bad quarterback kissing the school’s little pet freak. You guys gonna post engagement pics next? Maybe register at the dollar store?”
“Stop,” I warn, glaring at them, willing—begging—them to put the phones away, but they just keep recording, faces lit up like the sick fucks they are.
“No way, dude. This is the best thing that’s ever happened in this shithole school. Quarterback going fullBeauty and the Beast, only the beast’s a grease-stained loser. I mean, come on—the whole school’s gonna lose their minds.”
Yeah. No question now. I’m gonna murder Greg.
“Oh my god.” Cassie giggles, her dark eyes glittering with the same toxic joy. “What if we played it? Like on the big screen at the dance. Seriously, nothing’s scarier than a poor, ugly nobody begging the quarterback to love her. News flash, greasebag—you don’t get the guy. He’s only doing this because you need to be put in your place.” I step forward again, one breath away from breaking someone’s jaw, but Shannen’s fingers curl into my sleeve, grounding me with a grip that says,Don’t.
I whip around to face Shannen, ready to do whatever it takes to claw back the moment that’s already slipping through my fingers.
“I had nothing to do with this, I swear. I didn’t know… I didn’t plan this. I didn’t know they were?—”
For a second, she actually listens. For a split fucking second, I see the tiniest crack in the wall she’s built just to keep me out. But Ava’s already twisting the knife.
“Then how did we know where you’d be, Phoenix? Don’t lie to her. You just did what nobody else in this school would ever lower themselves to do, and now it’s going to be out there for everyone to see. So anytime she’s alone—and let’s be real, she’ll die a virgin—she can pull it up, watch it on repeat, and pretend that Phoenix Cassidy ever actually wanted her.”
I feel Shannen go rigid beside me, and when I turn to meet her gaze, I watch my entire world collapse.
She believes them.
There’s no one else to blame. No excuses left to give. Her lack of trust is all my fault, and I can see her dying all over again.
“Don’t listen to them. I didn’t?—”
“How could you?” she chokes out.
“Give me your fucking phones.”
“Hell no, man.” Brandon grins, cocky and already dead in my mind. “This shit’s gonna go viral.”
