Page 211 of Broken by my Bully
“Closer to three hundred,” Melissa says, but grudgingly. “Want me to stand next to you?”
“No, it’s fine.”
None of this is her fault. It’s one-hundred percent Haven Lee’s fault.
Should have known there’d be strings attached. I mean, the whole point of charity is to look good in front of other people, right? Like, to have some kind of moral advantage? When everyone gets to heaven, they’ll have a VIP parking spot.
If I’m going down, it’ll be on my terms.
I tighten my hand on the gold clutch Melissa lent me, and stalk down the corridor. She catches up with me a second later.
“Say something smart about how important education is.”
I mouth, ‘how smart’, and then shake my head. “You’re terrible at this.”
The classical music fades, and there’s some scattered applause. All muffled because of the door up ahead, but I can clearly make out the announcer calling the dean of Agony Hollow College to the stage.
Oh God.
My brain scrambles as I try to think of what the hell I could say up there. Unfortunately, a certain someone with warm brown eyes and the most fucked up mind I’ve ever met keeps interrupting.
And when I finally gethimshoved out of my head, it’s all Kai.
All Kai, all the time.
Damn it.
My clutch vibrates in my hand. I take out my phone without even thinking about it, glancing down at the screen.
It’s a text from an unknown number.
UNKNOWN
Get out. He’s…
What the hell? I fumble with the phone, unlocking it to read the full message.
UNKNOWN
Get Out. He’s coming for you.
My blood turns to ice.
Who sent this?
Kai? Bastian?
Who’s coming for me?
…Kai?
…Bastian?
Melissa pushes me between the shoulders. “That’s it, that’s you!” she whisper-shouts, snatching my clutch and my phone from my hand. “Go, go, go!”
It’s so dark in the corridor, I hold up a hand to shield my eyes from the bright spotlight on stage. Subconsciously, I know that there are steps in front of me. But my brain and my body obviously had some kind of falling out, because I take the first two steps fine, but my brain imagines a third that isn’t there.
I stomp down on thin air, lose my balance, and take two more stomps forward to catch myself.
