Page 34 of Bane's Beginning

“That you’d always protect me,” I whispered and, to my surprise, tears welled into his eyes and he pulled me in for a hug. Something we hadn’t done in years. “I’m sorry,” he said. I hugged him tighter and told him it was okay.

For a moment, a few seconds in what felt like many, I let myself believe that it would be.

***

“Can you introduce me to your hot friend?” Anna said with imaginary heart eyes popping out of her head. “You mean Chase?” I laughed. We were back in the kitchen eating breakfast. Hollywood, Crash and a few of the other members had joined the group. Serena was sitting on Dav’s lap, and Maverick was sitting by me scrolling on his phone.

“Yes,” she cooed. “The way he carried you in here, god my ovaries.”

“Gross,” Crash said as if he was disgusted. “I’m eating.” She just rolled her eyes and continued to list out why she thought he was hot. I didn’t miss Hollywood’s pissed off facial expression as he tried to look like he wasn’t listening.

“Oh sweet virgin Anna,” I joked. “He would tear you apart.”

“What do you mean?” She gaped. “He’s a total frat boy.”

“A frat boy who is known as the campus’ very own Christian Grey. There was once a rumor that he boned a girl and she had to stand in all of her classes for a whole week.”

Anna gaped. “A week and a half, but her parents were going through a divorce,” Chase said as he walked into the room giving the gaping Anna a smirk. He still looked exhausted, but humor had always been our medicine. “I consider myself a therapist of sorts,” he said and I wrinkled my nose in disgust. “And don’t kink shame me, Draft Queen.”

I groaned. I hated that nickname. They gave it to me after one drunken night of truth or dare when I had to tell them about allof the guys I’ve dated. Apparently, I have a tendency to date the most dominant men in the room, which is bullshit.

“Don’t call me that, asshat,” I said as I flung my toast at him. He chuckled as he caught the toast and started eating it.

“What does that mean?” Anna asked.

“It means she only dates men like she’s drafting some type of fantasy team,” he said, sitting down with a cup of coffee. “Which is completely untrue,” I added.

“Sure it is,” Anna smirked and slapped her hand on Maverick’s shoulder, in which he laughed a sexy, dark laugh.

“Not fair,” I argued. “He approached me!”

“Okay,” Chase teased. “Let’s see. There’s Marcus who all of the frat boys worship on campus. Then there was the captain of the hockey team in high school, that emo prick who fronted the garage band, and the lacrosse captain.”

“Can’t forget about our little trip to Italy,” Bridgette sneered from the door frame and that sucked the playful energy right out of the room.

“Fuck you, Bridgette,” I said rolling my eyes. “Why did you even come here? You do realize that it’s desperate as fuck to follow your man across the country to try and win back his ex, right? Fucking weirdo.”

“You would know about desperate wouldn’t you?”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” I laughed, noticing that once again, the room was quiet and everyone was looking at us.

“It means that you’re an attention whore. You can’t stand the attention to not be on you, Draft Queen.” She emphasized the stupid nickname as if to say it showed my desperation.

I laughed at her as I took a bite out of my food.

“You know what,” I said, swallowing my food and standing up from the table. “That chat you mentioned, let’s have it now. Chase, you and Bimbo Barbie meet me in Marcus’ room in fifteen.”

She gave me a shocked expression and I shoulder checked her on my way out. I didn't know what was going to happen during this chat, but I knew it wasn’t going to be good.

Chapter 18: Thea

Stepping into the room where Marcus was staying, I saw him propped on his elbows scrolling through his phone. For a man who just had an overdose, he sure didn’t show it. Probably because this wasn’t his first rodeo. In fact, it wasn’t any of ours, which is why we always had Narcan on us when we went out. It was an unspoken rule between us, which came in handy more than once.

“Hey,” I said to test the waters. “Hey,” he responded, just as nervous. “How are you feeling?”

“Sore as a bitch, but I’ll be okay.”

I nodded. “So about last night.”