Page 34 of Free Fall

A knock sounds on my door.

“Go away.”

“Seriously?” I hear him mutter before he tries the door. The knob turns this way and that, and a sigh of frustration sounds. “Open up, Briar.”

“No,” I say simply. I’m facing the door with my hands on my hips, arguing with the door like I’d be arguing straight to his face. I feel like I was in another world for the last few days. I felt better sometimes and worse during other times, but it still brought me right back to here.Why does everything always end with me feeling like this?

He tries the door again like it’s going to miraculously unlock itself. Not likely. “Goddamnit, Briar. Open this door.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” I say, calling out over my shoulder. “I’ll meet you at school.”

“Not happening. I’m taking you to school.”

“Don’t need you,” I remind him as I pull my hair up in a high ponytail. It still has lake water in it and doesn’t smell the best, but I’m not concerned.

“You do,” he says, arguing with me, “because your parents just left.”

I sigh. Of course, they did. Are they just relying on the guys to bring me up now? What the hell is wrong with them? I bet even if I told my mom that Reid jerked himself off in front of me, she’d probably come up with some excuse for him. “I’ll walk.”

“I don’t think your parents will like it if I break this fucking door down. You’re going to school.”

I fucking know he will, too, but if he does that, he’ll just be shooting himself in the foot. “Have at it, Lucky Number Seven,” I deadpan.

Footsteps stalk away. I roll my eyes, but he’s back before I can think of what to do next. If I have to walk to school, I should really go now. I can always go out the window…

A drilling sound revs through the air. “What the…?” I move closer to the door and lean toward it. Sure enough, Reid Parker is taking the doorknob off my bedroom door. Fucking Asshole. I scramble toward my desk for my bookbag and then head for the window. I take the screen out, throw the window up, then hear several noises behind me. With one leg out of the house, a hand clamps around my shoulder.

“Briar, get your ass back in this house.”

“I thought I told you to leave me alone?”

Reid gives me a tug, taking my bookbag right off my shoulder, then pulling me back through the window and into my room before replacing the screen. He looks me up and down once he turns. “You’re not wearing that and look at your hair. Get in the shower.”

I step up to him. “Leave me alone, Reid. I’m going to school, and I don’t need you or yourhelp.”

Reid sits down on my bed and leans back, his hands behind his head like he owns the place. He leaves his scent in the air between us. “I’ll wait here.”

“You’ll be waiting a long time.”

“Don’t test me, Briar.”

“Test you?” I laugh darkly. “I’m one moment away from telling my parents what you did to me in the hallway of your house. You think they love you now? Just wait.”

Reid moves so fast I don’t realize what he’s doing at first. Before I know it, I’m hiked over his shoulder and he’s striding out of my bedroom.

“Reid!”

His hand clamps around my back as he takes me into the bathroom. He turns on the showerhead while I’m trying to wiggle out of his grip.

“Stop!”

He tries to deposit me in the shower, but I hold on for dear life. I’m doing anything to make this harder on him. Tears of frustration gather behind my eyes. I know I’m acting like a bitch and a baby. I know this isn’t normal behavior for me, but I just want everyone to leave me alone. Is that too much to ask?

Reid curses sharply under his breath, then he kicks his shoes and socks off before stepping into the shower with me. I gasp when the water runs down my back, instantly soaking my shirt and falling down my hair. In that instant, he deposits me on my feet and turns me around, then pushes me back until my head is under the spray. In the commotion with him, my hair pulled out of the hair tie, so my dark hair is long down my back and now completely soaked through like the rest of me.

I just stand there and glare at him as the showerhead does what it was created to do, except I’m also in clothes. “Happy?” he asks.

I don’t answer. My jaw clamps shut, and I’m still fighting against the emotion threatening to pour out of me.

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