Pretty When She Cries: Black Mountain Academy, page 23
On the fifth day, I decided to go big or go home. I had a huge stuffed pineapple and a balloon waiting for her, which only managed to humiliate her even more. It wasn’t my finest decision, but I was going out of my fucking mind. She’d shut me out completely. Being close enough to touch her but knowing that I couldn’t was like staring down a cupcake after a hunger strike.
I’m starving to death without her. Nothing tastes as sweet. Even the oxygen I breathe feels tainted. I don’t know how to get through to her. And watching her hobble around in that fucking boot makes me murderous. Someone hurt my girl. Someone crushed her ankle with a goddamn baseball bat, and I can’t even comfort her because she refuses to break this crushing silence.
Knowing I deserve her wrath and more doesn’t make it any easier to accept. If I thought it would make her feel any better, I’d tell her to mace my ass. Punch me in the face. Whatever she wanted. But Kailani doesn’t even seem angry anymore. She’s just quiet and sad. Of course, the exception is when she’s with Jared fucking Price. He makes her laugh. Fucking asshole.
When the weekend rolls around, Alana shows up at my door. It’s a little awkward, considering the last time we spoke, I had just broken into her daughter’s bedroom. But she didn’t come to bust my balls. She came to invite me to dinner. I feel like a dick for disappointing her when I decline. As much as I want to go, I can’t sit next to Kail while she ignores me. We need to hash our shit out in private, where we can fight it out and then make up. And by make up, I mean get her naked and worship her until my dick falls off or we die.
A few of the guys from the football team ask if they can party at my place, and I tell them to fuck off. It’s Saturday night, and I’m balls deep into my own investigation, trying to figure out what happened the night of the party. I’ve been asking around to see what people remember. I’ve written down every detail I can recall. I’ve rehashed it with Carson over the phone and gathered a list of every name we can remember. Then I sent them to my attorney and asked him to dig up whatever he could. If any of those assholes sold stories to the media before or after that night, I wanted to know about it.
After I started that ball rolling, I asked around about the incident with Kail at school. I’d already talked to the police myself. After Mr. Dawson agreed to let me come back to school, he set up a meeting so they could interview me. Once I showed them my security footage placing me at home, they sent me on my merry way.
When Monday comes around again, I stuff a few first editions of Kail’s favorite books into her locker. This time, I don’t wait around to see her reaction because, honestly, it’s starting to feel a little hopeless. It sucks having that door slammed in my face every day. But I’m not quitting her, and I won’t let her quit me either.
She doesn’t talk to me that day. Or the day after that, or even the day after that.
When I’m not trying to figure out how to crack Kail’s silence, I’m keeping my head down and focusing on schoolwork. There’s a lot to catch up on. Coach let me come back to the team, but my heart isn’t really in it. It’s just something to kill time, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. Especially when Audrey bounds across the field every day after practice to annoy the fuck out of me.
It makes no difference if I respond to her inane commentary about the day’s events. She just likes to hear herself talk. When she finally realizes I’m not listening, she’ll try to fuss over me by using any excuse to touch me. Audrey is the kind of girl who thinks all guys can be led by their dicks. All she has to do is crook her finger, and they’ll fall at her knees without question.
Yet she still hasn’t managed to leash me.
Today, after practice, she’s waiting for me by the locker room. It’s funny she seems to be the only girl here who isn’t afraid of the lurker who attacked Kail. Since my return, I’ve noticed them all walking in packs, rushing to get out of here as fast as they can. But not Audrey.
This little detail has been eating at me. I know Audrey to be a lot of things. Manipulative. Greedy. Vain. But violent? It’s hard to imagine her being capable of that type of evil. By all accounts, it was a guy who bashed Kail’s ankle, so that should rule Audrey out. But does it?
“Sooo…” She twirls a bleached blond curl around her fingers as she looks up at me beneath the caterpillars she calls lashes. “Prom will be here before we know it. Have you given it any thought?”
I stuff my cleats into my duffel and zip it up. “Nope.”
She makes an irritated sound. “Do I have to spell it out for you, Killian?”
“I don’t know.” I toss the bag over my shoulder and meet her gaze. “Do I have to spell it out for you? Because clearly, you haven’t received the message.”
Her stamped on eyebrows pinch together in frustration. “Seriously, do you have to be such a dick? I know I pissed you off with the whole Jacob thing, but everyone expects us to go together. I think it’s time to smooth things over, don’t you? You can’t deny we’re perfect for each other. Everyone can see it. So, let’s kiss and make up already.”
“Audrey.” I stare at her like she’s deranged, well, because she fucking is. “We were never together. I don’t know how many times I have to explain this to you. I never asked you out. I never took you on a date. I never fucked you. Yet you seem to think you have some form of ownership over me. Whatever twisted fantasy you’ve created in your mind is a delusion, and you need to let it go.”
Her jaw clenches, but otherwise, she remains undeterred. “I know you want me. Quit playing games, baby. The two most beautiful people always end up together. Just like in Blood River Legacy.”
“Wow.” I scrub a hand over my face, exhausted. “I don’t even know how to respond to that, so I’m just going to say this. Clear as fucking day. I don’t want you, Audrey. I never have, and I never will. It’s not a game, or a riddle, or a fucking clue to some deeper, unspoken meaning. You and I are a nonstarter. Get it?”
She cocks her head to the side, eyes narrowed to thin slits. “Is there someone else?”
Jesus. What the fuck do I have to do to make this girl understand? I let her tell everyone I was her boyfriend before because I couldn’t be fucked correcting her. She followed me around like a total fangirl calling me Killian every chance she got, and for a while, her annoying chatter overshadowed the dark thoughts looping through my mind incessantly. But it’s clear to me now that was a mistake.
“There’s only one girl I want,” I tell her slowly, so she can’t possibly misunderstand.
“Oh, please.” She rolls her eyes. “You can’t possibly mean that stupid fatty who can’t even walk properly.”
“What the fuck did you just say?” The question roars out of my mouth with such violence it seems to vibrate the air between us.
Her lips fall open as she stumbles back in shock. “Don’t be like that, Killian.”
“What. Did. You. Just. Say?”
“Well, it’s true,” she answers, her voice quieter this time. “It’s not like I’m the only one who thinks it.”
“Do you think I give a damn about your opinion?” I sneer at her in disgust.
Her shoulders cave inward, but she forces her chin up, refusing to back down. “Why would you want to be with the girl who fucked your best friend and then took your money? It’s just gross. I thought you had better taste.”
“Money?” I freeze. “How the hell did you know about the money?”
She blanches, and I can see her trying to come up with something. Nobody knows about the money. Nobody but my lawyer, my publicist, and me. There isn’t any reason that Audrey would know about this unless she had something to do with it herself. When all of that went down, I was too pissed to think straight. I let my lawyer handle it, and he told me he did. He met Kail up at Devil’s Bluff and dropped the cash off there. That’s what he said. But now I’m wondering if it even was Kail.
“Audrey.” Her name hisses between my teeth. “How the hell did you know about the money?”
“It’s common knowledge,” she bites back. “Everyone knows.”
“Bullshit.” I grab her by the arm and shake my head. “I’m onto your fucking games. And let me tell you something about Kailani Hale. She’s mine. So I’d think very carefully about what you say. In fact, as far as you’re concerned, you don’t know her. If you ever utter her name again… if you even think about looking at her wrong, I will destroy you. We both know I can. Your power is only as strong as your associations at BMA. If you fuck with my girl again, I will have you shunned so fast your head will spin. Are we clear?”
“You’re going to regret this,” she snarls.
She leaves the threat in her wake as she storms off the field. I don’t doubt she means it, and I know I’ll have to deal with her later. But for now, I’m just glad she’s gone.
I turn the opposite direction to head for the parking lot, but I come face-to-face with an unexpected surprise when I round the corner. It’s a grim-looking Mr. Dawson with a law enforcement officer beside him.
“Landon.” Mr. Dawson offers me a sympathetic nod. “We need to speak with you.”
31
Kailani
It’s already dark when I slip out of the main house and head back to the pool house. My mom fell asleep watching TV, and she would lose her shit if she knew I was walking across the lawn alone, but I’m so tired of having an escort everywhere I go. I’m eighteen years old, and I shouldn’t need a babysitter.
The cold bites into my skin as I punch in the security code on the door. I’m shaking so hard my teeth are rattling my jaw.
“You should be wearing a coat.”
My head whips to the side. Landon is sitting in the patio chair, his breath billowing out into the night air.
“What are you doing out here?” I yelp. “You’ve got to be freezing.”
“I need to talk to you, Kail.”
God, this guy. Why can’t he just let me go? Can he sense how close I am to breaking down and letting him back in? When I look at his beautiful face under the light of the moon, all I want to do is kiss him and forget everything else that happened.
But how long would it last? How long would it be until the next heartbreak? Because Landon won’t ever let himself believe someone could truly love him without a motive. All he knows how to do is push people away when things get too hard or scary. I don’t think I can go through that again, and I’m terrified we’ll never be able to trust each other after everything that’s happened.
“You can’t sit out here all night.” I sigh. He’s totally playing on my empathy now.
“So let me come in.” His lips are tilted into a half-smile. Half hopeful, half weary.
I hesitate, but I’m too cold to overthink this right now. Maybe if he comes in, I can finally get my point across.
“Okay.”
Landon blinks like he wasn’t expecting my agreement, but the moment I have the door open, he follows me in before I can change my mind. He looks around the place as though he missed it, but then his attention moves to me. It’s impossible not to notice the redness around the edges of his eyelids. I’ve never known Landon to have allergies, so it doesn’t make sense. Has he been crying?
Everything else disappears in the face of this realization, and I think I should have been smarter. I should have just let us freeze to death outside because now I can smell him, and it’s so good I just want to inhale him like a drug. I want to hold him and promise it will all be okay, even if it’s not true.
“I’ve missed you so fucking much,” he rasps.
He takes a cautious step toward me, and internally, warning bells scream at me to push him away. But I can’t, and I don’t. When his fingers brush over my jaw, my eyes flutter shut, and my heart revives from its dead sleep. He drags me to him, wrapping me in his arms as his lips brush over my temple.
For a second, I allow myself to lean into him. He breathes me in. He tangles his fingers in my hair. My lungs pant, and I blurt out the only thing I know to make this stop before he destroys me all over again.
“I know what you did.”
He freezes, slowly pulling back to meet my eyes. “What I did?”
I extricate myself from his body to recalibrate. But cold-hearted bitch is no longer available in my default settings, so I opt for rational. As it turns out, even my rational side is too emotional because when I try to speak, my lip wobbles.
“You went to Audrey. You… had sex with her.”
His eyebrow shoots up like the idea amuses him, and it pisses me off.
“This isn’t funny, Landon.” I pace away a few steps and drag my hands through my hair in frustration. “We had just been together for the first time, and that meant something to me. But as soon as things got hard, you ran to her.”
“Kail—”
He tries to take a step toward me, but I back away. We need distance for this conversation. It’s the only way it can work.
“You can deny it if you want,” I say. “But I was at your house that night. I was waiting for you in your bedroom, so I heard everything. There’s no point in lying.”
Landon studies me for a few moments. His brows furrow like something is clicking into place. But he doesn’t look repentant as he fishes his phone out of his pocket and taps the screen.
“The twenty-seventh, right?”
I shift uncomfortably, somewhat surprised he even remembers the date. To me, it was important, but I didn’t think he’d be able to rattle it off so easily. When he looks up at me in question, I reply with a jerk of my chin, which is all I can manage.
He taps his phone a few more times and then glances at me again. “So, just to be clear… you think I came here, slept with you, picked a fight, and then ran off to do the same thing with Audrey a couple of hours later?”
Well, it sounds pretty dumb when he says it like that. But I know what I heard, and I won’t let him convince me otherwise.
“Yes,” I answer defiantly.
“Okay, let’s test that theory.” He walks over to the gray lounger and parks himself on it, slapping his palm down on the space next to him. “Come on. I won’t bite.”
I wait a few seconds just to be stubborn, but I am curious about what he wants to show me. I don’t know how he thinks he’s going to prove anything.
When I sit down beside him, I leave a gap of a few inches, which Landon swallows when he leans into me. He holds his phone up so both of us can see it.
“This is my security app,” he explains. “See the date?”
“Yes…” I answer slowly.
He hits the play button, and on the screen, there’s a video recording of the people who were there that night. A handful of guys from the football team, a couple of random girls, and Audrey. They are all gathered in Landon’s sitting area. When he unmutes the footage, I can hear him ragging on them about the weed. He speeds up the video a bit, and most of the group breaks off, filtering outside. Landon goes with them.
I frown as he switches to a different camera. The one monitoring his second-floor hall. A minute goes by, and then Audrey is sneaking up the stairs with Tyson Robertson. He’s a linebacker for BMA, and admittedly, I always thought he looked a little like Landon, only a less handsome version. Audrey is dragging him down the hall on the footage, and it’s obvious he’s pretty wasted as he stumbles around, but she doesn’t seem to care. She glances around quickly when she reaches Landon’s bedroom door and then wrenches it open to slip inside.
Something gooey melts in my chest. Is it regret? Or just my righteous indignation?
“She called him Killian,” I murmur. “I heard her say it…”
My shoulders cave inward. I feel so stupid. Landon sets his phone aside and pulls me onto his lap, insulating me with his arms.
“She’s fucking cuckoo,” he tells me. “That’s part of the reason I came here to talk to you. I think Audrey’s been screwing with me for a long time. She made me believe things too. Things that weren’t true.”
“Like what?” I peek up at him.
He hesitates like he’s nervous to tell me. But eventually, he caves in.
“The reason I’ve been so pissed off at you this whole time is because I thought you threatened to sell a story about me to the media. The morning after that party at my house, my publicist said you called him and my attorney and asked for a cash deal. They said you asked for five hundred thousand dollars in cash, and if you didn’t get it, you were going to destroy my career with a story about that night.”
I blink at him, stunned. “That’s crazy. I never spoke to either of them.”
“I know that now,” he answers gruffly. “But I didn’t before. As far as I knew, you took the money and ran off to Hawaii.”
“But I didn’t,” I insist. “I’ve never wanted your money. That wasn’t even remotely my concern. Why would they tell you I took the money if it wasn’t true?”
“Because someone did.” He shifts beneath me, circling his arm around my waist and pulling me closer. “Someone called them and pretended to be you. She met my attorney up at Devil’s Bluff to pick it up, and he really couldn’t see who it was. That wasn’t the way he wanted things to go down, but I was so angry I couldn’t think straight. It’s impossible to say for sure, but I suspect it might have been Audrey.”
“What the hell?” I clench my teeth so hard my jaw aches. “And you actually believed it was me?”
“I’m so sorry, Kail.” He squeezes me in his grasp. “It’s a weakness of mine. When it’s all you’ve ever known, it’s easy to believe anyone has the potential to screw you over. I was stupid, and I didn’t think it through. The same goes for the night I took off on you. I was too bullheaded to see clearly, but I meant what I told you. You’re the only girl I’ve been with. The only one I want.”
“You just left, though,” I whisper. “You didn’t give me a chance to say anything. You always assume the worst—”
“I know.” He cups the back of my head and eases it against his shoulder, stroking my hair through his fingers.
“You know?” I gripe. “Is that all you have to say?”
