Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“Okay.”
She’s almost free of douche canoe before he lassos a rope around her waist and pulls her straight back in. “Is that English lit?” When McKayla nods, Gabriel replies, “I’ve got the mock exam in my car if it will help.”
He’s acting like the nice guy, but he’s an even worse pick for McKayla than me.
Well, so I thought.
McKayla swoons again, making me wonder if I’ve read any of her signs correctly the past week. “That’ll be a big help. Thank you so much.”
When he tootles off to fetch the mock exam like it’s a personalized invitation into McKayla’s panties, McKayla heads my way, her slow stumble only cut off by another person not worthy of her time.
“Why are you still here?” Vivienne snaps out, her voice so loud the party-like atmosphere dulls to a white noise hum. “You were meant to leave hours ago.”
I miss what McKayla replies. I’m too busy watching Gabriel’s return to the festivities. Our frat house is one of the biggest on campus, so there’s no way he made it to his car and back already. He’s also returned empty-handed, and his smirk is the same one he gave me when I walked in on him and Vivienne fucking in the pantry of our frat house.
With the images of me beating the shit out of Gabriel after dragging him off Vivienne, and the subsequent charges and suspensions I faced after the incident, it takes me a little while to discover the reason for splashing water to be sounding in my ears.
Despite the cool evening, someone has gone for a swim, but my gut is telling me it wasn’t their choice.
“Oh my God, can she not swim?”
My eyes dart from Vivienne, the tormentor, to the pool when numerous slaps boom over the laughter projecting from the small swarm of bullies. Mousy brown hair floats on the rippling water’s surface. It is just above the shimmery sparkles of a dress far too risqué for the modesty of its owner.
McKayla.
My brain screams her name on repeat as my sluggish legs finally kick into gear. I barge Vivienne and her friends out of the way before diving into the pool, uncaring that my phone is in my pocket.
The bright lights of the pool and my surging panic hinder my efforts to find her, but I don’t give up. I’ll sink to the bottom of this pool from a lack of oxygen before I’ll ever float to the top without her.
Mercifully, the odds are stacked in my favor when Kamil and Crew leap into the frigidly icy waters, doubling my efforts to find McKayla.
“Milo,” bubbles through the water, stealing my focus from the images of my brother’s girlfriend lying dead on the pavement only feet from the car my mother crashed. I was the first one on the scene, and with my mother screaming obscenities about her totaled BMW, I had to pick between saving my brother or his girlfriend of two years.
I chose Trenton.
Mercifully, this time, I don’t have to pick.
Kamil has McKayla, and he’s racing her to the surface as fast as my panic is asphyxiating me.
“You were meant to jump in and save her, you idiot,” I hear Vivienne scream when my head breaks through the water at the same time as Kamil and McKayla. When she spots our surface, she snaps her eyes to mine. “I swear to God, I didn’t know she couldn’t swim. I wouldn’t have pushed her if I had known.”
She’s lying.
How do I know?
She always lies.
Over her lies as much as me, Kamil places a motionless McKayla onto the marble tiles around the pool before getting right up into Vivienne’s face like she doesn’t have a set of fake tits keeping them apart. “Get out.”
“I—”
“Get the fuck out!”
I don’t know if he marches her out or if it is his tone that warns he isn’t to be messed with that gets her legs moving. I’m too busy checking McKayla’s neck for a pulse to wonder how well he has my back.
Kamil stood by my side through everything. Trenton’s girlfriend’s funeral, the nineteen-hour operation to unsuccessfully save my brother’s leg, and the charges of battery that almost lost me my scholarship when the first thing I stumbled on after returning from the hospital was Vivienne and Gabriel’s escapades.
He has my back, and now he has McKayla’s.
“You’re all right. It’s okay,” I assure McKayla when a sudden will to live removes the water from her lungs before my breaths of life.
Even with the color returning to her cheeks remarkably quick, considering how cold she feels, I request one of my frat brothers to call an ambulance.
“No,” McKayla murmurs, her voice groggy since she’s still gargling on salty water. “I’m okay.”
“You’re not okay. Your lips are almost blue. You’re getting checked whether you want to or not.”