Untouched (Bay Falls High, #1)(61)

“I don’t know who you are, sugar, but you better catch a case of amnesia… and catch a case of being homesick. You don’t belong here. And I won’t give another warning.”

I felt Pres move his left hand, only to give me back my cell phone.

And then he let me go.

I reached back for him but he was already too far away.

I spun around and Pres was being swallowed up by the night.

Everything started to shake.

I was in the spot where he had almost drowned that person. The first thing I saw when I came to BFH. The moment that started everything and changed everything all in one shot.

I put my hand to my mouth and touched my lips.

I felt tainted.

I licked my lips, wanting to get rid of Pres.

My eyes moved down to the ocean water gently moving along my feet.

I could have splashed water on my lips.

But that wouldn’t have worked.

Instead, I slowly dropped to my knees, right in the wet sand.

My phone buzzed again.

It was Gi again.

Where the fuck are you? Are you okay?

My hands shook as I replied.

Went for a walk. Sorry. Im fine.

I put my phone into my pocket and put my hands down into the wet sand.

A few seconds later, my hands disappeared, the sand and water pulling me down.

I sucked in a shaky breath.

I didn’t need the ocean to feel like I was drowning.





nineteen





I noticed the same empty wineglass left on the same table outside the next morning.

Which wasn’t like Claire at all.

If she didn’t clean up after herself, there was always someone there who was paid to do so.

Of all things, that was the thing that caught my attention.

Forget about the night before, right?

Forget about the beach house party. Or seeing Denny. Or getting tipsy. Or bailing on Beth by accident. Or doing everything I could to break Pres. Only to have him break me. The sight of those people around the fire hurrying to scatter away as though Pres was the police coming to bust them for drinking. Or how we somehow walked far enough away from Roman’s beach house to end up at the exact spot where I had watched Pres almost drown someone.

Forget about the kiss too.

Or the way Pres touched and held my chin, acting like he owned me. Or the way that I let him do that because I had been wanting him to kiss me for a long time.

And the entire moment and night swirled around my mind wondering what would have happened if I hadn’t seen Pres that day on the beach. Would they have left me alone? Would the Rulz have just gone their own way?

Or was all of this something more?

I heard a shuffling noise behind me as I stood at the island in the kitchen and saw Claire walking with a coffee mug in her hand. She looked… rough.

She looked like Iris did last night.

Gi had sent me a couple pics of her and damn.

And… damn for Claire too.

“Long night?” I asked.

“Business never sleeps,” Claire said.

“Can I get you anything?”

“I pay someone to ask that question. Not your job, Tinsley.”

“Right. Sorry.”

Claire put the coffee mug down and turned and shuffled away. She was wearing a black, silk robe, and she took out her phone and started to type away on it.

It took all of thirty seconds before two other people appeared in the kitchen.

One went for the coffee mug. To refill it.

I backed away from the island with my coffee, not sure whether to laugh or scoff.

Claire literally walked her own coffee mug down to the kitchen only to text someone to fill it back up.

The second person went to work on making breakfast.

I finished getting ready and couldn’t believe I sort of would have rather been at BFH.

When I got there and opened my locker, a sense of excitement went through me. Like I was eager to see if one of them left me something.

And there it was…

A jar of sand.

I grinned.

I bit my bottom lip.

My mind played each moment I kissed each of them.

That’s not who I was.

No way.

I was always a one boy kind of girl.

I mean, my ex was Devin. He and I had been together for a while. We had been really close. I didn’t go around kissing other boys. Or wanting to kiss other boys. The idea never really came to me at all.

But the Rulz… well, they sort of changed my rules.

And they were okay with it.

They all knew the others had kissed me.

I didn’t know what that meant.

Or what to do with it.

Maybe just enjoy it…

I shut my locker and a hand grabbed my shoulder and slammed me against my locker.

“What the fuck?” Beth yelled at me.

I quickly pushed back at her. “What the fuck?”

“I thought you were fucking dead.”

“Beth…”

“You know what? It’s your life, Ti. I was just trying to be nice. I was just trying to help. I have no clue what’s going through your head right now.”

“Wait a second…”

“And I get it,” Beth continued. “Who am I? Right? You don’t know me. I don’t know you. You’re just the new girl. The poor new girl. And you like that. You like bragging about where you came from, right? Hey, that’s fine.”