Banging Reaper (14 page)

Chase dropped me off at school today, and because he’s having a light day, he’s going to pick me up. Today I have Algebra and I’ve decided since it’s been two days since my last paid day off, if nothing happens by tonight, if Chase doesn’t have anything set up for me and I can’t figure something else out, I’m going to text Ethan and accept his offer.

I can hardly sit still in class just thinking about it. I keep anxiously checking my phone. Still, I’m praying for a miracle. Praying that now that the universe knows I’m going to actually go through with this, that I’m planning to accept Ethan’s offer, the paid internship will suddenly come through so I don’t have to.

Instead, in the middle of class I receive an email from school. The email freaks me out because it claims to be from the financial aid office. It must be an error because it says all my tuition and fees for the rest of the year have been paid for in full.

Fuck, I hope they didn’t try to charge my account without my authorization and forced me into overdraft. The fees will eat up all the money I’m saving for rent.

The instructor releases us and I head straight for the financial aid office forgetting that Chase is going to pick me up. Just as I’m walking into the office, Chase sends me a text asking me if I’m out of class. I shoot him a quick reply telling him I’ll be out in a couple of minutes then approach the front counter and ring for help.

In the back, towards the cubicles that have been set up there, I can hear a couple of girls giggling about some hot guy. I’m not normally impatient or rude but today my nerves are frazzled so I ring the bell again until one of them shows herself.

“Oh, hi.” A pretty blonde girl about my age appears, blushing profusely. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you waiting. How can I help you?”

“Hi,” I smile at her and try my best to be polite. If I’m bitchy because I’m stressed out, I’m sure she’s not going to want to help me. “I just received an email that said my tuition was paid in full while I was in class. I think it must be an error and needs to be corrected.”

“Okay,” she says, and gives me a look like she thinks what I just said is weird. She pulls the keyboard on the counter closer to her. “What’s your name and student id?”

I rattle off my name and student id and her fingers tap across the keyboard. “Hmm,” she frowns while she stares at the computer screen. “It does say your tuition was just paid in full about ten minutes ago.” Her lips quirk to the side as if she’s thinking then she turns her head and calls out, “Hey Ashley, can you come here a minute?”

Ashley appears, another pretty blonde about my age, and she’s still giggling from whatever the two girls were discussing a moment ago. “What’s up?” she asks as she steps up to the blonde and peeks over her shoulder at the computer screen.

“That guy you just helped? Is this the account he paid?” The girl helping me asks.

Ashley looks at the screen then glances over at me. “Yep, that’s the one. Is that you?”

I frown, confused. “What guy? Did a guy pay on my account?”

“Yeah,” Ashley giggles and the other girl starts giggling too. “Is he your boyfriend? Cause if he’s not, he’s smokin hot and I totally forgot to slip him my number.”

Who would do that? Ethan? To force me to work for him?

“What’s the name?” I ask.

It has to be Ethan, only he would do this to me.

“Just a second,” the girl helping me says and her fingers fly across the keyboard while I feel like I’m holding my breath.

It’s almost like I know, I just know what she’s about to say. I don’t want it to be true. I don’t want to think he would do this to me, especially after I just explained to him how much I do
not
want his money. He wouldn’t be a jerk and just force it on me, he wouldn’t….

“Chase Winters,” the girl helping me smiles.

“Fuck,” I curse loudly. They both gasp and I bite my tongue to keep from cursing again.

The two girls share a look then Ashley giggles nervously. “If a guy like that paid all my tuition, I’d marry him.”

“Me too,” the other girl chirps in agreement.

I suck in a deep breath through my nose then slowly release it through my teeth. These girls haven’t done anything wrong to me so I’m not about to take my frustration out on them. A light bulb goes off above my head. Maybe they can even help me fix this.

“Can you refund the money?” I ask slowly, trying to remain polite.

“I…I dunno,” the girl helping stammers and starts tapping on the keyboard again. “I think the only way to refund the money is if you officially withdraw from your classes.”

“Are you serious?” I ask her and she just squirms and giggles nervously.

“I’m sorry!” Ashley apologizes. “As long as you’re enrolled in school we can’t refund the money.”

“Even if it’s a mistake?”

Ashley bites her lip and shakes her head. “It wasn’t a mistake.”

I sigh and rake my fingers through my hair. “Can’t you just say it’s a mistake? Is there any way for me to deny the funds?”

Ashley and the other girl share a look and then they both shake their head. No doubt they think I’m weird and stupid.

“Did he pay the full amount? Everything is coming out of his bank account, not mine?”

They nod.

“You can’t just fix it as a technical error? A bank error?” I ask, growing more and more desperate.

“I’m sorry…” the girl helping me says again and I know any other question I ask them, that’s the answer I’m going to get:
I’m sorry.

“Okay, well, thanks for your help anyway.” I force a smile at them and then hurry out of the office.

Shit. He did it. I can’t believe Chase did it. There must be an explanation for this though. There must be. Because if there isn’t then I totally misjudged him.

I thought I could trust Chase.

I think I have seen almost all of Avery's emotions so far, from horrified shock to pure joy. The stony, emotionless face she shows me after she gets in the car is a new one. It's startling to say the least.

“Hey beautiful?”

She shuts the door too carefully as she gets in. Her body is completely stiff, and she wraps her arms around the backpack in her lap. I have a bad feeling about this.

“Mind getting us to my apartment? I want to talk.”

Fuck, she wants to talk, not we need to talk. Fuck.

I slip the Impala into gear and pull away from the curb. Goosing the throttle, I edge into traffic.

“What about?”

And she is so quiet I have to look over to see if she is even breathing.

“Avery?”

“Just take me home, please.”

Shit and double shit. I’m betting right now I’m about to get the ass chewing of my life, and for the life of me I have no clue what I did wrong.

That ride home is uncomfortable and silent. I try pressing her for what’s wrong but it's not until I get her out of the car and into her apartment that she shows any emotion at all. And holy fuck she’s pissed.

“What’s going on? Did Ethan do something?” I ask, walking into her apartment.

Sebastian is waiting for us to take him home. Home, that's what it feels like when Avery and I go there, home with our little black fluff ball.

I bit my tongue the entire ride to my place and clenched my hands so hard my nails dug painfully into my palms. So much anger bubbled inside me, it took every ounce of strength I had to keep from unleashing on Chase in the car.

How could he do this to me? How could he?

I can’t even look at him, just the sight of him looking confused is upsetting. It’s so infuriating that he’s acting as if he has no idea what is wrong. Like he didn’t just pay off four figures worth of my debt without my permission. Like we just didn’t discuss me not wanting his money.

“What’s going on, did Ethan do something?” he asks as we step into my apartment and I can’t hold it back anymore. I dump my backpack on the floor and turn on him.

“You did something,” I say accusingly and narrow my eyes.

“What are you talking about?” Chase asks and takes a step towards me.

“You betrayed my trust!” I snap at him and he looks utterly shocked, like that’s the last thing he expected to come out of my mouth.

“I’m sorry, Avery,” he apologizes, still looking confused and reaches for me.

“You don’t even know what you did, do you?” I ask while walking backwards, out of his reach.

He shakes his head.

“I told you I don’t want your money and you forced it on me anyway. You forced it!”

“Is this about the tuition I paid?” he asks.

“Yes!” I snap. He tries to advance once more and I retreat.

“I don’t want you to have to work for that bastard,” he explains. “I don’t like how worried and stressed it’s making you. Ethan is…”

“Fuck Ethan. You didn’t even ask me!” I can feel the angry tears brewing now. This is so frustrating, being angry at him. I hate it yet I can’t help it. Maybe if I didn’t like him so much it wouldn’t hurt as much as it does. Maybe if I didn’t put so much trust in him, it wouldn’t feel so much like a knife in the back.

Betrayal sucks ass.

“Avery, please,” Chase says softly, pleading.

I close my eyes and will the tears away. I won’t cry in front of him. I take a deep breath and slowly peel open my lids. My eyes glisten but at least I’m not bawling.

“I owe you now, Chase. I owe you more money than I can pay back at this moment.” It’s the story of my life. I just never wanted to feel like this towards him, beholden.

“No,” Chase says forcefully and shakes his head. “You do not owe me.”

Funny, I remember a certain someone saying that to me as well not that long ago.

“I do,” I insist. Vaguely I’m aware that I’m being a little stubborn but damn it, I’m so sick of owing the world. “And I’m going to pay you back. The school won’t refund the money unless I drop the courses I enrolled for. If I drop my courses, I’m screwed. A couple of them are already wait-listed.”

“I don’t want your money,” Chase says and looks at me as if I’m going crazy. And maybe I’m a little crazy right now. I certainly feel like it. “All I did was do what any scholarship would do. I’m just trying to make it easier for you to study and to go school. Your education is so important to you, I'm just trying to help you out.”

“You didn’t ask me,” I growl it at him. “You know who else didn’t ask when he forced his money on me to help me? Huh?”

Chase goes quiet at that.

“Ethan!” I snap. “I needed money, he knew I needed money, and he just did it. You just did exactly what Ethan did.”

Chase’s face hardens as he says, “I’m not Ethan.”

It’s a low blow and I regret it as soon as I say it but I can’t take it back. “Could have fooled me.”

Chase’s jaw clenches but he doesn’t look mad. He looks hurt. He looks as if I just slapped him.

And I’m so angry, I’m so bitter over not only what he just did, but the fact that I’ve always owed someone or something my entire life, I keep on going. “You’re two of a kind. I should have seen it. Two privileged, entitled assholes with so much money you think you can get away with anything. You think you can buy anyone!”

I stomp over to my backpack and Chase just stands there, hard and unmoving. I yank open the zipper, pull my wallet out and grab every bill of cash I have and throw it at him.

“Well you can’t buy me! I won’t be bought. I won’t be owned!”

The bills flutter in the air. There’s so little it’s pathetic, it has to be fifty bucks at most. I’m not making it rain, I’m making it sprinkle.

“I can’t be with you,” I say, the realization hitting me so hard my knees almost buckle. “I can’t be with you if I owe you money.”

“Avery,” Chase says and he advances on me, stomping all over the dollar bills on the floor.

“No!” I scream out, partly because he’s coming for me and partly because he’s trampling the money on the floor. “Take your money and get out.”

Chase stops suddenly, completely stunned. His face is so full of hurt my eyes blur again with tears. Isn’t this one of the things I’ve been afraid he could do to me? “You’re kicking me out?”

I nod my head, “Yes.” I’m kicking him out because if I don’t he’s bound to touch me, and if he touches me, I just know how I’ll react. When he touches me it makes me weak.

“Avery, think about this,” Chase pleads with me and I squeeze my eyes shut, angrily willing the tears away. My eyes snap open as I sense him walking towards me once more.

I scream at him to, “Stop! Just stop. Stay away from me.”

“Avery,” Chase breathes as if something inside him is breaking.

I know I’m too angry. I know I’m too worked up about this. I’m blaming things on Chase that’s Ethan has done. I’m unloading on him all the baggage I’ve been carrying around and it’s not fair.

I take a deep breath, filling my lungs with air as I try to clear my head. I exhale it slowly between my teeth.

“Fuck,” Chase curses and shakes his head in disbelief.

“I need some time,” I explain to him, my voice cracking. “I just need some space to think.”

Chase rakes his fingers through his hair. “You don’t owe me.”

“Just go, Chase, please,” I say, and start to turn away. I don’t want to hear anymore. I’m quite convinced that right now there’s nothing he can say to placate me. I just need to cool down and I can’t do that if he’s trying to reason with me.

I don’t see it but I definitely hear Chase stomping back to the front the door. It sounds as if the very foundations of the building are shaking.

I sense him stop and I tense, afraid he’s going to ignore what I want. It’s not like I can physically make him leave.

“You gave yourself to me,” he says, suddenly reminding me. “You’re mine and I have every right to take care of you. I didn’t force you to give yourself to me, I asked.”

I spin back around to face him with my eyes wide but I can’t speak because I can’t breathe. I did give myself to him, how did I forget that? I can’t even explain it…

He yanks open the front door while staring back at me. “And because I’m not Ethan and I fucking love you, I’ll give you all the time and space that you need.”

He closes the door behind him and it’s not even a slam, like I would have done, he does it softly, carefully.

He loves me. He fucking loves me. The rest of the anger drains out of me and I sink to the floor, sagging to my knees. I’m so shocked, so completely blown away by everything that just happened, I just let him walk away.

Once he’s gone, once I hear his car roaring to life and his tires squealing out of the parking lot, I can’t help but start crying. I’m crying because I’m stupid. I’m so, so fucking stupid. What have I done? How did I let all this money shit make me so ugly? I got so swept up in the thought that somehow he was trying to control me, trying to manipulate me, I didn’t even really think.

I just kicked out the best thing to ever happen to me.