Across The Hall (31 page)

“Alright, but only for a couple days,” I agreed hesitantly.

“Only if he leaves you alone,” Quinn said sternly.

“Whatever,” I grumbled as I sat back down and picked up the glass of juice and the remote. I turned the TV on so I wouldn’t have to have and

more serious conversations with Quinn. I had enough flipping through my head. I didn’t need any more added to it.

My phone buzzed, alerting me to a text. I reached for my phone. It was from Beau. Quinn was watching me. I briefly debated on whether or not to

read it. If I didn’t, he would know who it was from. If I did, he would ask me about it. Either way he’d figure it out. I opted to check it.

Sylvia plse plse call back - B

“What does he want?” Quinn asked in a cold voice.

“He just wants me to cal him.” I met Quinn’s eyes with mine. “I’m not going to, so calm down.”

I looked at the text list. Six of the nine unchecked were from Beau. I opened them al ; starting at the earliest one which was sent in what I assumed

was less than an hour after he left.

Sylvia we r not done yet call me - B

Sylvia stop being a bitch call me - B

Im srry call me - B

I just need 2 tlk 2 u - B

he doesnt care 4 u like I do - B

I need 2 c u plse - B

“Are there more?” I nodded and deleted them as I read them.

“He just wants to talk to me. If I just ignore them, he’l stop.” Quinn just looked at me.

I ignored him, too, and watched TV. He sat there quietly next to me for a few minutes. “Sylvia, I’l just be across the hal if you need me. If you ever

want to talk, I wil be there for you. Anytime.” He reached for my hand and just held on to it.

I squeezed his hand. “I know you are. Thank you.” I leaned over and hugged him and Jason came walking back in.

I pul ed away and Quinn glared at him. “Don’t you ever knock?”

“Not at Sylvia’s. Don’t you ever just stay away?” Jason glared back.

I jumped up and immediately felt my head start pounding again. Stupid fucking moonshine. “Just stop it, you two. I don’t need your bul shit right

now. Jason, go put your stuff over there and Quinn, I wil talk to you later. Thank you for helping me last night and this morning.” I heard Jason huff.

“Bye, Sylvia. Remember what I told you. I meant it. Al of it.” His eyes were serious and his voice was soft. He left and I just watched the door, half

hoping he would come back for something.

“What did he tel you?” Jason sounded suspicious.

“Seriously, Jason it was nothing. He just told me he would be here to help if Beau came back.” I’d never kept things from Jason before, but this

just wasn’t something I wanted to share. I needed to figure myself out first.

“I need a nap. Just...do whatever. I’m going to sleep.” I knew Jason was watching me. I picked up my phone and headed down the hal . I didn’t

need Beau to text or cal and have Jason answer it. And he would answer it. The kid had no boundaries. I turned my phone off once I was in my

room. I didn’t want to hear from anyone right now.

I laid there with my head pounding, wishing I could sleep. My head was al sorts of messed up. I didn’t want everyone else to know it, but I did

have a tiny fear that Beau wasn’t done. I figured at some point I would need to talk to him. I planned to tel him it was over, to not cal , not text, and

just forget about me. I just hoped he would, and would leave my friends alone, too. It wasn’t like we’d dated long enough for him to get psycho over

me. It was just me anyway. There is no way he would even feel that way about me. I wasn’t the kind of girl guys went crazy over.

Crazy. What was crazy was what Quinn had told me. How could he stil have feelings for me? I guess truthful y I stil did for him, too. I just was so

confused about it al . At one point in my life, he was al I ever wanted or needed. Was he stil ? Could he be again? What if it ended badly again?

Could I do this? Did I want to? I just didn’t know how to answer.

I thought about how it felt waking up with him. I felt safe and happy in his arms. The way he felt against me. He was warm and hard. He was

definitely hard. I smiled at the memory of the morning. I knew I wanted him in my bed, but was I ready for him in my life? What if he was confusing

lust with love, too? What if I fel for him again and it wasn’t real for him? I didn’t know if I could survive that again. I knew I needed to forget about it

and just let whatever would happen, happen. I just didn’t know if I was ready for it.

I hated leaving her there with him. Jason Bratt: the guy who made Sylvia smile again. His opinion of me was so blatantly obvious. He didn’t like

me, didn’t want me there, and wanted me nowhere near Sylvia. He kept his arm around her the whole time. She could barely move. Every so often I

could see him glowering at me. He was so juvenile, with his ridiculous display of over-protectiveness. I was surprised he even left her there alone

with me while he ran home. At least he played along with me threatening to tel Kel y.

I wanted to go downstairs and talk to Sloane, but I needed a shower before I went to see what he thought about Beau. I knew everyone in the

room was holding back on their true thoughts about the situation with him. Sylvia wanted to play it down, and if we tried to push her and take too

much control from her she would push back and probably end up hurt. I needed to make sure she was safe, but do it from a distance. I couldn’t do it

alone. I wanted to see if those guys were on the same page as I was. We would need to figure out a plan that would keep Sylvia from being

suspicious. Fortunately, she was such a bad liar that she would believe anyone who was even passably good.

I turned the water on hot and waited. Once the room was steamy I got in. I tilted my head back and let the water run down over my face. I thought

about Sylvia and how she looked in my shirt as she stood in her bathroom door. I would have liked nothing more than to have fol owed her into the

shower. I raised my head straight and shook the water off my face. I grabbed the soap and rubbed it between my hands. I pictured her pul ing me

into the room with her, biting her bottom lip with her eyes al half-lidded.

I thought of her standing under the spray. The water would be dripping down her. I pictured a drop running down her cheek, dripping onto her

col ar bone and down the center of her chest. I wanted to bend down and start right between her breasts and lick the same path as the drop. Once I

got to her jaw I would work my way over to her lips. I thought about how warm she would be pul ed against me. I’d hitch her leg over my hip and push

us back until her back was against the shower wal . She would already be wet but I’d stil use my fingers just to feel her warmth and wetness on

them. Then I would slide in as I pul ed her down onto me. I imagined Sylvia moaning against my lips as we kissed. I loved watching her come. I

pictured her face, head tilted back, eyes closed, her lips slightly parted. It was so good to have Sylvia back in my life. I let out a harsh chuckle.
At

least now I had new images of Sylvia and not ones of her from high school.

I quickly finished with my shower, threw my clothes back on, and headed down to Sloane’s. I could hear Reed talking from the hal way, so I knew

he was already there. I knocked and they told me to just come in. I looked around the room when I walked in and noticed they were al there,

including Jason. I didn’t see Sylvia. I was concerned that she’d changed her mind and didn’t want our help.

“Where’s Sylvia?” Everyone in the room turned to look at Jason.

“What? I told you al already -- she’s napping. I locked the door when I left...”

“You left her alone? What the fuck were you thinking?” I stepped closer to Jason. I couldn’t believe that he would leave her alone.

“It’s not like we aren’t al right here if she needs us.” Jason was defensive.

“That’s it. We’re here, she’s up there.” I motioned to the ceiling. “We can’t exactly tel if he is up there or not.”

Jason bristled at me. “Sylvia wil cal us if he shows up. Then we just go up and make him leave.” He stepped closer to me.

“And if she doesn’t?” Knowing Sylvia’s stubborn streak, I wasn’t entirely sure Sylvia would let us know.

Jason scoffed and rol ed his eyes. “Why wouldn’t she? She’s not dumb enough to let him into her place alone.”

“Sylvia is definitely not dumb. Trusting -- yes. It wouldn’t surprise me if she’s already talked to him.” My hands clenched and released as I stepped

further into the room. I should have turned around and gone back upstairs to Sylvia, not argued about it with Jason. Obviously he didn’t know her as

wel as he wanted me to believe if he thought that Sylvia wouldn’t think she could handle this.

“She hasn’t even heard from him yet,” Jason threw me an over confident smirk.

“Except for the texts he sent last night and today.” I couldn’t help myself and smirked back.

His eyes narrowed and his voice lowered. “What texts?”

I was pleased that Sylvia shared that with me and not him. “When you went home, Sylvia got a text from him. After that she checked her phone.

She had several texts from him. She just said he wanted to talk to her, but from the look on her face I think she was leaving something out.”

“Did she answer him?”

“Not that I am aware of. She told me she wasn’t going to cal him.”

He took a couple more steps closer until he was right in my face. “So what do you want me to do, take her phone? Treat her like she’s a child?

That’s what you would do, isn’t it?” I wondered when our past was going to come up.

“This has nothing to do with that,” I tried to keep my voice calm. The tension in the room increased and everyone was looking at us.

“Then why are you even here? Why are you involved in this?” Jason’s glare turned colder. “Why did you spend the night with her?”

That’s what his problem was?
I’d spent the night with Sylvia. “I stayed to keep her safe. I was there as her friend.”

“Is that what it was when everyone was gone a couple weeks ago? Were you just being her friend then?” So Sylvia told him about staying with me

that weekend. I wasn’t completely sure if she had. I wondered how much she had told him.

I needed him to stop talking. As far as I knew only Sloane was aware that she had stayed with me the whole weekend. I didn’t want Jason giving

out more than Sylvia wanted people to know about. We certainly didn’t need a repeat of the previous night’s confessions.

We were toe to toe, glaring at each other. I was so focused on Jason that I missed Kerrington walk past him. I tore my eyes from Jason’s to see

what had just swished down between us. It appeared to be a short, wooden ruler. I flicked an annoyed glance over to a smirking Kerri.

“Whip ‘em out boys. We’l measure them right here and now.” I assumed from the amused look in Kerri’s eye that Jason was wearing a similar

look of astonishment. She arched one brow as she waited a beat to add, “That’s what I thought. So quit verbal y measuring and let’s get Sylvia

taken care of.”

Reed laughed loudly. “Kerri would be disappointed in you both, anyway. Let’s get this done with so I can watch the rest of the game.” With that,

the tension in the air relaxed.

I spotted Kai mouthing, “I told you so,” to Sloane as she grinned like the Cheshire cat. She had that damn al -knowing look in her eyes. I was real y

beginning to hate that look.

Barely under an hour later, I was on my way back to my place. Kai knew Sylvia’s class schedule, so it was fairly easy for us to coordinate our

schedules to hers. I was happy that Jason had classes at different times and would only be able to meet with her a couple days for lunch. It was

something they did often anyway. Jason even cal ed someone named Colby who was able to meet with her after a few classes and walk with her to

her next one. He was a freshman and had the easiest schedule. Kerri had most of the other times. I didn’t know this Colby kid, but the fact that Reed

and Sloane were okay with him reassured me that it would be al right. If he was as big as Jason I knew Sylvia would be al right. Jason was big guy.

He was damn near as big as Reed.

I was going to go back to walking with her three mornings a week. I was looking forward to that. Unfortunately, my first class was too far from her

next one to be able to walk her there and then make it back to mine. I was able to meet with her two days for lunch, though, and a couple other times

after classes.

The only problem we could think of was what to do while she was at work. The bookstore was a pretty big place and had a few different exits. We

wouldn’t be able to cover al of them al of the time. I didn’t like it, but knew Jason was right when he said we would just have to trust Sylvia to take

care of herself. Sylvia wouldn’t al ow a scene to be made at work, but then there would be plenty of people around to keep Beau from trying

anything. Kai was going to cal a couple of the girls that she was mutual friends with through Sylvia and give them a heads up.

I was outside my door when I heard Jason come up the stairs behind me. “Quinn.” I turned to see what he wanted. He stopped right in front of me.

“She’s tougher than you think. And she’s been through worse.” I knew he was referring to my leaving. The glint in his eye and the tilt of his chin

chal enged me. “I won’t let you hurt her again. I can see that the others are okay with you being around, but I’m not.”

“Get used to it, ’cause I’m not going anywhere.” I lowered my voice to match his. “I made the biggest mistake of my life leaving her. I’m not going