Cade
Things felt different.I felt different. At least on the outside. Sure, I was still coming off as detached to just about everything going on around me, and everyone knew to keep a safe distance from me and my pensive attitude, but on the inside, something had changed.
It was her.
Journey.
Her gray eyes found me a few times this weekend, and I caught the troubled storm brewing even from across the lacrosse field through the thickening flurries. Her pink cheeks grew warmer when she’d eventually tear away from my gaze and go about her conversation with the girls. She watched Bain, and then she’d watch me, like she was trying to figure out the connection between the three of us.
I was trying to figure it out, too.
I rounded the girls’ hallway, passing by the linen closet where the threats lived and breathed. There was one paper that Journey didn’t see the other night in the library, and I was thankful Sloane tore her away at the last second. I wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle any more of the truth than what I had already given her.
I knew Journey. She needed to think things over. She was a planner by nature, a careful person, and that was likely why she was keeping a safe distance from me now.
I understood.
I hated it, but I understood.
A throat cleared behind me, and I rolled my eyes, stopping in the middle of the hall. Isaiah’s low grumble of a voice hit my backside. “I’d say you’re pathetic, but I’d do the same.”
I glanced behind my shoulder at him, standing right outside Gemma’s door. “You’re likely the only one who understands.”
His low chuckle filled the empty hall. “The others will understand eventually.”
I thought for a moment. “Not so sure about Brantley. He has a pretty big vendetta against commitment.”
Isaiah nodded with a half-shrug, both of us silently agreeing that Brantley was more damaged than the both of us. “Does Journey know you camp out in front of her room?”
Shaking my head, I answered quickly, “No, and even if she did, it’s not like she’d invite me inside. She’s more guarded than before—which is a good thing.”
“If you need something, I’ll be in here, watching some stupid fucking girly movie with Gemma and Sloane.”
I laughed quietly and headed toward Journey’s room, sliding back into my little cubby with my paperback still perched up in the corner for when I needed something to distract my tired eyes.
I began reaching in my pocket for the one piece of paper from Journey’s file that held any bit of indication that there was something from her childhood that was a direct line to the threats I’d received, but I paused when I heard the click of her door. I jumped to my feet in record time and pulled my black hood up to blend in better with the darkness. My veins surged with thick, hot blood as anticipation, followed by protection, ran through them, and when I heard her small gasp, I pulled my hood down quickly.
“It’s just me.”
Her hand went to her heart, and I held back a smile when I saw she was dressed head to toe in black, too. A little tip from me to her when we used to sneak around together. “What the hell are you doing standing here in the dark?”
She didn’t say the words, but I knew I had scared her. She was on edge, which I was glad for. Fear made you aware of your surroundings. “Better question is what are you doing in the dark hallway alone?” I stepped closer. “Wearing all black, might I add.”
There was a jealous poke to the side of my brain that had me questioning if she was sneaking out to meet someone. Someone like Bain.
“Didn’t you hear? I’m an emo girl. Black is my color.” Her light laugh floated around me, and I wished I could bottle it up. I hadn’t heard that sound in so long. “I have the scars to prove it.”
I reached my hand out quickly, wrapping it around her covered arm, and pulled her into my new room. Her gasp hit me in the face before she said, “What are you doing?”
“Duty teacher,” I whispered, walking the few steps to the very back of the small cove. Journey’s back hit my front as she turned around, and her long, sweet-smelling hair was a cloud around me. I was instantly in overdrive.
The light of the flashlight swayed back and forth down the hall as Journey and I stayed tucked back into the moonlit area. The window was mainly frosted, and hardly any starry glow filled the small cove, but I could see her just fine. Her head turned to the left as she followed the line of the flashlight, and when she backed herself up to my front, I placed my hands over her hips, steadying her. “Why haven’t you told anyone the truth?” I leaned in as close as possible to her ear. Her hair was tucked behind it, showing off the diamond studs that I remembered pulling with my teeth the other night.
Honest to God, I was trying to keep this moment as platonic as possible, knowing that what I’d done the other night was purely driven by a possessiveness that I’d only ever felt for her. It wasn’t fair to keep pulling her in only to make her feel worse afterward. It was hard to keep things neutral, though. My fingers burned to dive into her tight, little jeans, and her ass begged to be grabbed as I bent her over. I was salivating at the thought.
I cursed on the inside as I fought the urge to pull her closer as I backed up. My dick had already started its shit, and there was a place and a time, and this wasn’t it. Not anymore.
“I did tell someone,” she whispered so low I hardly heard her. My eyes traced the curves that her lips made, and I read the words right off of them.