I’m sure I’ll do it more often now, especially when I need that mental reassurance.
If I forget, Mishka encouraged me to talk to her.
“There you are!” I look up at Ace as he crashes into me. “Where the fuck have you been? Huh?” He takes a moment to take a long sniff. “And why do you smell like Mickey, hmm?”
“Ugh,” I push him away. “You know why.”
“Oh, my boy’s getting bold, ain’t he,” Ace teases as he hooks an arm over my shoulder. “So where’s our diamond of the ball tonight.”
“She went back to the dorms,” I announce.
“Why would she do that?” Ace questions with an obvious frown.
He’s getting the wrong idea.
“Maddox texted her, saying he’s getting something from her dorm, and she should come down, so she went.”
“And why would I do that when I don’t have my phone on me?”
I frown at the familiar voice and merely peer up to see Maddox and Damien reaching us.
“What?” I question.
“I don’t have my phone on me,” Maddox admits. “You know I don’t like bringing it to events. I only do if I know none of you are going to be with me or if Mkaykay isn’t with any of you.”
“What did the text say?” Damien presses.
“It said it was from Maddox and that he was going to Mikayla’s place to pick something up,” I emphasize and pull out my phone.
By the time I put the passcode, Damien has my phone in his grasp to read the message.
“Why would Maddox call it Mikayla’s place?” Ace points out. “If it’s text, don’t you normally say Mkaykay’s place or suite? Sometimes you say dorm, but you always put Mkaykay or Baby Girl when you’re talking about Mickey.”
The more they verbally decipher it, the faster my heart is beating.
It can’t be…
“It’s not from Maddox,” Damien announces.
We’re all looking at him while he points the display of my phone back at us.
He’s right.
The text wasn’t a text.
It was an image of a text.
The sender is from my worst nightmare.
XXX:
MADDOX: “I’m going back to the dorms to grab something from Mikayla’s place. Tell her to come over as well.”
The four of us stare at it for ten long seconds before the typing button shows up.
None of us say a word until the bubble appears, and the message makes my heart stop.
XXX: