Page 158 of Voices

“Four.” She finishes for me.

“Yeah. I’ll only be a couple of minutes.”

“Sure, sure. Take your time.” She’s looking at me with a smile that’s a little creepy, so I turn on my heel and climb up to my room.

I keep my head down as I pass a few students in the hall, pulling my key from my pocket. As soon as I open the door, I freeze. It smells…clean. Too clean. I haven’t been here in a while so it should smell like stale air not that chemical smell from cleaning sprays.

I slowly walk towards the living room and stop when I see my old couch has been replaced with a brand-new leather one. Scanning the rest of the room, I notice that the bars that held the sliding door closed are also gone and the frame has been painted to hide the scuff marks.

What the fuck is going on?

Turning towards my room, I can see inside and already know my stuff is gone. Stepping into my room, the overwhelming scent of lavender assaults my nose. I hold back a sneeze as I look around a room that clearly belongs to a girl and not me.

Swallowing thickly, I turn into the connecting bathroom. Pink and purple attack my eyes as I walk on shaking legs to the mirror. I haven’t felt the need to take anything or cut since I’ve been staying with Shane so when I open the cabinet and see a bunch of face cleansing stuff, I’m not too upset.

You’re walking around someone else’s home!

What if they come home and see your ass creeping around?

You’ll be arrested on the spot!

Shane will be so disappointed!

Ignoring the voices in my head, I go to my art room. I only had a few sculpting supplies, some sketches I never finished, along with some paints, pencils, and watercolors in there. I had moved everything else to either my art classrooms or Shane’s. I already know it’s gone but I still check anyway. Sure enough, I walk into another bedroom that belongs to a girl if the makeup all over the desk and dresses thrown all over the place is anything to go by.

As I close the door behind me, my steps are lighter. Even though my shit is gone, I feel almost…free. Free from being alone. Free from the voices that seem to haunt me the most when I’m here. Just…free.

I practically skip down the stairs, swinging the key ring around my finger. I think I might go surprise Shane at the party. I’ll have to get Lily or Asher in on it so I don’t have to go into that huge house blind trying to find him.

With that plan set in my mind, I walk into the office where the girl is still on her phone.

“You could have told me I was already kicked out,” I say cheerfully. “Here’s my keys. You might want to tell your boss to collect the keys from the previous renterbeforethey rent it out to someone new.” I drop the keys on the keyboard in front of her and turn to walk out.

“It was totally worth not letting you know,” she says in a sassy tone.

Looking over my shoulder, I raise an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’ll see.” She pops her gum before going back to her phone.

Not wanting to wait around for whatever she’s referring to, I hurry out to my car.

Only it won’t start.

There’s no way anything could be wrong with it since I hardly drive it, and it drove just fine over here.

I’m about to call Lily, so I won’t bother Shane, when a familiar black Rolls-Royce pulls up behind me, making my stomach drop.

No.

Why is he here?

And why now?

I lock my door as Conrad’s big body exits his car and walks up to mine. My breathing is erratic, making it hard to think clearly and my heart is beating so fast I’m afraid it might actually break my ribs.

A sharp knock on my window has a fear filled tear slipping down my cheek.

“Open the fucking door, Charles.” His angry voice sends shivers all over my body.

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