Page 5 of Make Her Break

I blink. Well, that’s not the reaction I planned for, not even close. There’s no fear in her voice anywhere, just anger, as if she’s annoyed she has to deal with some idiot’s mess on her way out of the bathroom. I expected shaking and maybe even tears or her calling for help, but this... Interesting.

She’s moving around in the hallway, and something rustles, but I have no idea what she’s doing. Eventually, her footsteps head off toward the stairs and fade out into the music.

Once I can’t hear any movement outside the door anymore, I step out into the hallway and freeze on the spot. The glass is gone. All of it. She actually cleaned it all up. Wow.

I run a hand back through my hair. Okay, maybe doing this at a party with a bunch of drunks was a bad idea, since she probably figured it wasn’t meant for her but was an accident. Still, most people would’ve been terrified, but not her.

Maybe she’s just stubborn, or maybe she’s the type who can’t leave a mess alone. Or maybe Supreme saw something in her, and that’s why he chose her. But whatever. I’ll figure her out. None of this changes my plan, just makes things a little bit more interesting. I prefer girls who don’t fall easily anyway.

Chapter 4

VERONICA

I CAN’T STOP THINKING about the bottle smashing against the door. For a moment, I really thought someone was out there waiting to hurt me, and I listened carefully. Then I opened it anyway and the hallway was empty, just glass scattered all over the floor and no one in sight.

It was probably nothing. Some drunk idiot lost his grip on a bottle and didn’t even notice where it landed, because the whole house was full of wasted people, and one of them flinging a bottle around isn’t exactly shocking.

Still, it bugs me. The bottle could’ve smashed against someone’s head just as easily, mine even, if I’d opened the door a moment sooner. Who’d be crazy enough to do that?

I frown. Maybe it wasn’t even someone from our college. The party was off campus, so really anyone could’ve wandered in off the street. Aniyah says random people crash parties all the time, so it could’ve been some guy from town who heard there was free booze and showed up.

The more I think about it, the dumber I feel for letting it get to me at all. People break things at parties. It’s normal. Accidents happen too. You can’t control everything.

Besides, even if it was meant to scare someone, why would that someone be me? No one here knows me. I’m a freshman with exactly zero enemies. There’s no reason for anyone to come after me. The whole idea is ridiculous, so I’m going to chalk it up to a drunk idiot and forget about it.

Anyway, I have better things to think about than a broken bottle. I’ve got class in an hour, and I’ve been looking forward to it. The professor actually seems to want us to dig into things instead of just memorizing dates, and I love that. If I’m going to obsess over anything, it should be college stuff, not some stranger who can’t hold onto a beer bottle.

THE LECTURE HALL’S already full when I head in. There’s an empty seat a few rows from the front, close enough to see the board but not so close that the professor will pick on me first, so I grab it and get my notebook out. A couple of students near me are talking about some reading, and I half listen while I find a clean page.

Then a guy walks through the door, and I do a double take, because it’s Jayden Burgess. What is he doing here? As his gaze lifts, his light blue eyes land on me, and for a moment, he just stares at me. Whoa, his eyes are fucking gorgeous. Then he heads up the steps in my direction, and I focus back on my notebook, pretending as if I wasn’t staring.

I press my lips together. He looked at me for, like, two seconds, and he looks at everyone. It doesn’t mean anything.

He takes the seat in the row right behind me. I fix my eyes on the board and pretend to be very interested in what the professor’s writing up there, but I can feel Jayden’s presence behind me, and it takes everything in me not to glance over my shoulder.

Why would a guy like Jayden Burgess take this class? Maybe he needed an elective, and this was the only thing that fit his schedule. Or maybe he failed something and has to make up the credits. It doesn’t matter. I’m here to learn, not to gawk at some soccer captain, even if he is ridiculously good-looking.

A couple of girls a few seats over twist around to look at him, whispering something, and one of them waves her hand at him. I fight the urge to roll my eyes.

It’s not like I haven’t seen all this before either. Back in my high school, there was always one guy everyone wanted, and the second he looked in your direction, you were supposed to fall in love with him. But a pretty face doesn’t make a guy worth my time, and it’s not like he’d be interested in me anyway.

Just as I’m taking notes, something bumps against my shoulder and I jump in my seat. A pen rolls down my arm and falls onto the floor by my foot.

“Oh, sorry,” Jayden says behind me.

I glance down at the pen. Before I can decide whether to grab it or ignore him, he leans right over me to reach for it, his arm stretching down past my side. He can’t actually reach it from up there, but he doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to move either. He’s basically curved around me, and he smells so damn good, which makes me lose track of whatever the professor’s saying.

Okay. Wow. I lean down and snatch the pen before Jayden can get any closer, then twist around and hold it out to him.

“Here,” I say.

The corner of his mouth lifts as he takes it from me, his fingers brushing mine. “Thanks. I’m Jayden.”

As if I and the whole campus don’t already know.

“Veronica,” I say, just because it would be rude and weird not to respond.

“Pretty name.”