Very Bad Things (Briarcrest Academy #1)(57)

It appeared my lifestyle might be changing. Poor girls didn’t shop at Neiman Marcus, even on sale day. Poor girls didn’t live in big chateauesque houses. Poor girls don’t go to college where you have to write an essay to get in. And, poor girls don’t wait for someone to save them. They save themselves.

Today...I was okay with that.

I’d forgotten Sebastian was still in the shop. I found him at a booth, suspiciously close to the one where my dad and I had been sitting.

My heart sank. “Oh, no,” I said, closing my eyes in realization.

He strode over and hugged me, and I shuddered in relief.

He said, “Please don’t be mad at me, but when he walked in, you looked so lost. I wanted to be close in case you needed me.”

I sighed. I didn’t deserve a friend like him. “You always seem to be picking up my pieces.”

He smiled and shrugged. “Dude, you’re my best friend.”

“When did I become so special?”

He tightened his arms around me. “As soon as I realized how much Leo cared for you,” he said.

I shook my head. “Don’t talk about him.”

He nodded, his eyes scanning my face, probably feeling sorry for me. Or worse.

“Do you hate me?” I asked in a halting voice, not meeting his eyes. “After all you heard?”

“Never in a million years,” he said in a soft tone, one that I didn’t hear from him often.

“I want you to forget about this. Don’t think of me as a victim because I’m not. I’ve finally confronted Mother, and I have hope that someday I’ll be better,” I said.

He nodded. “How old was he when it happened?”

“Eighteen.”

“Have you considered reporting it to the police for real? I’m not sure what the statute of limitations is in Texas for rape, but Leo knows some cops who signed up for gym memberships. He could ask around.”

“I know you want to fix this, but please, please, don’t tell Leo,” I begged in a rush. “I don’t want him to know I’m ruined. If he ever found out . . .”

“You are not ruined,” Sebastian said, interrupting me gently.

“I’m ashamed. Maybe I caused it all.”

“God, Nora, no. You were a kid, and Finn deserves to rot in prison.”

“You can’t tell Leo,” I pleaded.

He sighed. “Okay, I won’t, because you should. When you’re ready.”

Never going to happen. “He doesn’t care to know, Sebastian. He doesn’t want me.” Who’d want a sniveling, weak girl like herself?

“Will you go to the police?” he asked, not letting it go, Tate tenacity at its best. Ah, Sebastian, too young and too optimistic. He’d never been exposed to the horrors I had. Leo had loved him, protected him.

I wrung my hands into my shirt, twisting it around. Feeling frustrated. “I can’t do that. You don’t get it.”

“You can make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” he said, his eyes gentle.

My stomach rolled at that ever-present thought. “I can’t face telling other people and showing them the pictures. Not yet.”

“Alright, I get that,” he said. “And about Leo: whatever you said to him Saturday night, it jacked him up.”

I masked my flicker of hope with a nonchalant shrug. “Don’t care.”

He kept talking, “He’s been a bear to everybody for the past few days, bitching at the contractors, calling the decorators and complaining about the color of the walls. Crying about the new equipment. He’s been drinking at night.” He searched my eyes. “He stares out the front window all the time. Looking like he pissed off, but like he’s in pain too. I think he’s looking for you.”

I shrugged. “That ship has sailed, and he named Tiffani the captain.





Chapter 18


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Leo

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“I lie awake and dream of her; I close my eyes and dream of her.” –Leo Tate

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Five days after she’d seen me with Tiffani, I woke up needing to see her. Just see her face. Once, that’s all, and I’d be okay and could get through the rest of the week. But it wasn’t a good idea, so I shoved the feeling away.

Why did I feel like I had to see her?

When I went for a jog later, I wondered what I wanted in my life. I’d thought it was work and Sebastian, but now I felt confused and lost. Why couldn’t I stop myself from thinking about Nora? From wondering what she was doing and who she was seeing?

Later that day, even though I swore I wasn’t going to, I found myself parked outside a f*cking high school, leaning against my newly painted Escalade, waiting for a girl. Yeah, that scenario hadn’t happened in over eight years.

And, just after noon, just like Sebastian had said, she came out through the stone arches of the main building. My hands got sweaty. She looked like a ray of sunshine with her boots, yellow skinny jeans and white shirt. She stared at the ground as she walked, like she was deep in thought, and I waited for the moment when she saw me.

She finally looked up and glanced around, and I walked closer, needing her attention. When our eyes met, lust roared through me like a hurricane. All it took was one flash of her green eyes, and I pictured us in my car, her straddling me, her eyes looking at me like she had that night at the movies, like she needed me. Allowing myself to dream a little, I kept remembering the day our eyes had connected in the parking lot. The single most incredible moment I’d had with a girl. And it hadn’t involved sex. Just our gazes, holding, anchoring each other.