Page 83 of Twisted Minds

Then I’m being carried away, still unsure about my role in all of this. Questions are asked and answered, and finally my nightmare is over.

All the while I can’t stop thinking about Hunter.

His knee.

What if he broke something?

I feel numb.

It’s over.

I’ll be okay. Hunter will be okay. I have to believe it. Everything will be okay. Hunter will be fine.

I hope.

twenty-nine

Hunter

“Three weeks?” I nod, so tired of being upset. There’s nothing I can do about this, but I’ve been so depressed I didn’t shower the first week or move much at all. By week two, I was up with my crutches, trying my best to make the most of things.

Hey, for the first time since I started college I’ve had a break.

Yay.

Okay, maybe one more week of depression can’t hurt. Honestly, it could have been so much worse, and I’d take a torn ligament over an ACL tear any day of the week.

Sawyer is half slumped against my wall and chair. He’s been here on and off since it happened, feeling a bit guilty. It’s dumb. It’s in no way his fault, which I’ve told him repeatedly. Still, he’s here, and I guess if it were the other way around I wouldn’t leave him alone either. He looks uncomfortable, but I’m not going to bother him. I appreciate him being here. Jamie’s on his best behavior also. “Want me to make you laugh?”

“What is it?” I adjust myself on my bed.

“I didn’t sleep with Noah.”

“What?”

Sawyer shakes his head. “We were drunk. We started hooking up, and I thought about Darren. I started to cry, then I threw up on his pillow and passed out in his bed, naked.”

“What? Why were you thinking about your ex?”

“I don’t know. It was the first time I’d tried to hook up with someone since our breakup. It hit me, I don’t know. Noah thinks we hooked up, though, and I don’t know if I want to correct him. It’s so embarrassing.”

I laugh. “Well, he knows. He just doesn’t want you to be embarrassed so he hasn’t told you.” Sawyer laughs, shaking his head. “You’re both a mess.”

“Noah’s nice but . . . not for me.”

“Who’s Noah?” Jamie asks, half asleep and fully high lying in my bed with me.

“Mark’s best friend,” Sawyer says. “He’s like a pretty horny goblin.”

“Believe me,” I say. “He’s not your type.” I hate that my first thought is to tell Mark they should maybe meet. It’s stupid because there is no Mark. There is no us. The unwanted thoughts I’ve been shoving aside come back full force. Sawyer explained what had happened, and I did appreciate him helping Sawyer get Derrick locked up. I know that was a hard thing to do, but to use me . . . I can’t get past it.

Our doorbell rings. Jamie gets up slowly, stumbling a little and rubbing sleep out of his eyes. “Xavi . . .” Jamie walks out of the room and Sawyer goes back to his phone, shaking his head.

“Any hope that Noah doesn’t even remember me being naked?”

“He sent Mark a picture of your naked ass the morning after.”

“Are you serious?”

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