Fallen Crest Family (Fallen Crest High #2)(17)

I pulled away to collect my purse. "I have to go. I have to be back before she finds me gone."

He snorted again, but followed me downstairs and to my car. When I slipped inside, he knelt beside the window.

"Mason, I have to go."

Panic was starting to seep in. He just didn't get it.

"I know." Irritation flashed over his face. "Look, how do I see you? I'm not following these stupid rules. Forget it."

"She'll have you arrested—"

He rolled his eyes. "No, she won't. I know my dad. He won't allow that."

I shook my head. "Mason, you didn't hear my mom. She really meant it. She'll do it without his approval. He might not even know about it, but I know she'll do it. Something's happened to my mom. She's not the same anymore. She's how she used to be—" I bit off my words. Again. It was best if no one knew how she had been. They wouldn't know how to handle her. They didn't know how to handle her now.

Then I felt his eyes on me. They were seeing through me like they always had. Everything was going to be ruined. I felt it in my bones. She was going to ruin everything.

"Look, I love you. I won't let her do anything, okay? How do I see you?"

I shrugged, but I needed to go. It was five in the morning. James would be up soon. He was the early riser in the family. I had thirty minutes and it took me over twenty to drive there. "I have to go!"

"Okay, okay."

He jerked away from the car and I pushed down the accelerator. My car shot out of there. On the drive there, I gripped onto the steering wheel with white knuckles. I could barely breathe. Every light seemed to turn red when I got there. Curses slipped from me as I fought myself from tearing through the lights. It wasn't the worry of safety since traffic wasn't too bad, but I couldn't risk the chance of getting a ticket. Then they'd know. My mom would know.

As soon as I pulled into the driveway, I sprinted to the basement area and slid in through the bottom door. Then I let loose a huge breath. My hands were trembling, but I tried to be as silent as I could as I made my way up the back steps to my room.

When I got to my room, I couldn't calm down. Panic rose within me. My arms still shook. I tried crawling into Mason's bed. That didn't help either. There was a ball at the bottom of my stomach. It was twisting and churning, rolling over and over. The unease in me was burning up and all my emotions were fuel to its fire. It was lit and as I tried to ignore it, the flame built and built. Finally, I threw back the covers and went to my room for my running clothes. As soon as my sneakers were on and my earbuds were in, I bolted from the house. Everything inside of me was ablaze so I pushed hard in my run.

After an hour, the panic was still in me. It was slick and slimy. It crawled all over my body and I couldn't get rid of it. So I pushed harder. Another hour went by, but I was still feverish. My heart was pounding as the fear acted as a poison. It sent everything into hyperdrive. I was soaked in a cold sweat an hour after that. Then my hands started to tingle, but I continued to go faster. I felt something at my heels. I could hear Analise's voice. She chased me as I was now sprinting down the street. No matter how far I went, how fast I went, I couldn't outrun her. And then I collapsed.

I fell to the ground on someone's front lawn. My arms and legs were spread out and my chest heaved up and down. My pulse pounded throughout my body. It was one solid thumpthumpthump. I felt it all the way through my toes.

I couldn't move so I remained there and stared at the sky. The sun had risen a few hours ago, but the sounds of the morning were just starting. I should've moved. I looked like a crazy woman, but I couldn't. My limbs had turned off and refused to listen to my brain. I knew to get up, but my heart said to stay still.

I kept breathing. My chest rose up and down. The sick panic in my gut never went away, but I gulped breath after breath and I tried to numb it down.

"Sam?"

Oh god.

My eyes closed as I recognized that voice. I couldn't face him, not like this.

The sound of his car hit me like a cold wave. His tires moved slowly over the gravel on the road as he pulled to the side. Then his engine turned off and I gulped. I knew what was happening. When his door opened and closed, I needed to face facts. He was coming over. He was going to see the near-hysteria on me and he was going to ask questions.

Everything clenched inside of me. Then, as my body lifted up by its own accord, I looked at him with grave eyes. At the sight of him, freshly showered, with a pair of jeans and a tight tee shirt, everything went dead inside of me.

He was everything I was not.

He was the golden boy of a rich private school. He was gorgeous. He had talent. He was the football quarterback, most popular and most wanted guy in our school. He had it all. I had none of it.

I took a gaping breath and tried to remember who I had become, but it didn't matter. In that moment there was no Mason, there was no Logan. Not even Nate. They'd been stripped from me, and I was the same as I always wanted to deny before. I was the unwanted child to a hustler. My mother. I never wanted to admit it, but it was the truth. She had loved someone else, became pregnant with me, and hustled a stand-up guy to marry her. Enter David Strattan. He raised me, loved me—or so I thought—and loved my mother. Then came the time when she found another con, another one that fell in love with her, a better one—wealthier one—than David Strattan.