Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 73537 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73537 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
More banging. “MICAH, OPEN NOW!”
I scrambled to get the shirt on, then hurried off the bed and into the bathroom. Micah’s gaze followed me, but I was afraid to look him in the eye. Was he mad at me? Surely not. But then what if Pepper was mad at me and him and that made him mad at me?
Closing the door, I locked it, then leaned back against it and stared at my reflection in the mirror. Did I look different? I felt different. At least my body did. There was an ache between my legs and a slight sting. I lifted the shirt to see how bloody it looked down there, but jumped, dropping it at the sound of Pepper shouting at Micah.
“WHERE IS SHE?! YOU! YOU! I can’t believe you did this! It didn’t even take a week! Did you stick her in the bathroom? Seriously?”
“Pep, calm the fuck down,” Micah told her.
“Don’t Pep me and do not tell me to calm down. That is my best friend you’re hiding in the bathroom after you…” She stopped, and I heard footsteps followed by a, “DAMMIT, MICAH!”
“It isn’t what you think,” he said.
“That’s blood on your sheets, and MY best friend is in your bathroom. Yeah, Micah, it is what I think.”
“No, it’s not. At least not exactly. Could you just go downstairs and get something to drink or eat? We will be down shortly.”
“And leave her up here with you?” she shot back at him.
“Why not? What else is there for me to do to her?”
I tensed at his words, and a sick knot formed in my stomach.
“You are a bastard—you know that? She deserved more than…than you.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“Then, why did you do it?” Pepper hissed angrily.
“Because…fuck. I don’t know. I just did.”
Closing my eyes, I inhaled slowly, willing myself not to cry. I had basically begged him to. It wasn’t like having sex with me was going to make him fall in love with me. We barely knew each other. He was my best friend’s older brother I had once been obsessed with, and I was…I was me. I was not going to get emotional and weepy because I didn’t have some magic vagina to make him want me for something more.
“I will never, never forgive you for this. Just…let her get cleaned up, and I’ll take her home. The roads are cleared enough,” Pepper said.
I listened to her footsteps fade away and the sound of the door closing behind her. I waited for Micah to come this way, but I heard nothing.
With a heaviness in my chest, I walked over and turned on the shower, waited for it to get warm, and stepped under the spray of the water. Washing off every place he had kissed me, touched me. The pink tint to the water as it went down the drain caused my vision to blur, and for a moment, I allowed myself a few tears.
Not because I had lost my virginity. Good riddance.
I cried because I had thought that it meant more to Micah…that I meant something to him. But I had just been another girl in his bed. I was as interchangeable as the others. It was my own stupidity. I should have enjoyed the experience and not opened my heart up to him.
My fingers brushed over the bandage on my leg he’d put there, and I let the memory of how gentle he’d been seep in before I could stop it. Taking the edge of the Band-Aid, I ripped it off. The red marks were scabbed over. I bunched up the bandage in my fist and tilted my head back as the water washed away my tears.
Finishing my shower, I got out and dried off. My eyes weren’t puffy, and it didn’t look as if I had been crying. Satisfied with that, I wrapped the towel around me and opened the bathroom door, ready to face Micah. Only he wasn’t there. His sheets were also gone. On his mattress, my clothes were spread out neatly, and my heels sat beside them. It was just one more slap in the face. I wasn’t even worthy of him sticking around to talk to me before I left.
I dressed, ran my fingers through my damp hair, found my phone, and headed out the door. I was ready to go home. Even if that meant facing Pepper.
Just as I made it to the stairs, a blonde blocked my way. She sneered at me as if I was something distasteful. I hadn’t met her before, but it seemed like she knew who I was.
“So, you’re the boring little virgin who didn’t meet up to Micah’s expectations,” she said, then smirked. “I’ll make sure to meet his needs for him. I always do.”
“Dylan, shut your trap and leave the girl alone,” Tex called out from the now-open library door.