Now it was my time to act cool and nonchalant. We did seem to keep showing up at the same places at the same time, but I was certain they were total coincidences. Fate’s way of dangling something I wanted right in front of my face, knowing I would never, ever get it. I could be the last girl on this earth, and Eric wouldn’t dare touch me. I could see it on his face. It was clear the day I had casually told him his father had been fucking my mom for years. He hated me then, and he hated me now.
He grunted, pushing off the wall to stand way too close to me. I kept my face completely relaxed. “I’ve got shit to do, Eric. So, if you’ll excuse me.” I went to move around him, but he quickly dodged right in front of me, causing me to hit my face off his hard chest. I got a whiff of his cologne, and I almost went in for a second sniff. Eric smelled exactly how he looked: dark and mysterious with a little bit of spice.
He took a step back, peering down at me with that cocky grin. “Things to do? Or people to do?” He shrugged again, putting one hand in the pocket of his jeans. “I mean…” His tongue slowly swiped a line over his plump bottom lip, and I was beginning to sweat. “A girl like you? I can only assume it’s the latter.”
His words flipped me completely inside out. He wasn’t wrong. The Madeline he knew would fuck a random guy at a college party that she had no business being at, but that was before. That was before everything turned ugly.
“Get out of my way, Eric,” I managed to croak out, hoping like hell my voice didn’t break like I was breaking on the inside. He went willingly as I pushed against his chest. I swore I heard his laugh the entire time I walked over to who I assumed to be Atticus.
I gulped back my nerves and put on my mask of pure confidence. “Are you Atticus?” I asked, looking down at the guy on the couch cushions that looked as if they were going to swallow him and his two girlfriends whole.
His cheek lifted as he ran his lazy gaze down my body. Chills coated my arms, and the hair on the back of my neck stood erect. “I am. And…” He began sitting up, using the two girls’ knees as handles. “I’m going to bet you are Madeline.”
I nodded once as he stood peering down at me from his tall stature. He had to be at least six feet, if not more.
“Follow me,” he coaxed, grabbing onto my hand softly.
Alarm bells went off in every single crevice of my body, but I was too desperate to do anything about it.
I told myself not to let my guard down ever again, and here I was, following a strange guy up the stairs of some dirty frat house.
Pushing the fear away, I made sure to have one hand in my bag, holding onto my pepper spray I had put there months prior—just in case—and followed him anyway.
Once we climbed the flight of stairs, dodging a few couples making out, and rounded the line to the bathroom, Atticus stopped in front of a single door and slowly opened it.
He stood half in the hallway and half inside the room and barely flicked his head once for me to go inside.
A steady breath filled my lungs as I walked over the threshold, my hand slippery with sweat as I clutched onto the pepper spray even tighter.
Once the door latched behind me, my stomach dropped. It’s fine, Madeline. Breathe.
“So,” Atticus started, walking over to a small desk that was pushed up against the wall. “Ambien. That’s probably the weirdest request I’ve ever gotten for a drug.”
I ran my gaze around the room, staying quiet. It was a dark room with a deep-tan color all over with random posters of bands taped haphazardly around the space. There was a single bed in the middle of the room with messy covers and mix-matched books on the floor.
“I’m sure it was,” I finally answered, taking my gaze off the Pride and Prejudice novel and landing back on him. Atticus took his beanie off his head, throwing it onto the desk behind him, and ran his fingers through his long hair.
“Can I ask why?”
“Why what?” I stood near the door, my hand still inside my purse. I shuffled on my feet, ignoring the need to pull my skirt down. This is a normal guy, in a normal situation. Kind of...
He eyed my hand in my purse for a second before answering. “Why the need for sleeping pills?”
Oh. Thoughts of my dark room and hands that didn’t feel familiar started to creep in. It almost took my breath away. “No. You can’t ask.”
He chuckled, dropping his head. “Okay, fair enough.” He turned around and grabbed a small plastic baggie and dangled it in front of me. I almost ran over to him and wept at the sight of it, but he pulled it back within a second. “How are we doing this?”
A tight band squeezed my ribs. “Doing what?”
He gave me a skeptical look. “You didn’t think you were getting this for free, did you?”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course not.”
“Okay…” he dragged the word out. “So, are you paying cash or in another way?”
“Another way?” I asked cautiously.
He chuckled, and it sounded a lot like he was laughing at me. “Some girls pay in cash, and some pay…”—he glanced down at my mouth—“in other ways.”