Page 96 of Sinful Desires

My eyes widened and my throat dried out. But before I could say anything, Foster beat me to it. “You were given a direct order,” he growled, his jaw ticking. It’s been a while since I saw Foster get this mad about anything—well, aside from Aspen pissing him off every now and then.

“Relax, Dad,” he mocked, rolling his eyes. “I let her out this morning.”

“Maybe you should have let her rot in there,” Hunter chimed in, his gaze trained on his plate while he clutched his fork tightly in his hand.

Maybe Hunter was right. Aspen has caused nothing but problems since she got here. We needed to start looking at the bigger picture and stop thinking with our dicks.

“Don’t let your emotions cloud your judgment,” Foster replied. “We can’t just kill her for the hell of it.”

“I wouldn’t object to it,” I offered, a smirk toying at the corner of my mouth. The lie tasted bitter on my tongue. I hated that I wanted her. Everything about her pissed me off, and regardless of rationality trying to weave its way through my brain, I shoved it away and focused on my hate for her.

Chapter 27

Aspen

The week flew by quickly. I guess when you weren’t being tortured, stalked, and held against your will, things went by a lot more smoothly. The guys were obviously preoccupied with something else this week, which I was thankful for. It meant that I could finally have a week of normality.

Therapy hasn’t improved much. Truthfully, I think the therapist was ready to send me to solitary and be done with it. For some reason, she was still trying to get me to talk to her—to do anything in order to improve. Why she hasn’t snitched on me to the principal yet was beyond me.

Shoving through Mrs. Bell’s door, her disapproving gaze snapped to mine. I paid it no mind as I dropped into the seat in front of her desk and leaned back, already wanting this to be over.

“Good afternoon,” she said lightly, despite the look on her face telling me she wanted to say something about my behavior.

“Can we just get this over with?” It wasn’t like I was in a hurry to go back to English, but maybe I’d prefer it over this.

Sighing, she plucked her glasses from her face and twirled them around between her fingers before letting them clatter against the mahogany.

“Very well,” she agreed. She scooped up the pile of papers that were laying off to the side, not bothering to look at them as she trained her gaze on me. “You’ve been here for about a month now and there’s been no improvement on your part. Aside from your grades at least.”

I scoffed in response. “Isn’t the point of going to school to maintain decent grades. I don’t understand how talking about my feelings has anything to do with it.”

Mrs. Bell pinched her lips together, the wrinkles around them becoming more potent. We’ve had this conversation nearly every session now. I understood that this school worked a little differently than most, but my feelings about the subject still didn’t change and they probably weren’t going to.

“Aspen, the sooner that you cooperate, the sooner we can be done with these sessions.”

Anger wormed its way through me. “I shouldn’t have to be forced into telling you personal shit about me,” I growled. “If I don’t want to, I don’t want to. Maybe you guys should just fucking accept that.”

She didn’t say anything for a few moments as she stared at me. People weren’t puzzles. Maybe being fucked in the head was the new normal. I was fine with the way I was. Them trying to fix us was causing more problems than it was worth.

“I’m just trying to do my job,” she finally said. “It’s only temporary.”

“Well, your job sucks.” I scrambled to my feet and slung my bag over my shoulder.

I didn’t waste another second before striding to the door, ignoring her pleas for me to stop. My chest was tight, and it felt like the weight of the world was pressing down all around me.

The mere thought of going back to class made me nauseous, so I made my way to my room instead. Once inside, I tugged the door closed behind me and changed into something more comfortable.

The cuts on my body had healed tremendously. Even though it’s only been five days since I received them, they didn’t even hurt anymore. They just itched and were starting to scab over.

Flicking the light off after changing, I burrowed beneath my comforter, thankful I had the opportunity to nap again. I was indecisive about making an appearance to practice today, but I’d decide once I slept it off.

I probably got a good hour in before I awoke to the sound of a door closing. Squinting my eyes, they slowly adjusted and fixated on Raven who was in the process of kicking off her shoes and leaving them by the door.

When she turned around, her eyes widened in surprise. “I didn’t expect you to be here,” she said, shrugging her bag off next and letting it hit the floor too.

“I didn’t want to go back to class,” I admitted. “Today was complete bullshit.” My voice came out raspy from sleep, but it was the least of my worries.

She smirked before taking a seat on the edge of her bed. “You skipping fourth period too?”

---