As she swooshed from the bathroom, I was barely aware of her departure. I kept hearing her words. 'Everyone would call you a whore.'

I gulped and looked down. My hands had started to tremble again. My knees quaked against each other and I clung to the sink to steady myself.

'Everyone would call you a whore.'

What was I doing?

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

When I left the bathroom and headed for the coffee cart, I wasn't sure what I was feeling. Was I worried about everyone finding out about Mason and me—yes. Was it enough to paralyze me with fear—no. With that decision made, I was more annoyed than normal when I snapped my order to the girl behind the coffee counter.

"Whoa, what's wrong?"

I stopped in my tracks at the sight of Adam. And then I tried to force myself to relax. "Hey, how are you?"

"You okay?" His eyebrows were arched high with his own cup of coffee in hand.

I rolled my shoulders back. "Yeah, I'm fine or I will be."

"Huh?"

"Nothing, just an annoying run-in with Cassandra in the bathroom."

"Ah." He nodded his head. "Gotcha. She does that to me too."

"I think she's decided to try her luck with Logan again."

"Yeah, she told me the same thing." Something sad flashed in his eyes. "It won't work, will it?"

I shook my head. "Nope and if it does, I'll tie him down and do a drug test on him."

He grinned. "Yeah, you seem pretty tight with both of them."

"I guess…" I eyed him warily. We were treading into forbidden land, could he handle that reality? He couldn't before.

He spread his hand wide. "Hey, I'm okay with this. Really. I've given up on that, but I won't for your friendship. I'm going to do whatever it takes to keep your friendship."

An arm was thrown around my shoulders and Logan's body fell hard against my side. He smirked. "Really?"

Adam drew to his fullest height and the gentleness in his eyes vanished. A hard look entered instead when he clipped out, "Really."

Logan's body shook in silent laughter. "You just want to keep her friendship, huh?"

"You got a problem with that?"

"Yeah, I do. She's going to be my sister, man. You think I want a parasite hanging around her because that's what you are. You're one of those guys who sit back and wait for the guy to screw up. When she's hurting or lonely, you guys swoop in. Hell, I should tip my hat to you guys. I couldn't do it. I couldn't wait around and watch the woman I wanted be with another guy, waiting until there's a break with them, until she's vulnerable." He mocked him. "Yeah, it must take a special kind of guy to do that."

Adam's eyes had narrowed to a dangerous level. His hand was clenched into a fist, but he kept it down and pressed against his side.

Logan continued, "Or maybe that's what makes creepers. I've got a different viewpoint on stalkers now…"

Adam's lip curled up as he tried to mask a sneer. "You're calling me the creeper? What are you doing?" His eyes pointedly slid to me and it took Logan a second before he launched himself forward. His arm was thrown back, his fist ready, and look of hatred came to his eyes.

Adam's eyes went wide as he saw it in slow motion, but before Logan's fist connected, Mason tucked an arm around his chest and threw him backwards.

He cursed as he tried to twist away from his hold. "Let me at him, Mase. Come on."

Shaken, Adam puffed out his chest and smoothed his hands down the front of his pants. "Hey, man. If it weren't true…"

Mason glanced over his shoulder. The look of warning made Adam shut his lips. "Shut up or we'll do round two, somewhere private."

Logan threw over his brother's shoulders, "Where there won't be teachers or some girl to save you."

Mason glanced at me and I narrowed my eyes. There was a searching look in him. I lifted my chin. What was he looking for? Then I tried to search inside of him. What was he thinking?

He blinked and the look was gone. The normal unreadable wall was back in place. He threw Logan in front of him and neither seemed to care about the crowd that had formed or who Logan ran into.

Adam seemed frozen in place.

Cassandra's voice came from behind me. I gritted my teeth as I heard her coo, "Logan, are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

Logan barked out an ugly-sounding laugh and shoved her to the side. "Back off. You've got no chance."

I tried to suppress a smile at that, but couldn't so I looked down.

"Oh shut up," she cried out in anger. "You do not laugh at me, whore."

My head came up and my eyes widened. Her fury was directed at me. She approached with two steps and a hand in the air. "You dare to laugh at me? Do you know who I am? Or what I could do to you? I would demolish you, slut. I would run your name through the mud so much you'd beg me to let you out of your misery. You'd be—"

Something snapped inside of me and I marched up to her. I knew my eyes were dead when they met hers and she shrunk away, a little bit. "You think you scare me? Nothing scares me. Nothing, Sullivan."

"Whatever…" she tried to laugh it off and turn away.

My hand clasped onto her arm and I whirled her back around. I was in her face and all the hatred I had boiled to the top. "You want all the dirt on me. Here you go. I hope you take notes. My mom's a cheater. She left my dad for another guy and took me with. I was living with two guys who hated me because of that. Then I found out my boyfriend was screwing my best friend and my other best friend knew about it, for two years. Next bombshell—my dad's not my dad. Think it could get worse? It did. I had no one. No friends, no nothing. The guy who raised me all my life couldn't talk to me because of stupid legalities. Now my real dad's in town, my mom's hit me a couple times, and I'm screwing my future stepbrother. You think I'm scared of you?" A hollow laugh broke out of me. "I can handle anything you've got up your sleeve."

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