Still nothing from Zoey.
Needing answers, I texted Caroline. Is Zoey going to the game with you?
Sitting on the bench in front of my opened locker, with my leggings on but no shirt, I tapped my fingers on my knees waiting for a response.
“Who’re you texting there, Hamilton?” Noel asked, coming up behind me and stealing the phone out of my hand before I could stop him. “You’ve been awfully guarded and yet a little too happy all week. You got yourself a new woman you don’t want anyone to know about?”
Just then, my phone dinged. With a grin, Noel glanced down at the screen. His smile died.
“Motherfucker.” He dropped the phone and dove at me, tackling me off the bench and onto the floor.
“Wha…?” I lifted my hands over my face to protect myself after my head cracked against the floor and he pinned me by the chest. I could’ve bucked him off, but I was too surprised to see him so mad. Plus, I didn’t want to hurt him.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Ten shouted, rushing over just as Noel wrapped his hands around my neck. “What the fuck, man?” He tried to pull Noel off me, but Noel wasn’t budging.
“Are you fooling around with my sister behind my back?” he growled.
“What!” Ten cried. He picked up my fallen phone, read the message and let out a groan. Shoving it at Noel, he muttered, “Maybe you should’ve read the actual message, dumbass. He’s fooling around with Blondie. He was just asking Caroline if she’d seen her today, which she hasn’t, by the way,” he finished with a concerned glance toward me.
I closed my eyes, more worried than ever while Noel let up pressure on my throat and rolled off me. “Sorry, man,” he said before sitting up and running a rueful hand over his hair. “You were being so secretive about it, I didn’t think it could be anyone else but Caroline.”
I waved his apology away and told him it was okay. Ten wasn’t so forgiving, though. Lifting his hands, he continued to gape at Noel. “Seriously? Not even holier than thou Hamilton is good enough for her in your eyes? Why don’t you just ship her off to a fucking convent already?” With a final sniff and shake of his head, he muttered, “Ass,” and stalked off.
Noel had the grace to appear contrite. “It’s not that I think you’re not good enough for her,” he told me, keeping his tone low. “I just didn’t like the idea of you sneaking her around behind my back. That douchebag who hurt her back home snuck her around like she was some kind of dirty little secret. I wouldn’t be able to respect anyone who couldn’t date her out in the open and be proud of being seen with her in public. She deserves at least that and more.”
I nodded, totally understanding. Glancing after Ten, who was now on the other side of the room moodily jerking on his own clothes, I wished he’d been here to hear Noel say that, too.
The coach came in, shouting for us to hurry up. We had five minutes left to get changed.
The next time I had a moment to check my phone was after the game, after we’d won thirty-four to zero. Zoey had yet to respond to me, but Cora-pretending-to-be-Zoey had written again.
Sorry, I didn’t get to see you on the field in those tight pants, lover. Cora forced me to go shopping with her. I’ll see you at the after party, okay?
I typed in a quick affirmative, playing along, and wondering what her game was. Forgoing a text, I tried to ring Zoey. When it went to voice mail, I left a message, hoping she listened to it.
I had no idea what was going on, but I didn’t like this. Cora had something planned, but she’d made it sound like Zoey was going to be at the after-party, so I was going to that party to find her.
“Hey, man. You hear from her yet?” Face full of smiles from our win, Ten bounded over to tackle me from behind and pat my back. But I couldn’t smile back.
“Not yet.” I glanced up. “Where’s the after-party tonight?”
The question caught him off guard, but he answered with a smile spreading across his face. “Are you seriously going to it tonight? Fuck, yeah. We can ride together.”
I shook my head “No…I want to stop by Zoey’s apartment on the way. See if she’s home first.”
Ten’s smile fell, but he nodded.
Zoey wasn’t home. Henry informed me that she’d rushed out the door five minutes before I’d arrived. With no place left to look for her but the party, I headed that way.
The place was loud and packed, reminding me why I hated them as soon as I stepped through the front door. Hope sank in my chest as I skimmed the front room, looking for her. She could be anywhere, and there were so many people. I’d just turned to start into the next room when a hand caught my forearm.
I turned, but it was Cora. I started away again but did a double take at the last second. She had the beginnings of a black eye, and I swear her nose was swollen. “What happened to you?” I kind of wanted to high five the person who’d done that do her.
She fluttered her lashes. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
When she reached out to draw on my chest with her finger, I pushed her hand away. Then I shook my head and rolled my eyes toward the ceiling. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but it’s not going to work. I know you took my phone and changed out her number for your own.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Wow. I’m impressed. I didn’t realize you’d be so clever.” Her eyes heated as she glanced down my chest. “My big, clever man.” She reached for my shirt again. This time, I grabbed her wrist and held it hard.
“Where’s Zoey?”
Drawing up into a huff, she glared at me and ripped her arm out of my grip. “You mean my whore roommate who betrayed me with my boyfriend?”
“I mean the beautiful, amazing girl I moved on with after you and I broke up. The only betrayal was yours, Cora. You may be in denial, but that’s how it happened.”
“Well, don’t you sound all self-righteous? Tell me, how were you so pure, and innocent, and honest when you hooked up with her the very night you threw me away? Hmm? You can’t tell me you didn’t even think about her when we were still together.”
Guilt crowded my throat. I guess I hadn’t been all that faithful if she thought of it that way. I’d started developing feelings for Zoey long before Cora and I were over. I may have never strayed physically, and I never would’ve, but my grandmother had taught me that sinning in my heart was still sinning. And in my heart, I had been unfaithful to Cora, because I’d fallen for Zoey long before that first night we were together.
Looking smug, Cora began to laugh in my face. “You must really be a better teacher at sex than a student.”
Frowning, I glared at her. “What’re you talking about?”
She shrugged. “Oh, just that me showing you everything about pleasing a woman really wasn’t that much fun. But apparently, Zoey liked the lessons you gave her. She’d been trying to get on every cock willing to take her since she arrived at this party tonight. So you must’ve taught her to appreciate something.”
I snorted, not even believing her for a second. “Whatever. Just tell me where she is.”
“Oh, honey. I don’t need to tell you. I’ll gladly show you. She went into that room, right over there.” Leaning in closer, she whispered, “And you’ll never guess who she was with.”
Finally. An answer. Needing to see Zoey for myself, I started that way, but the door opened before I could reach it. Zoey stepped out. Her hair was a complete mess, her cheeks were flushed, and her lips were as swollen as they got whenever I’d been kissing her for too long. And her clothes…her clothes were in a complete disarray with the neckline ripped, showing off her creamy, beautiful shoulder.
Her dazed-looking green eyes found mine just as some guy slipped out of the room behind her. Too busy pulling his shirt on, Ten didn’t see me. But I saw him. I saw him and Zoey together, leaving that room and looking as if they’d just fucked.
The blood drained from my face.
For the longest moment, I just stood there, afraid I was going to pass out. But Zoey? Zoey and Ten
?
I shook my head. Not Zoey. Just…no. I stumbled a step back, and Zoey’s eyes flashed wide. She shook her head madly and reached out in my direction as she stumbled toward me. I shook my head harder and spun away, tripping over a laughing Cora in my haste to escape.
I hadn’t heard from Quinn since leaving him Friday morning in art class. He’d sent me a longing glance and mouthed the word, “Bye,” before he’d started for his history class and I went to biology. But that was it.
I’d texted a few times but never received an answer back. When I tried to call, it went straight to voice mail. I knew he had to work that night, and I was tempted to stop by Forbidden, but I was worried that would look too clingy. We hadn’t been together long enough for me to be sure if it was okay that I wanted to see him, like, all the time.
So, I stayed away. Frankly, I was too paranoid to leave the apartment. An unrecognizable number kept leaving messages and texts for me all day. Afraid my father had found me, I was too scared to even read them. So, I deleted them and blocked the number. On Saturday, Cora woke me early, a little too perkily happy for my taste.
“You have more testing today while I take my dialysis,” she announced.
I groaned and rolled onto my back. “I remember,” I muttered, wishing I could go anywhere but back to the renal center with her.
Quinn had a big game today. If he won this one, they were set for the playoffs for divisional champs. I’d wanted to be there so bad. Pulling up my phone, I texted him, letting him know I couldn’t make his game, but I wanted to see him as soon as possible.
Finally—finally—he texted back, saying, That’s fine. We can meet up afterward. Love you.
I stared at the last two words, my chest swelling with shock. He’d never said that to me before. I couldn’t believe—
“Are you ready to go or not? I’ve got a kidney to flush out over here.”
“Sorry.” I shook my head, stuffed my phone into my purse and followed her from the room.
Her eyes sharpened with an evil glint, but I was getting used to those looks. It was best just to believe she had an ulterior motive behind everything she did.
She was quiet on the ride, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel as she flipped through stations and annoying the heck out of me when she’d change a channel just as I’d start to get into a song.
Once we arrived, I went through my regular tests, getting used to some of the routine of them taking my blood pressure, urine sample, and blood test. A lull came as I had to wait for Cora to finish, so I studied some homework until she was done. She was just concluding her treatment when the doctor who’d given me my exam approached me with a wince.
“We hit a snag on one of your tests.”
Both Cora and I lifted our faces. “What do you mean a snag?” Cora demanded, arching him a glare.
The doctor fiddled nervously for a second before he glanced back and forth between us. “It seems you’re beginning to develop a small urinary tract infection. We’re going to have to put you on antibiotics so it doesn’t move into your kidneys. If the kidneys get damaged, we’ll have to delay, possibly even cancel the entire transplant.”
“The fuck you say,” Cora exploded. When she glanced at me, her eyes narrowed with hate, so much hatred I actually shied away from her.
I clutched my chest, wondering how this could have happened. “I…I don’t understand. I’ve been following all my directions, drinking plenty of water, cranberry juices, keeping to the recommended diet, cleaning regularly.”
The doctor shook his head, puzzled. “Your records don’t show you have a history of getting them frequently, either.”
“No,” I agreed. “I’ve never had one before.”
“Have you become sexually active recently?” he asked, scowling to himself, obviously perplexed, as he shuffled through his paperwork to recheck my results.
“What?” I uttered. My face drained and I glanced hastily toward Cora.
Her face turned a purplish red as her jaw hardened. “Yes,” she growled to the doctor as she glared at me. “Yes, she has. Why?”
Oh God.
Panic gripped me. But she knew.
How did she know?
“Oh.” The doctor looked up in surprise. “Well, that explains it then. I swear, the sexual education teachers these days really need to explain how important it is to you young girls to clean up directly after having relations.”
Protectively wrapping my arms over my chest and wanting to die of mortification, I stood there and listened to him lecture me about how I needed to urinate after every “relation,” or at least wipe the “area” so stuff from my partner didn’t get up into my urethra and cause bacteria to grow.
Next to me, a stiff Cora nodded the entire time, agreeing with everything the doctor had to say. But as soon as he finished his lecture and sent me on my way with prescription for my UTI, the glance she sent me told me just how much she was seething under the surface.
We left the treatment center together, side by side. I didn’t speak until we were outside. “How long have you known?” I finally asked.
She cracked off a low, hard laugh before searing me with a hateful glance. “How long have I known what? That you’re the little slut who screwed my boyfriend’s brains out the night he tried to ask me to marry him?”
Her voice was quiet and controlled but filled with enough fury to fuel a rocket. “I figured it out at the bar when sweet, innocent, peaceful Zoey Blakeland sent Oren Tenning after me to defend Quinn.”
Shock reverberated through my system. I couldn’t believe she’d known that long, and done nothing. I opened my mouth to ask why she’d said nothing.
But she suddenly fisted her hand and growled at me. “I swear to God, if I don’t get your kidney because you were too busy fucking my boyfriend, I will kill you.”
For the past five minutes, I’d been feeling like crap because of that very possibility. The last thing I wanted to do was to keep anyone from getting healthier, due to my own carelessness. Realizing my relationship with Quinn might’ve just harmed her entire life made me physically ill.
Before coming to Ellamore, I would’ve started apologizing right then and there. But in the past few months…no. I didn’t apologize. I jerked to a stop and turned to glare right back at her.
“He is not your boyfriend. You fucked around on him, and he moved on, end of story. I never—never—would’ve touched him if you hadn’t cheated on him and lost him first.”
She slapped me. Hard. “You worthless cunt. I could die because of this, and you’re worried about who was faithful and who wasn’t? How fucking selfish can you get?”
Rage swelled. Angier than I’d ever felt in my life—for the way she’d treated me, for the way she’d treated Quinn—I balled my hand into a fist and lashed back. Forget slapping, I hit her right in the nose.
“You won’t die,” I growled. “Roaches always find a way to survive.”
Pain sliced through my knuckles and my cheek stung like hell, but I felt good. So good. Almost as good as I felt when Quinn was inside me.
Until Cora whipped her hair out of her face, and I saw blood leaking through her fingers where she was holding her nose. She stared up at me with a mixture of fear, shock, and...was that respect?
“Oh shit.” I covered my mouth with both hands and immediately started to shake, feeling awful. She’d just finished a round of dialysis and here I was, jacking her in the face. That was so wrong.
But it’d felt so good.
I opened my mouth to apologize, but then I shut it. I wasn’t sorry, I decided. For what she’d done to Quinn, I should’ve hit her twice.
So I spun away from her and marched off.
She gasped in outrage. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
“I’m finding another way home. I refuse to ride in a car with you ever again.” Glancing at her shocked expression, I added, “From here on out, I’ll get myself to all the tests and appointments. I’
m moving out tonight. My kidney is the last thing you’ll ever get from me.”
I left her there to chew on that. After checking the time on my phone and realizing Quinn’s game was probably just now ending, I prayed they were winning, and I typed him a quick text to let him know that Cora was onto us.
Thankfully, I found a bus stop not too far away, and I only had to wait half an hour to get a ride back to Ellamore. I started packing as soon as I made it to the apartment. I had no doubt that Quinn and Ten would let me stay with them until I found my own place. Maybe Caroline would be willing to rent something with me. That could be fun.
Needing boxes, I borrowed a couple from Henry. I’d just put all my notebooks into one when my phone chimed with a text.
From Cora.
I don’t know why I even read it, but I did.
If you want to keep your precious boyfriend, you better come to this party and fetch him. He’s drunk and horny and I can’t forget how good he feels inside me.
She’d attached an address. Quinn still hadn’t responded to my message. I shot off another to him. But the only thing I got back was: Oops. Sorry. Quinn’s busy right now…going down on me. Love ya. Cora.
“Bitch,” I muttered. I had no idea when she’d jacked with my phone, but I knew then, without a doubt, that Quinn had not been receiving my messages, and he was not doing any such thing with Cora.
I didn’t like knowing he was at that same party with her, though. She couldn’t be trusted, and she was mad enough tonight to try something even more devious. He was still unaware that she knew about us. I needed to warn him. Snagging my purse, I raced out the door.
The party was still going strong when I showed up. I waded through people until I spotted Ten challenging some guy to a drink-off.