Two
1958 Words
~Nora~
“You lying, filthy bitch.”
The words ripped out of me before I even felt my legs move.
Sienna jerked under the duvet, then yanked it higher over her chest like modesty had suddenly remembered her address. Jace was beside her, half-sitting up, bare-chested, looking more irritated than ashamed.
That pissed me off even more.
Sienna blinked at me once, slow and smug. “Wow. Good morning to you too.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Don’t do that fake calm s**t with me. You were in my face all night. You handed me the drinks and the brownie. Then I wake up to a video, a breakup text, and your ass in my boyfriend’s bed? Is this the birthday surprise you had planned?!”
Her chin lifted. “Ex-boyfriend and yes, you’re surprised.”
My eyes and ears were clearly malfunctioning.
“You nasty, desperate snake.”
Sienna rolled her eyes like I was inconveniencing her. “Please. Stop acting shocked. You should’ve seen this coming.”
“Seen what coming? My best friend screwing my boyfriend while setting me up on the side?”
Her mouth curved. “You’re so dramatic. Jace was already done with you. I just saved everybody time and I liked him first before you did.”
Say what now?!
I turned to Jace because surely, he had to look guilty at some point.
He didn’t.
He leaned back against the headboard like he was bored. “Why are you looking at me like I’m the problem?”
“Because I walked in and found my boyfriend balls-deep in my best friend.”
“You kissed Callum.”
I stepped closer. “I barely remember that hallway.”
“And yet everybody saw you with your tongue down his throat.”
“That is not the same thing and you know it.”
He smirked. “Funny. You looked pretty aware in the clip.”
My nails bit into my palms. “You don’t get to sit there with her in your bed and act like I’m the villain.”
“No?” He gave me a slow look, mean. “You lost the right to act betrayed the second you spread yourself for my rival.”
“You’re disgusting,”
Jace shrugged. “Am I? I was patient with you for two years, Nora. Two. Whole. Years. Every time I touched you, it was another excuse. You weren’t ready. You wanted to wait. You wanted it to mean something.” His mouth twisted. “Then Callum touches you one time and suddenly you’re kissing him in a hallway like a slut who couldn’t wait.”
“Shut up.”
“No, you shut up. I’m not done.”
I should have walked out or thrown something.
Instead I stood there and let him drag a knife through every soft part he knew I had.
“You kept acting all innocent with me,” he continued, “but clearly that was bullshit. Maybe you just needed a guy you actually wanted.”
“And unlike you,” he nodded at Sienna, “she doesn’t act like touching her is some kind of crime. She’s supportive. Fun. She actually knows how to make a man satisfied.”
Sienna smiled devilishly.
“You really threw years of our friendship over a man? Why am I even surprised? I’ve always known you to be the side chick but I never expected you’d cross this line one day.”
Her smile thinned. “Oh, spare me that crap! Virgin girl, you were aware of my crush on Jace but you went ahead to date him.”
“You denied it every time I asked. If you were so starved for scraps, you should have told me instead of crawling into my life and stealing whatever attention fell off the table.”
She pushed the duvet back and sat straighter. “He wasn’t yours to keep.”
“And you were never enough to get him without screwing me over first.”
Her face hardened.
Jace swung his legs off the bed. “Watch your mouth.”
I turned on him so fast my head spun. “Or what? You’ll call me a w***e again while your d**k is still warm from my best friend?”
His jaw ticked.
“You want the truth? If you wanted a girl that easy to flatter and easier to spread open, you should’ve stayed with the snake you were already fucking.”
Sienna made a disgusted noise. “Classy.”
I looked at her and smiled without humor. “You don’t get to use that word around me.”
Jace laughed under his breath. “This is exactly why I got tired of you.”
“Trust me,” I shot back, “I am done with your sorry ass too.”
He smirked. “I already dumped you first.”
It hurt.
It shouldn’t have. It was petty. Stupid. Childish.
Because even now, he wanted the last word. The upper hand. The clean exit.
I hated him for getting it.
My throat burned. “Go to hell. Both of you.”
Then I turned and stormed for the door before the tears gathering in my eyes could betray me in front of either of them.
I yanked it open.
And walked straight into another humiliation waiting outside for me.
Phones.
At least six of them.
Frat boys lined the hallway, some half-dressed, some fully awake and grinning like this was better than morning entertainment. Noel stood off to the side looking uncomfortable, which did absolutely nothing for me.
One of the guys actually booed.
Another laughed. “Damn, he really dumped her.”
“Callum can have her now!”
“Jace upgraded, bro.”
“Sienna’s hotter anyway.”
“Way hotter.”
Something soft hit my shoulder.
A crumpled cup.
Then another one bounced off my arm.
Ice followed.
Cold little pieces skidding down my blazer while those assholes laughed and kept filming.
My face went hot.
I pushed through them.
“Move.”
“Aw, don’t cry now,” one of them said. “You were real bold in that hallway.”
Another voice behind me: “Post this right now.”
I took the stairs so fast I nearly slipped.
By the time I got outside, my phone was already vibrating again.
A new video this time.
Me storming out of Jace’s room with tears in my eyes while the frat boys laughed and heckled from the hall. Somebody had captioned it:
“when the cheat gets what she deserves”
The comments were worse.
“Jace did the right thing”
“He stood on business”
“Sienna and Jace look so good together omg”
“Nora always gave fake innocent vibes”
“Callum and Nora deserve each other. Both trash”
“She cried? Good. More tears.”
I stared until the screen blurred then I started crying.
Right there.
Outside the frat house.
Hot, humiliating, furious tears I could feel on my cheeks while strangers walked by and looked too long.
I wiped them away hard enough to sting.
“f**k this,” I muttered.
Then I turned and headed straight for Callum.
I didn’t think or care that the whole academy probably had my face on their screens.
All I knew was that my life had blown apart between Jace’s cruelty, Sienna’s betrayal, and that goddamn hallway. Somebody else was going to bleed for it.
Callum’s place was quieter than Jace’s, which somehow made me even angrier.
That dark, expensive, infuriating calm that seemed to follow him around like a second skin.
I didn’t bother knocking properly. I shoved the door open and found him inside, already dressed, looking like he knew I was coming.
“You.”
His gaze moved over me once. Red eyes. Blotchy cheeks. Rage barely holding my body together.
He stayed leaning against the desk.
Calm.
I hated calm people when my life was on fire.
“I was wondering how long it would take,”
I laughed in disbelief. “You were wondering?”
“You were never going to let this go quietly.”
“Quietly?” I stepped toward him. “There is a video of us all over campus. Jace posted his breakup. His frat just filmed me getting humiliated outside his room. My best friend was in his bed. And you’re standing there like this is some interesting social experiment?”
“I didn’t post the video.”
“I don’t give a damn who posted it.”
“You should.” His voice stayed even. “Because it wasn’t me.”
I got in his face. “You kissed me.”
“You kissed me first.”
“Are you insane?”
His eyes dropped to my mouth for one second before lifting again. “Maybe.”
That tiny shift in his voice made heat crawl over my skin in the most offensive way possible.
I hated my body for noticing.
“I want you to feel bad,” I stated.
“You knew I wasn’t in my right senses but you let it happen. You wanted to get back at Jace using me!”
“No.”
“Excuse me?”
His posture didn’t change. “I don’t feel bad for touching my mate.”
The word made my stomach twist.
“You don’t get to say that like it fixes anything.”
“It fixes a lot.”
“Are you hearing yourself?”
He pushed off the desk and came closer. “Jace was never your future. This worked out the way it was supposed to.”
My mouth fell open. “You delusional bastard.”
He didn’t flinch.
I shoved him in the chest hard. “My life just got burned to the ground.”
“And you still came to me.”
“You think one messed-up kiss and some stupid bond means I belong to you?”
“You do.”
The certainty in his voice made my whole body go rigid.
“You arrogant psycho.” I took a step back. “Do you know what people say about you? Violent. Unstable. Cruel. Feared for a reason. And now you think I should just roll over because fate handed me the campus monster?”
His expression cooled.
“Say whatever you want about me. It changes nothing.”
“It changes everything. I deserve better than this. Better than you.”
I forced the words up past the heat in my chest, the awful pull that still tightened whenever he got too close.
“I reject..”
The rest died in my throat.
Not because I changed my mind.
Because pressure slammed into me.
His Alpha control.
My breath caught. My jaw locked. Rage flashed so bright I nearly choked on it.
Callum stepped closer.
“You do not get to reject me in anger,”
I tried to force the words out anyway.
Nothing.
I could breathe. Move. Glare. Shake.
But the rejection stuck inside me like he had wrapped a hand around the sentence and crushed it.
He came closer until I had to tilt my head up to keep looking at him. My pulse was wild. My skin felt too tight. That bond heat kept flickering under everything, humiliation, fury, leftover grief.
It made me want to scream.
“You can hate me,” he continued. “Curse me. Fight me. I don’t care.”
“I would rather die than belong to you.”
His eyes held mine.
Then he stepped in close enough to wreck my breathing completely.
“You’re still my mate.”
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