She bent over and slipped on her heels. “I’m off.”
“Where are you going?”
“I have plans. I only came by to tell you how my night went and to make sure we didn’t have to do damage control.”
She came to keep up appearances. “Have fun and don’t do anything to shame your father,” I teased, knowing her dad would have her secluded in a tower somewhere for the rest of her life if she got caught.
As she reached the door, she held up a middle finger behind her. I grinned.
With the door closed, I exhaled staring around my room lost in thought. Replaying the events after the game in my head. It was dangerous for me to be alone in my head right now. I was still feeling reckless and, not to mention, so goddamn horny I needed to be tranquilized so I wouldn’t do something reckless. Like get in my Jeep and drive to the dorms where Theodora lived and climb in bed with her. She stirred chaos in me, and I didn’t relish the feeling. I knew there were several girls downstairs who would be willing to take care of me. But that’s not what I wanted. I didn’t do casual hook-ups. Never did. I wanted Theodora, and I hated myself for it.
Theodora
“What happened last night, Theo?” Kenzie walked into the dorm around noon this morning after staying over at Justin’s. I knew she’d grill me after the production Roman made of me. Luckily, she didn’t last night because we were with Justin and weren’t going to have girl talk in front of him. He didn’t question it either, since he was friends with both Nick and Roman and didn’t want to get involved.
“Roman kissed me,” I stated the obvious and my cheeks flushed.
“I know that. Everyone knows. Have you not checked your phone?”
“No.”
“Oh, honey.” Kenzie clicked on hers and swiped up a few times and then held her cell out to me. “You caused quite a stir last night.” There it was, as plain as day—a picture of us locked in a fierce kiss. Scratch that. Roman had me in a death grip and was consuming me. My heart pumped harder. There were two thousand, eight hundred and seventy-six likes along with two hundred comments. Don’t look. Don’t look. Don’t look. Something told me the comments wouldn’t be nice, but morbid curiosity consumed me. I looked. Most of the messages were nasty toward me, calling me every derogatory name in the book, while Roman was considered some kind of stud. There were some unfavorable comments directed at him too, probably friends of Taylor’s. Regardless, my heart dropped and nausea crept up and settled at the bottom of my stomach.
“I think I’m going to be sick.” I blinked, trying to hold back the tears. It was bad enough, the embarrassment I felt last night. To the point, I told Kenzie to take me home because I didn’t want to be around anyone, which probably thrilled Roman. He seemed to thrive on embarrassing me.
“You hate me, don’t you?” I stared down at my hands, expecting Kenzie to give me a dress down. She’d warned me to watch out, and I didn’t heed her advice. Actually, I never expected him to take it that far. I should’ve known. Roman never did anything in half measures. Obviously, Hillside University, although much bigger than our old high school, was still Roman’s kingdom, while I was still the poor girl living on the Martinez estate. I thought I could make a fresh start here; I was wrong.
Kenzie dropped down beside me on the bed. “I don’t hate you. In fact, I don’t think it was even your fault. The way Roman watched you after Justin and Axel released him was just…” She shook her head. “He looked like a tiger going in for the kill.”
“I shouldn’t have kissed him back.” I had a part to play, too.
“I don’t think you had a choice. Whatever’s going on between you two was like some kind of crazy obsessive behavior.” She wrapped an arm around me. “Are you going to tell me what happened last night after he carried you off like a caveman?”
“Nothing. We just talked and kissed again.” Guilt rose up again. “I told him we couldn’t do this because of Taylor, but he said his relationship with her is not what it seemed.”
“And you believe him?”
“I don’t know what to believe.” I groaned, wanting to sink my head under a pillow and hide.
“Okay,” Kenzie said slowly. “What was your relationship like in the past?”
Was Kenzie my relationship counselor now? I guess so. I sucked in a breath before it seeped out slowly. “We grew up together. His family is very wealthy and my mom was an in-home caretaker for his mother who was paralyzed from waist down after surviving a terrible car wreck. I was seven when we moved into his house. He was three years older than me. I still remember the first time I laid eyes on him, I thought he was the most beautiful boy I’d ever seen.”
“You had a little crush. How cute.” Kenzie nudged me.
“I did. I followed him around everywhere, always wanting to tag along and do whatever he did. I’m certain there were times I got on his nerves, but he always let me.” I subconsciously touched the raised skin of the curved scar on my arm that was the shape of a half moon. “He was always there to protect me.”
“Like a big brother,” she mused.
“Yeah, he was.”
“So when did his feelings for you turn incestuous?”
I scrunched up my face. “Eww, gross.”
She laughed out. “I’m kidding. So?”
“It was when I started high school. I was a freshman, and he was a senior. I had kind of a rough beginning of the year being the newcomer at his high school. People weren’t very nice to me.” I’d never shared this with anyone except Roman. “Once again, he was there for me.” I didn’t want to go into detail about what people said or did to me in high school. Reading the comments from the Instagram post hit way too close to home and took me back to a place I’d sworn never to go again. “Anyway, we grew closer and fell in love. Or I thought we had.”
“What happened?”
“Taylor happened.” I sighed, staring out the window at the large oak tree rustling in the wind.
“So she’s actually the other woman.”
I shook my head, sweeping my palm out. “It’s in the past.”
“Seems like Roman’s trying to revisit the past, sweetie.”
“What am I going to do about that post?” I grabbed my pillow and clenched it to my chest as though it could protect me from this. “There are probably other pictures, too.” I moaned, remembering how many people were gathered around to hang out with the team.
“There are,” she said solemnly. “But guess what? You’re going to hold your head high, and I’ll be by your side.” She stood up and faced me. “It will go away. You’ll see.”
Monday morning swooped in like a buzzard finding road kill. I wasn’t ready to face the music, hoping like hell I didn’t run into anyone who’d make snide comments. I wasn’t ready to face Roman because the more I thought about it, my shame turned to anger. Everything happening between Roman and I was beginning to feel like it was all premeditated. Who knew if Roman was actually in my Sociology class. It could’ve been a fake schedule he had forged. Considering his recent behavior, I wouldn’t put it past him.