“Go put my clothes in a dryer first,” he tells me, his voice weakening. His eyelids are heavy, as if he’s suddenly been hit with a wave of exhaustion. “Before everyone comes back here.”
His point is valid, so I do as he says, going to the communal laundry room and dumping our clothes into a dryer before I start it up. Forty minutes should be plenty of time to get everything relatively dry. Then we’ll wait for lights out and I’ll sneak him out of here. The advisor eventually goes to sleep, so no one will be at the desk by the time he leaves.
Though there are cameras. Someone could see us. How heavily are they monitored? Maybe Sylvie can help us with her hacking skills.
Maybe Whit won’t want his sister’s help. He might not want her to know what’s going on between us.
And what exactly is going on between us anyway? I don’t have a clue.
I rinse the washcloth with hot water once more and return to my room, going straight to him. He’s lying there, his phone clutched in his hands, his fingers typing on the screen furiously. He glances up when I’m standing right beside the bed, a familiar scowl on his face that’s oddly comforting.
I’m more used to him being cruel to me than anything else, and that is all kinds of fucked up.
“I have a warm washcloth to wash your face.” I hold it up.
“I can do it,” he says, dropping his phone beside him on the bed before he sits up to reach for it. The movement makes him wince, and I hold the washcloth out of his reach.
“Nope, let me play nurse for a minute.”
“Only if I get to play doctor with you later,” he mutters.
Ignoring his statement, I settle in next to him and he scoots over, giving me more room. I study his face. The deep scrape on his cheekbone. The reddish-purple bruises forming around his eye. The skin is swelling, causing his eye to become smaller, and I wish I had ice to put on it. It’ll be swollen shut by morning. I’ll start out easy, and move on to the bigger damage next.
“You’re in bad shape,” I murmur as I touch the washcloth to the cut at the corner of his lip.
“You should see the other guy,” he says.
“I did. I saw both of them.” I gently wipe at the scrape on his cheek. It’s deep, and he bares his teeth at me as I clean it. “Why were you out there anyway?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Irritation fills me. “I’m not going to tell anyone what happened.”
“I can’t trust you, Savage. I’m not telling you shit,” he says irritably. “Just know—I’ll take care of the problem.”
“How?”
“Don’t worry about it,” he mutters.
Anger makes me swipe at the fragile skin beneath his eye a little too hard and he hisses in pain. “I don’t want you to be my white knight.”
He laughs. “Trust me. I didn’t want to rescue your skinny ass tonight either.”
I push away from him. “Then find someone else to nurse your wounds.”
“I could get a hundred other bitches to do the exact same thing you’re doing, right now. All it would take is this.” He snaps his fingers.
The arrogant asshole.
I glance around the room, pretending to be in search of someone. “I don’t see anyone running to do it.”
He silently glares.
I quietly gloat.
“Elliot is an asshole,” he says after a few moments as I clean up the dried blood still on his face. I wonder if someone was wearing a ring when they hit him. There are tiny cuts among the massive bruises. “I had a feeling he was going to do something to you.”
I’m mystified by his statement. “What do you mean, you thought he was going to do something to me?”
“You made him look like a weak pussy earlier, in front of the library. He didn’t like that.” He smiles, his eyes sliding closed. “Stupid ass bested by a weak little girl. He’s done for. Seriously, no one fucking fights me on this campus and gets away with it.”
My hand stills, the washcloth still pressed beneath the eye. “What do you mean by ‘he’s done for’?”
His eyes slide open, brilliantly blue and glittering. “Elliot. He’s finished.”
“But I thought you two were friends,” I say, confused.
“You kicked him in the nuts and took him down. And he retaliates by trying to attack you. And look at you. Are you worth ruining his reputation completely?” He waves a hand at me before it drops limply on the bed.
I pull the washcloth away from his face and sit up straight, insulted. “You’re such an asshole. I’m risking everything, sneaking you into my room and trying to help you, and this is how you repay me?”
“What did I do? All I said is look at you.” His eyes slide closed, his lips purse, the ugly jagged cut in the corner red with inflammation. If he’s not careful, it’ll scar. “You’re just a girl. A weak, whorish little girl who took him down with one knee as if he was powerless. That’s why he was so mad. I don’t blame him. You’re nothing, yet you strut around campus like you own the place, and it’s not yours to own, Savage. This is my campus. You should cower in fear every time I so much as look at you.”
“You’re a pig,” I tell him, giving him a hard shove as I rise to my feet. He grimaces in pain, rolling over on his side so his back is to me, and I don’t even care. I hope he hurts for all eternity. I hope a rib punctures his lung and they both fill with fluid. He’d die from that.
I wouldn’t feel a single inch of remorse if he did. Not at all.
He deserves it. For how he talks to me. Treats me. The things he says about me. The things he gets people to do to me. I don’t care if he helped me earlier. He only did it for selfish reasons. It had nothing to do with me.
Why should I help him? He’s disgusting. The worst person I’ve ever met.
“The second your clothes are out of the dryer, I’m kicking you out of my room,” I tell him.
“Someone will see me when I leave,” he says to the wall, sounding annoyed.
“I don’t care. You can be the one to explain why you’re in the girls’ dormitory this time of night. And you better not drag my name into it.”
“Or what?” He glances at me from over his shoulder. “Are you threatening me, Savage?”
There’s no point in denying it. “Yes. I am.” I go to the bed and lean over hm, thrusting my face in his, our mouths so close I can feel his breath. So close, I could kiss him. I’m halfway tempted to. “I am threatening you. If you say I snuck you into my room, I’ll tell them that you forced yourself on me. You held me down and made me swallow that giant dick of yours between my lips and suck you off.”
His eyes narrow, but he doesn’t say a word.
“You won’t get in trouble, considering your goddamned name is all over this school and you’re fucking untouchable, but at least I won’t get in trouble either. I have no qualms in screaming sexual assault to anyone in regards to you, so don’t tempt me,” I tell him, giving his shoulder a shove before I stand tall once more.
His gaze tracks my every movement as I make my way toward the door, the washcloth and towels in my arms. “I think you’d get off on that,” he says quietly. “Me holding you down, my giant dick between your lips. You sucking me off. I bet you’d drink every last drop.”