Dash chuckled. “Should I offer a pity fuck?”
“She did look hot in that dress,” his best friend drawled. “Bet she’s a virgin, too.”
Gross, I thought. We were only fifteen. Why wouldn’t I be a virgin?
“Of course she is. No one in their right mind would ever touch her,” Ryan replied, sounding far superior despite being a month younger than me.
Why am I still standing here? Because my feet had forgotten how to move. Well, they quickly remembered now. I refused to cry in front of them. Refused to let them see another moment of my agony.
I picked up my skirts and ran, their uproarious laughter trailing in my wake.
They’ll all pay, I vowed. One day, somehow they—
A sob threatened my throat, cutting off my thoughts. I could plot my revenge later. Escaping mattered more.
Doors seemed to open for me, allowing me to burst into the night where all the cars waited.
I sprinted by them all, not caring in the slightest about the damp, snowy ground. The upcoming holidays were going to be hard—my first ones spent truly alone.
But this? The Freshman Holiday Ball? Had made it even worse. Because I h
ad no one to run to.
No family.
No friends.
Not even a pet.
Tears trickled down my face, freezing in the night air. But onward I pushed, longing to leave everything behind me.
I had a month to pull myself together, to harden my shell, to not let their comments and cruelty impact me. I could do this. I had to.
Three and a half years. I could survive that. In three and a half years, I would be done with school, done with them.
My stepmother couldn’t access my inheritance. Neither could I. Not until I graduated.
But on that very day, I would withdraw every penny and run far, far away.
Once I graduated, I would be free to—
My slippers gave out beneath me, sending me careening into a nearby wall. A wall with hands that grasped my hips to keep me upright.
I shook my head, clearing it and seeing the darkness around me for the first time. I’d run with a single-minded purpose of escape without paying any mind to my surroundings.
“Are you all right?” a deep voice asked, his face shrouded in the shadows. All I could make out were his piercing black eyes.
A chill swept up my spine. Something about this male was dangerous. It seemed to cloak his aura, allowing him to blend right into the night.
Or maybe it was my imagination.
Hell if I knew.
I took a step back, only to find myself caught in his too-strong grip. “Let go of me,” I breathed, the demand in my tone hidden somewhere beneath my fraying emotions.
He released me in an instant, causing me to fall flat on my ass in a pile of dirty snow from the road. Of course. I wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all, to whimper at the cold, and to beat some sense into my guardian angel. Assuming she even existed. I was seriously starting to doubt any aspect of the universe cared about me at all.
The stranger’s hand appeared, but I batted it away, too irritated to accept his help after being so unceremoniously dumped on the ground. A consequence that I recognized was more my fault than his.