Page 60 of Make Her Break

AS I OPEN MY EYES, I realize my cheek is pressed against Jayden’s chest, his arm around my waist. His chest slowly rises and falls under me.

Huh. This is nice, which is kind of annoying, since he spent weeks messing with my head for the society. My fingers are curled in the front of his shirt, so I let go before he wakes up and gets any ideas. Although...

Nope. I don’t want to think about that right now. All I wanted was not to be alone after everything that happened.

When I tip my head back, I take a good look at him. He’s still asleep, his mouth a little open, his hair messy against my pillow. The bruise on his cheekbone looks way worse now, but somehow, he still looks undeniably handsome.

And I like this. I like being with him and resting in his arms, so getting up is the last thing I want right now. If I could, I’d hide under the blanket with him and pretend the rest of campus didn’t exist.

But liking this doesn’t mean I forgave him, and I’m nowhere near being ready to do that. Who is Jayden even when he’s not working for the society? I don’t have a clue, because I’ve never really interacted with him without the society messing with both of us.

He could be a great guy, or he could really be a bully who just used the society as an excuse, and I have no way of knowing that yet. But lying here all morning won’t help me figure any of it out, so I ease his arm off me, inch by inch, and slide out from under it. He mumbles something I can’t make out and turns onto his side, his eyes still closed.

Oookay, it’s better like that anyway. At least I can change my clothes without an audience. As I pull some clothes out of the closet, I spot my hoodie and grab it.

While I change as fast as I can, I check the bed every now and then in case Jayden wakes up, but it looks like he could probably sleep through a fire alarm right now. Maybe he stayed awake for a long time, which means he watched me sleep, and I don’t know how to feel about that.

Once I’m dressed, I run a brush through my hair. The bed creaks behind me, and Jayden props himself up on his forearms and squints at me.

“Morning,” he says, his voice rough with sleep.

“Morning.” I spin around. “Your bruise looks bad, by the way.”

“Thanks.” He yawns and then winces, touching the bruise on his cheek. “You look great.”

My lips twitch up as I put the brush down on the desk. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” He gets to his feet and runs a hand over his face.

“Are you really done with the society? Like, completely done?” I fold my arms. “Because if this is all another game for you—”

His gaze meets mine. “Yeah, I’m done with them. For good.”

“Are you sure?” I eye him carefully, searching for any signs that all of this is yet another lie.

“They’d never take me back after everything that happened.” He grimaces as he presses his hand to his shoulder. “And even if they begged, I wouldn’t do it. I swear.”

Hmm. I’ve watched him lie plenty of times, and he can be super charming. But right now, his face is dead serious, his gaze trained on mine, so I think he’s telling me the truth.

“Okay,” I say. “But you get only one chance to prove me that, and that’s all.”

He nods. When I snatch my phone off the nightstand, my heart pounds as I unlock it, because I just might find out Supreme released the video after all, and my life is falling apart.

But my messages are empty, so my shoulders relax a little. I even check the college’s social media, since anything about me would spread there first, but it’s all the usual stuff about regular events and games.

If the video were out there, my parents would be calling me nonstop, and my phone would be blowing up with messages from people who never bothered to talk to me before. At least for now, Supreme didn’t do anything.

“No news.” I tuck my phone into my pocket.

“Supreme won’t post the video or anything else while he still needs you.”

“Sure, but he could change his mind about that. Actually, I thought he already did. Anyway, we need to get going,” I say. “Morning classes start soon, and we need to see which senior will show up with his hand wrapped or who won’t show up at all. You know them, right?”

“Some of them. Mostly from parties.” Jayden shrugs.

“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway. If we can identify him, we can easily find out his name.” Yearbooks, social media... It’s really easy, but we need to track him down first. “It’s a good thing I cut him pretty bad, so it won’t heal overnight. We’ll see the bandage or that he’s hiding his hand, or he’ll have to skip more than one class. Students don’t just disappear for days unless something’s wrong. But of course, then we’ll have to wait a few days, and I don’t like that.”

Jayden scratches his chin, his forehead creasing. “Except, he’ll probably assume we’ll be looking for him. What if he makes someone else cut their hand? Or a bunch of guys? Then we’ll have bandages all over campus, and we’ll be chasing the wrong people.”