He’s absolutely furious. There’s something wrong here, very wrong.
“Gabe made a comment about how racing is about running against your past self so… I… I didn’t mean anything by it!”
His eyes are narrowed slits, and it’s unnerving to look at him, but I also can’t look away. He’s somehow even more handsome when he’s furious, and I have to admit that standing up for one’s friends isn’t something I can ever argue against. The bullying has been wrong, but it could be worse.
Gauging from his facial expression, it’s about to get a whole lot worse for me.
Ace grabs my shoulders, and I swear he’s going to shake me, but he just squeezes hard. “So you don’t know about his past?”
“His past? No! What are you talking about?”
His eyes open wider, and he looks from one eye to the other, clearly trying to ascertain if I’m telling the truth. Finally, he releases me, almost pushing me away from him.
“Leaves us the hell alone,” he snaps.
“Sure thing,” I snap right back. “As soon as you leave me alone. Do me a favor and ignore me. Pretend I don’t exist.”
“I don’t know what the hell Rob sees in you,” he spits out.
“I don’t know why he’s friends with you, so I guess we’re both equally confused. Or maybe it’s just that Rob isn’t that good of a judge in character.”
Ace snorts. “You should see some of the girls he’s been with. Needy whiners or beg for approval all the time… and then there’s you who thinks her shit don’t stink.”
“That’s not true,” I protest.
“So you admit that your shit smells?”
“Like ass.”
Ace starts to laugh and then scowls. “You think you’re so funny, but—”
“Look,” I say softly. “What I did was stupid. I just wanted to stand up to you, and I thought… Maybe I hadn’t been thinking clearly, but I wanted to let you all know that I’m not going to take things lying down. It went too far without my meaning it, and I’ll fix this. I’ll spray over the writing—”
“I already did and thankfully before Gabe saw because if he had… He would’ve killed you, Katie, and no one would’ve been able to stop him, and no one would have batted an eye.”
I gulp. Ace is deathly serious, and with his words ringing in my ears, he stalks away.
What the hell happened in Gabe’s past? Did something tragic happen? Maybe that’s why he’s such a charmer. God, now I feel terrible. I really screwed things up.
So much for being a legend. I’m more of a failure than anything else.
CHAPTER19
I’m toodepressed to eat, and I turn down Robyn’s invite to join her for lunch the next day. On the way back to my dorm when I normally would’ve gone to the café, I spy Gabe walking in the opposite direction. I hightail it away from him, hoping he doesn’t see me.
And what do I do but plow into Zac.
He grabs my shoulders, straightening me and preventing me from being knocked back. “Do you need glasses? Or just to get your head out of your ass?”
“I prefer to think of it as having my head in the clouds,” I retort.
“You’re in hot water,” he says.
“How so?”
“How so? Vandalism is going a bit too far, don’t you think?”
I gulp. Since Ace painted over what I wrote, I assumed neither Gabe nor Zac knew about what I had done, but that’s obviously not the case.