Romeo

One minute she was plastered to my side and the next she was jerked away. I didn’t think much of it at first. I mean, I just figured it was her being adorably clumsy as usual.

But when I turned to help her, I was jumped. Attacked from behind. He almost brought me down out of sheer surprise, but in the end, I held my ground. He wasn’t that big. I must have outweighed him by a lot.

He clung to my back like a stupid spider monkey, and I almost laughed because it was obvious he had no idea he wouldn’t be able to take down someone twice his size.

I reached around my back and filled my fist with his costume. With one hard tug, I pulled him over my shoulder and drove him into the floor.

He rolled and moaned, but he didn’t get up.

I turned back to get Rimmel, knowing she was probably scared shitless and I’d never get her in one of these damn houses again, but she was gone.

At first I didn’t panic. I knew the fog made it hard to see.

But then seconds stretched longer and I still didn’t see her. I still didn’t hear her.

I’d felt adrenaline pump through my body more times than I could count. I was used to a rush, the fast pace of football… but this was different. I’d not felt this before.

Fear, dark and sticky, wrapped around my chest as I searched and searched and my eyes came up empty.

When she didn’t call out for me, I got scared. I punched out a couple guys and threw someone into the wall while searching through the fog for her.

And then suddenly she was there, stumbling around shaken and dazed. When I put my arms around her, she trembled so badly I knew she wouldn’t be able to stand.

She’d barely said two words.

That dark and sticky fear still clung to me. It seemed to get harder to shake the quieter she became. I waited until I dropped off Missy and Braeden at his truck near her dorm before I pulled near the back of the lot and shut off the car.

“Hey,” I said soft. “They scared you bad, huh?”

She nodded.

“I’m sorry, baby.” I reached across the seat and put an arm around her. She stiffened.

Something cold unfurled deep in my chest.

“Rimmel?” I asked.

She turned to me then. The moonlight reflected off her glasses and her eyes were wide behind the lenses.

“Whatever happened with initiation?” she said.

The random question threw me at first. I couldn’t understand why she would bring this up. “Initiation?” I asked.

“Yeah. The frat you were rushing. Did you get in?”

“No,” I said, caution in my tone. “Why are you asking about this?”

“They dragged me into that fog,” she said, her voice breaking. “They pinned me down to the floor.”

“Who?” I growled as the edges of my eyesight began to tinge with red.

“They were wearing masks,” she said. “I couldn’t see. He sat on me. The one with the scary mask, the one who tried to knock you over.”

“He sat on you?” I repeated. Anger so calm rose up in me that if I’d been thinking straight, I would have been scared.

She nodded. “He told me to ask you about initiation. About rush. About why you’re really with me.”

What. The. Fuck.

It was all almost too much to process at once. I went from thinking she was the victim of some stupid prank to realizing she was targeted and basically attacked. She was clearly beyond scared, and now she was looking at me like she didn’t know me at all.

“Why would he say that?” she asked, her voice small.

Because he wanted to get to me. To take something he knew I wanted. I would bet my Hellcat it was Zach behind that mask tonight. “I don’t know.” I lied as a new kind of fear came over me.

I still hadn’t told her about the initiation and that she was the chosen girl for me to get into bed. After she told me about losing her virginity, after everything she’d been through that made her who she was, I couldn’t. I was afraid. Afraid the truth would cost me. Afraid she would realize I was no better than the guy who stole her virginity.

I knew I had to tell her.

I wanted to wait for initiation to pass so I could prove to her that she wasn’t just some dare. I figured once she saw I wasn’t a member of Omega, she would believe me.

Induction into the frat was tomorrow night.

Zach beat me to the punch.

“Romeo,” she said, pulling her knees into her chest and looking so small sitting there in the leather seat. “Was I some kind of initiation for Omega?”

I closed my eyes. It was a direct question.

“Remember when you told me a while ago that I could ask you anything and you would give it to me straight, even if the answer was something I wouldn’t like?”

Oh, I remembered. I regretted those words right now.

I opened my eyes and looked at her. “Yes,” I whispered.

“Yes, you remember, or yes, I was some kind of initiation?”

“Rimm—”

“The truth,” she said, cutting me off.

“Both.” I admitted.

Her sharp intake of breath was like a knife to the heart. “So what was it?” Her voice was flat, devoid of emotion. It was the worst sound I’d ever heard. “Were you supposed to date me?”

“It doesn’t matter because I dropped out of the frat,” I said.

“What was it?” She pressed.

My hand curled around the steering wheel and tightened. “To sleep with you.”

Her body jerked like I slapped her.

“You gotta understand. It was before I got to know you. I dropped out. I told them I wouldn’t do it.”

“But you did.” Her voice was so quiet and calm it was chilling. “You did sleep with me.”

“Not becau—”

“You used me,” she whispered, pain filling her voice. “Did you laugh with your friends behind my back?” she accused. “Did you give them a play-by-play of everything we did? I shared part of myself with you I’ve never shared with anyone.”

“I’m sorry.” It was the most pathetic thing to say, but I didn’t know what would make what I did okay.

Nothing. Nothing would make this okay.

“Please listen to me, Rimmel,” I said, reaching for her hand. She pulled away. “Please.”

She just stared at me. I could see the unshed tears shimmering in her eyes.

“I care about you. I dropped out of rush. You’re more important to me.”

The silence stretched between us. And then she spoke.

“I wish I could believe you.” She reached for the handle and pushed open the door.

“Wait,” I said. She paused but didn’t turn back around. “I swear to God, everything I’ve ever said I feel about you is real. Please believe me.”

Her shoulders slumped like she was carrying a weight so heavy it was crushing her. “I need time to think.”

“I can give you that.” I promised, even though everything in me was shouting no.

She slipped from the car and ran to the dorm. I sat there for a long time even after she went inside.

I knew I should be angry. I should be full of rage at Zach and what he might have just cost me.

But I couldn’t summon the anger.

All I felt was pain.