She sighs, dropping the hand with the soiled tissue. She looks exhausted, probably from the adrenaline crash. “Just that it was a guy.”
I slide my hands into my pocket, at a loss for what to do. I look at Tyson, who seems in the same boat. Except, he can do stuff like this:
“Come on.” He cups her by the elbow and leads her toward where the faculty are congregating. “Let’s see if we can get a nurse to check that out, yeah?”
She nods, sparing me a glance over her shoulder as they walk away.
Thanks, she mouths.
Tyson gives me a look over his shoulder, too, but his is a mixture of curiosity and suspicion.
Better him than any of the Devils, I think, going the opposite way. What was I thinking, going after her like that? Touching her like that? They’re already suspicious enough, and the fallout would be catastrophic. There’s no way my father wouldn’t find out, especially after what happened to Hollis.
But I do know what I was thinking. I was thinking that whatever the hell is going on with me and Gwendolyn right now, it’s simultaneously the most thrilling and terrifying thing that’s ever happened to me.
I’m not ready to give it up.
19
Gwen
“So, what was that between you and Hamilton?”
I flex my hand, because it’s like I can still feel his skin against mine. Confused, hurt, angry, and overwhelmed, I didn’t know it was Hamilton grabbing for me in the hallway at first; but then I felt the tell-tale tingling that charged between us whenever we touched, and I knew.
Even without him saying it was him, I knew.
I don’t know how he knew to come for me. But thank God he did.
Now Tyson stands before me with a million questions. I don’t have any answers—at least not any that I want to give.
“Nothing,” I reply, sitting on a bench away from the crowd. The nurse has already checked me out and determined that I’d probably have a nice big bruise bloom in the next few days, but for now it’s just swollen and sore, otherwise unbroken. “I was on the floor bleeding all over the place, and I guess he saw me. He just helped me get outside.”
Tyson’s eyebrows climb his forehead. “Dude, he was totally holding your hand.”
“Yes.” Fact. He was.
“Why?”
“Well, he was leading me through the hall because I was hurt. It was just chaotic—even you got stuck, right?”
He nods. Tyson is a new friend—my only friend. He doesn’t know everything that has gone on between me and the Devils over the years, but he knows enough. Enough to actually try getting up in Hamilton’s face when he thought he’d hurt me. There was no doubt in my mind that Tyson would have thrown down to avenge me. The memory makes me even more fond of my new friend.
“You’d tell me if something was going on, right?” Tyson studies me, frowning. “Because I told you before, I have your back. You don’t have to keep secrets from me.”
“There’s no secret,” I assure him, even though I feel bad about lying. That’s not a great start to a friendship, but whatever is going on between me and Hamilton right now, it’s no one’s business but ours. “We’re on better terms now with the whole co-captain thing. Honestly, he probably helped me so that he doesn’t get stuck with my half of the work.”
He barks a laugh. “That, I’d believe.”
A fire truck rolls into the parking lot and a flurry of men rush into the building. I’m struck with another memory: Hamilton asking who kicked me, and the look of blind, controlled fury on his face as he searched the hallway for him. Just as baldly as I know Tyson would have pummeled Hamilton for hurting me, Hamilton would have definitely kicked the shit out of that guy.
I would have probably given it a go myself.
“It’s just scary,” I say, staring pensively into the distance. “That someone would want to hurt me like that.” And I am hurt, physically, but also it just hurts in general. “I’m not, like, a bad person. I never bother anyone. I go out of my way to not make a splash here. It’s just...” I rub my temples, feeling the beginnings of a killer headache. “It’s really messed up.”
Tyson squeezes my shoulder. “Maybe it was an accident?”