Page 54 of G.O.D.S Omnibus

Jimmie nods and I give him a run-down. I’m not usually one to kiss and tell, but this is Jimmie, someone I weirdly trust. Which in itself is strange, considering my ex and my last best friend hooked up.

“Let’s go grab our books. We don’t want to be late,” I say, ending the conversation, and thankfully he agrees.

The whispers return as we walk out of the bathrooms arm in arm. I’m sure there will be more rumours around the school by the end of the day and I couldn’t care less.

Laughn is leaning against my locker, and he smiles at me as we approach.

“It’s still super weird seeing him happy and smiling all the time. Also, have you noticed his pets don’t hang around much anymore?” Jimmie comments, and I shrug because I honestly hadn’t noticed.

Laughn pulls me to his body, his hand wandering under my skirt, until someone coughs. I lean away and see Case staring at us, but I hold back a smile when I notice the way he looks between me and Laughn. He moves at the speed of lightning, slamming Laughn into the lockers.

“You fucking hurt her,” he seethes, his hand wrapping around Laughn’s throat. Case being shorter, his arm is stretched to reach Laughn’s neck. “I’m going to kill you.”

Laughn laughs in his face and Case slams him harder in response.

“Case, calm down.”

He ignores me until I place my hand on his shoulder. Letting go of Laughn, he turns to me, fingers reaching out to trace the mark across my throat. Case then gently pulls me into his arms and tucks my head to his chest.

“Laughn didn’t do anything I wasn’t okay with. Pain isn’t always the enemy.”

As I finish, Case looks at me. I don’t know if I’m this girl that they lost, but they have all started clinging to me in their own ways—Case in the literal sense.

“I knew you were still in there,” he says, cupping my face, then he is ripped from my body by an extremely pissed Boston.

Confused, I watch as they move away from me. Boston is angrily whispering, and Laughn yells after them that it sucks to be jealous. Marlow and Davis have only just now joined us, having missed most of this morning’s drama.

“Don’t be a dick,” Marlow says, glaring at Laughn. He glances at my neck and snorts before shaking his head.

Meanwhile, Davis just stands there with his arms crossed, looking like someone pissed in his cornflakes this morning.

Laughn tells me he better go sort his shit out with Case or there will be a knife fight in the courtyard at lunch, then he stalks off.

Davis steps closer to me once Laughn is far enough away.

“This is all your fucking fault. Is this your plan? Fucking us all one by one and turning us against each other?”

“Don’t blame me for your insecurities. I can fuck who I like. If you have issues with it, then that’s ayouproblem. I didn’t force anyone to stick their dick in me. It sounds like a lot of jealousy is coming from you, Davis.”

He justpfftsme and walks away, flipping me off as he goes. Jimmie high-fives me and Marlow leans against the lockers, his blonde hair tied up into a sexy-as-hell man bun. I never used to find it attractive, but Marlow’s carefree attitude has me rethinking my previous evaluation of long hair and man buns.

“You’re causing quite a stir,” Marlow says.

“Well, maybe they need to get over it. If you guys went and fucked a bunch of random girls, it would be okay. So why can’t I do it? I’m not ashamed of my sexuality—I like sex and that won’t change. Also, I don’t want to be monogamous with one person for the rest of my life. That’s not in the cards for me.”

“I’m not complaining,” he says, pushing off the locker and looping his arm with mine. “It was purely an observation. If you haven’t noticed, my dick is still in my pants.”

“For now,” I say with a laugh.

“Gotta save the best for last,” he says back. I don’t tell him I haven’t yet slept with Case.

Jimmie says his goodbyes, escaping to his form class as Marlow walks me to ours, where we sit side by side in companionable silence.

The day dragged on, with the guidance officer even calling me to his office. He wasn’t the clean-cut Brennan look-alike I was expecting. With parts of tattoos visible on his hands and neck, and rings through both sides of his nose, he seemed so out of place in this snobby school setting. All he wanted was to lecture me about abuse. I quietly listened to what he had to say because he was clearly passionate about the subject, and I agreed with everything he was saying.

Except I’m not being abused.

My cover story was that I was jumped in a dark alley, which I know he didn’t believe, especially when he said he would call the cops. Things escalated when I may have told him I would jump from the second-story window if he even tried. I then had to explain the threat cops posed to someone like me; with my history, I don’t trust them. Living with the Myers is something I don’t want to ruin so close to graduating. He reluctantly agreed to keep it between us this time.

---