Page 91 of Bitter Truths

Griffin isn’t in the room, but I slip inside anyway because my paintings are. The ones I created on the walls of my room and are now cut from the very same and placed in life-size frames.

I start at the beginning of my story with a pounding heart, smiling sadly at the pain and hurt staring back at me. Griffin is standing next to a withered tree with a gaping hole in his chest. He’s holding the dried husk of his heart in his hand, and the lost girl next to him is offering a rotten apple.

Next is Jason in the form of an evil hyena with his lackeys around him, leering over a broken girl lying on the ground hiding her shame in her hands. The gold strands of a delicate necklace peek through her fingers.

Stopping at the last one, I gaze at Griffin, his eyes cold and dark. He’s standing next to me, but my face is blank, featureless. That’s how I felt, empty next to the brutal boy who cut me down.

The images leave me achingly bereft, and I have the insane urge to finish because I’d like for it to be the lost, broken princess putting that damn heart back in the prince. Her story isn’t over yet, but will she have a happy ending?

Chapter Twenty-Eight

You can’t turn away. I won’t fucking let you.

HALSEY

“Have you thought about what I said, Halsey?” Dr. Marks asks.

I left the party when I couldn’t find Griffin and finally drummed up the courage to text him yesterday, but he hasn’t responded, and I’m crawling out of my skin with worry. What if he’s done, tired of the back and forth? Tired of me?

I don’t know, and the wait is killing me, but maybe he has nothing more to say. What a completely horrible notion.

Instead, I pulled out my canvas and finished our story, complete with Griffin lying on a stone bench, seemingly asleep, as the princess bends to kiss him and wake him from his eternal rest.

I didn’t fill in her face because I don’t know if that princess is me, and although Griffin is my prince, he’s no gentleman. Still, I like to think that maybe I’m saving him too.

“Um, sort of. I don’t know,” I say because yes, I’ve contemplated his assertion that I’m a submissive, but I don’t know the answer, and I don’t know that I would admit it to him even if I did.

“Hm. Have you had any sexual interactions since the last one?” he asks, steepling his fingers before his face.

“No,” I say, and although it’s not a lie, I’d have denied it anyway because the line of questioning makes my skin itchy and cold.

He hasn’t said or done anything inappropriate. It’s just a tickle at the base of my spine that tells me to be cautious. And these days, I listen to my instincts instead of ignoring them.

“Okay, here’s your assignment. See if you can find a young man or woman,” he says with a faint smile, “and talk to them. Flirt, pay attention to what attracts you and what turns you off.”

“Okay,” I say softly, rising when he glances at his watch.

“Halsey?”

“Yeah?”

“I enjoyed our walk together. Let me know if you’d like to do it again sometime.”

With a weak smile, I exit. Maybe I’m being melodramatic. Perhaps this is part of my journey, but I know for sure I have no desire to flirt with anyone unless it’s Griffin. I know what attracts me, and it’s him, whether he’s soft and gentle or rough and needy.

I check my phone with a shiver and see I have no new messages. My last text to him is still waiting for his response.

I’d like to talk. I’m sorry.

Max is meeting me later at the house. Despite his protests, we need to discuss Patch and the scary dude before things get completely out of hand. With this in mind, I stop off at the store adjacent to campus and pick up a few things for dinner before heading home. My thoughts are filled with Griffin, which is why I don’t see Will until I’ve walked into his back—literally.

With an oomph, I fall back and raise my eyes, dropping my bag-laden hands to my sides in surprise when his eyes widen and then narrow.

“Halsey,” he says uneasily before glancing around.

“Excuse me,” I say, moving to step around him, but he grabs my arm, and I stiffen.

“Wait, look. I know it was you who shared that video, and I think you should know . . . Chris lost his scholarship, and Jason’s dad refuses to talk to him because he might be fucking fired from his job.”

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