“Gross,” I say, wanting to be anywhere but in his bed after a comment like that. But considering his father's high standards for his staff, I'm sure his bed had clean sheets put on before he came home. “You’re disgusting.”
“You like it like that,” he tells me before struggling to sit up and grab the bag of goodies I brought along with me. “Ooh, chocolate chip.”
He dives into the bag and cracks open the ice cream before digging straight in. I won't lie, ice cream at nine in the morning is exactly the kind of bullshit I need in my life right now.
Just as promised, The Vampire Diaries gets turned on, and we watch in silence for half an hour before the dreaded question comes shooting through the room. He glances over at me, holding the ice cream in one hand while the spoon awkwardly points at me. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I feel my good mood plummeting, and as I look at him, I press my lips into a hard line, trying to not allow the emotions to well up inside of me. “What do you mean?”
“Ocean, you disappeared for three days while I was in the hospital. Something happened. Otherwise, you would have been in my stupid hospital room demanding that my doctors find a miracle cure to make me heal overnight. You were gone, and judging by the way you’ve been avoiding looking into my eyes since you got here, it’s bad.”
“I … fuck. How do you do that?”
“It’s called being observant. If any of your other friends cared about you half as much as I do, they would have been able to tell. Now, like I said, do you want to talk about it?”
Letting out a sigh, I realize that Milo has become so much closer than I ever expected he would, and I absolutely love him for that. Seeing the pain ripping across my face at everything that’s been going on, he offers me his hand. I take it eagerly as he watches me, waiting to hear whatever it is I need to get off my chest. So without wasting another moment, I give it to him straight. “Nic killed my father.”
Milo’s jaw drops in shock, and he stares at me as though the words I just uttered make absolutely no sense at all. And just like that, the whole torturous story comes out. I tell him every last detail, right down to everything that happened while I was staying with the Wolves. Though, I skip over the whole rapist bun in the oven thing. That’s a story for another day.
We talk and talk until there’s nothing left to say, and only then does he start with his own issues, all revolving around the fear he’s felt since being attacked on Wednesday.
We completely forget the TV, and the hours fly by lost in conversation. It's after five in the afternoon by the time Milo’s parents are shoving me out the door, desperate to allow Milo a chance to rest.
After saying goodbye, I promise him I’ll be back tomorrow, and the next day, and then every day after that. I make my way out to Colton’s Audi, and just as I’m about to unlock the car door, my phone rings deep in the pocket of my borrowed sweatpants.
I ignore it, assuming that it’s Colton or Mom checking in on me for the millionth time today. I’ll be home in five minutes, and then they can check on me in person. I get into the Audi, and when my phone instantly starts ringing again, my stomach drops. No one rings me twice quickly like that unless there’s some kind of problem.
I dig into the deep pockets of my sweatpants, and as I pull my phone out, I find an unfamiliar number flashing on my screen. My brows drop but realizing that it must be a Wolf issue, I unlock the screen and hesitantly accept the call. “Hello,” I say cautiously.
“Kid, it’s Christian.”
Relief surges through me, but I’m not going to lie, I’m still far too on edge for my own good. “What’s up?”
“Listen,” he says, his voice low and muffled as though he’s hiding away to make this call. “You need to watch your back. Snake held a vote today.”
“A vote?”
“Yeah, that fucker has it in for you. He put it forward that if you want to be one of us, that you need to join how the rest of us did.”
My brows pinch as confusion begins to baffle me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“We all got jumped in, Ocean, and now they’re going to do the same to you.”
Well, fuck.Chapter 9I drive through to the garage of the Carrington mansion, and as I go, I can’t help but look around in fear. They wouldn’t really jump me, would they?