Page 147 of Keep Me Never
“Have you tried to call him?” Ari worries. “To ask him what’s going on?”
They nod and Brady says, “Voicemail and it wasn’t exactly something we wanted to ask on there. He didn’t tell you, Paige, and ask you not to say anything?”
My eyes fall to the grass and I shake my head, unable to meet their gazes.
“What’s going on?” Payton walks up, tossing an empty smoothie cup in the trash on her way.
Cam fills her in quickly. “Nobody’s seen Chase and he’s not Brady’s roommate anymore.”
Payton’s head snaps back a little, and she tilts it to the side. “I saw his truck this morning.”
Everyone jolts, spinning her way, and her eyes widen. “Whoa, you guys are actually worried that something’s wrong?”
“Where did you see him?” Brady asks.
“In the west parking lot, you know the one by the baseball stadium? I was scoping out some outdoor shoot options on that side of campus… I think it was still there when I left.”
The guys take off immediately, their worry morphing into anger as they rush toward the answers they want.
When I don’t move, Cam looks at me with concern.
“Whatever is going on, it’s going to be okay,” she promises, following after her family.
She has no idea how wrong she is.
Ari hooks her arm through mine, dragging me along, but I tug myself free, giving her a tight smile when her features morph into a scowl.
“Paige?”
Tears prick my eyes, and I shake my head. “I can’t…” I breathe and then take off, running back to my dorm, but I don’t go inside. I go past it, heading to the bus stop and hop on the first one that arrives.
It takes me a few hours, but eventually I end up at the end of my grandpa’s long, winding driveway.
I make it halfway up before he comes out, having spotted me on the cameras, I’m sure.
“Paige, sweet?—”
“Please don’t,” I whisper. “I only came here because I have nowhere else to go.”
My grandpa swallows. “I understand.”
“I just…I don’t want to be there when everyone finds out what he did. What you did.”
His chin lowers to his chest, and he nods. “He’s back?”
I nod, hugging myself, and when he ushers me into the house, I go willingly, locking myself in a spare room.
And then I cry myself to sleep. Again.
I’m dead asleep when the pounding on the door rips me from my dreams. Or maybe it was a nightmare, considering it was Chase’s voice that filled my head.
My heart skips, and my body stiffens in the bed, confusion rushing through me as I fight to push the fog of sleep away.
The sound repeats, louder now, and I bolt upright, straining to listen.
I blink, my mind still half-asleep, and then I hear it again, this time sharper, more persistent with a muffled shout. I scramble out of bed, but the pounding continues, erratic and relentless.
“You can’t be here.” My grandpa is stern. A voice reaches me as I wrap my head around the railing at the top of the stairs. “Leave. Now.”
