Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
So maybe she’d let me explain. That thought made me finally see how bad the damage was, and fuck. It was bad. The more I read, the angrier I got at Bennett for treating her that way.
Then I reached her last message, and my heart sank.
Don’t ever contact me again.
If only she’d listen to me one last time. My fingers shook as I typed on the tiny keys. Please just let me explain. Then I pressed send—only it didn’t.
Hailey had blocked me.
25
HAILEY
The next day, I practically had whiplash from all the ups and downs of the day before. It had been so amazing finally learning the truth about Ian. Seeing him in a new light. And even surprising was how he’d been able to make me see myself in a new light.
Maybe he was right, maybe there were some legitimate reasons why I struggled so much. Maybe it wasn’t just because I wasn’t as smart as my classmates.
I’d been riding the highest high—and then I got those disgusting message from Night Owl and plunged to the lowest low.
What a day.
I sighed. Ian had almost convinced me that I wasn’t dumb, but now I knew I had another glaring personality flaw—I was a terrible judge of character. Because I’d really thought that Night Owl was a good guy.
Even after he’d talked me through my first orgasm, a very pleasurable experience, he hadn’t made me feel awkward about it. At least until yesterday. I’d never heard the expression of flicking one’s bean, but it wasn’t all that hard to figure out what it meant.
And it made me feel dirty that he’d said those things. It was probably ironic because I’d done naughtier things in person with Theo and Ian. But it was this text exchange that made me feel cheap.
He’d likely meant for me to feel that way.
And he’d done something else, too. He’d made me feel unsafe here. I hadn’t felt scared in this house since the first week or two. Then later, I laughed at what a scared little virgin I’d been when I arrived here. Well, I was still a virgin. And little. But not scared.
Not until yesterday.
He’d made me question everything I thought I knew about this place. Maybe I’d just gotten complacent. What kind of girl feels safe in a frat house?
But I had. For a while.
After dinner, I retreated to my room, carefully locking the door behind me. But then I couldn’t focus. I read the same chapter over and over in my textbook, the information not sinking in. Yet I was a little more gentle with my self-talk. That didn’t mean I was stupid—it just meant I was stressed out and had a lot to worry about. Like where the hell I was going to live two weeks from now. And why Night Owl had talked to me that way. I couldn’t stop my mind from returning to that.
Eventually, I gave up on studying. It just wasn’t going to happen tonight. But it was far too early to go to bed, it wasn’t even midnight yet.
Midnight. He’d said we were the midnight club. And it had felt like a club. Like a secret just the two of us shared. That meant a lot to me even if I didn’t know who he was. And now I never would, because I was never speaking to him again.
This was pointless. If I couldn’t sleep and I couldn’t study, then I could at least do something productive. I gathered my stuff and headed upstairs to take a shower.’
The bathroom was cold—that was its only bad point, but I still liked the luxury of having it all to myself. I slid the frosted glass door open and started the water, grinning when the steam rose almost immediately. This place was a study in contrast. The air was far too cold, but the water became hot in an instant.
Really, really far too cold… I danced from foot to foot when the cold air hit my bare skin. I hurried to the shower stall but somehow managed to knock my phone off the side of the sink. It hit the tile below, bounced, and slid under the edge of the vanity.
Crap. I hoped I hadn’t broken the screen. But if I had, it would still be broken after my shower, and I was too damn cold to check right now.
I stayed under the hot water for a long time. My hair was pinned up, but I turned and let the water cascade down my neck and back. It felt so good. I was definitely a shower person. If I’d stayed in a bathtub this long, I would’ve turned into a prune. But not here.
And yeah, I was wasting water, but after this summer was over, who knew how many roommates I’d have to share a bathroom with—if I even had a place to stay at all.