Chapter 006
1253 Words
Chapter 6
Wren
Traumatizing.
That was the only word that could properly describe my situation.
I was traumatized by everything that had happened tonight. Never in a million years could I have predicted that my evening would end like this. Looking back, I should have never gone through with that stupid plan in the first place. What had I been thinking? All that plotting. All that planning. All that effort spent trying to ruin Axel's life because he cheated on me.
The more I thought about it, the worse I felt.
It was pathetic.
Petty.
And honestly?
Maybe I deserved some kind of punishment for it.
Unfortunately, God seemed to have delivered that punishment in the form of Knox Callaway.
I groaned and buried my face into my pillow before rolling onto my back again. Sleep was impossible. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him. The hallway. The envelope. The smirk. The blackmail. His voice. His stupid nickname. Everything replayed in my head like a movie stuck on repeat.
The worst part was how completely insane he seemed. Not dangerous in the normal sense. Worse. Like he genuinely didn't care about anything. Like the entire world was one giant game and somehow, I had accidentally become his favorite pawn.
"f**k," I groaned, pressing a pillow over my face.
How had tonight become such a disaster?
There was no way he was serious.
Right?
There was absolutely no way Knox was serious about any of it. The threats. The blackmail. The dating demand. It had to be some twisted joke. A prank. A scare tactic. Something.
Because no sane person would actually do what he'd threatened to do.
My phone lit up beside me again.
It had been buzzing for almost an hour straight. Messages from Axel. Notifications from study groups. Texts from classmates. Even several messages from Poppy.
I ignored every single one.
I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone.
Especially not those three.
I reached for my phone, intending to put it on silent and toss it aside. Then a new notification appeared.
And instantly made me sit upright.
My heart nearly stopped.
No.
No way.
What the actual f**k?
knoxcalloway_ started following you.
I stared at the screen.
Then blinked.
Then stared again.
Surely I was hallucinating.
But the notification remained.
Worse, there were more than a hundred notifications underneath it.
knoxcalloway_ liked your photo.
knoxcalloway_ liked your photo.
knoxcalloway_ liked your photo.
knoxcalloway_ liked your photo.
The list just kept going.
"What the hell is wrong with this guy?" I muttered.
I immediately clicked on his profile.
Of course it was public.
Because apparently Knox feared absolutely nothing.
There were hundreds of pictures. Shirtless pictures. Gym pictures. Hockey pictures. Bike pictures. Pictures of him on the ice. Pictures of him making ridiculous faces at the camera. Pictures of him sticking his tongue out. The guy had enough followers to qualify as a minor celebrity.
I was scrolling through his profile when the latest post made my entire body go rigid.
"Oh, no."
It was a black-and-white picture.
The photo only showed him from the neck down. Shirtless. Abs on full display. One arm resting behind his head.
And lying lazily across his torso was an envelope.
My envelope.
The same envelope.
The one containing everything that could destroy Axel.
The one Knox had taken from me.
My stomach dropped straight to the floor.
"No. No. No."
This wasn't random.
This wasn't a coincidence.
This was a threat.
A warning.
A message directed entirely at me.
Knox Callaway had never been bluffing.
Not for a single second.
He meant every word he'd said.
And that realization made my blood run cold.
Then I looked at the caption.
🐦 Caught a little birdie tonight. Think I should keep her around?
My eyes widened.
Was he trying to make it obvious?
Was he trying to give me a heart attack?
Or was he genuinely that insane?
Before I could decide, another notification appeared.
A message request. My stomach sank. Slowly, I opened it.
The moment I read the message, my skin broke out in a cold sweat.
There were only four words.
Four.
That was all it took.
Tick tock, little birdie.
I immediately locked my phone and threw it onto the bed beside me.
Silence filled my room. My heart hammered painfully against my ribs. For a long moment, I simply stared at the ceiling before dragging both hands down my face.
"Alright, Wren Harper Kennedy," I muttered to myself. My voice sounded far less confident than I would've liked. "You're in deep shit."
Because whatever Knox Callaway had said tonight...
It wasn't a joke. It wasn't a bluff. And it definitely wasn't going away.
Which meant I needed to figure out how to get myself out of this mess before that menace decided my time had officially run out.
.
.
.
It wasn't easy.
The entire day at school, I did my best to avoid the menace known as Knox Callaway. Surprisingly, I was succeeding. I couldn't find him anywhere. Not in the hallways, not near the hockey wing, not even lurking around the cafeteria like some nightmare waiting to happen.
Unfortunately, avoiding him didn't stop me from thinking about him.
At one point, I passed the row of lockers where he had pinned me the night before, and the memory hit me like a truck. The empty hallway. His grip on my arms. The smirk on his face.
My stomach twisted. Get a grip, Wren. It was one stupid interaction. One stupid night. And yet my brain insisted on replaying it every fifteen minutes.
As if that wasn't enough, I ran into Axel during lunch.
The interaction was brief. Too brief.
He looked relieved to finally catch me alone and immediately started asking where I'd been lately.
"You've been avoiding me," he said.
I forced a smile. "I've been busy."
He didn't look convinced. Still, he eventually let it go and told me to meet him at the stadium after practice.
The ice hockey rink. The same place Knox practically lived.
Great. Just great.
Because apparently the universe enjoyed torturing me.
Then I saw Poppy.
I didn't have the emotional energy for a fake conversation. I didn't have the patience to pretend everything was normal. So the moment I spotted her walking toward me, I immediately changed direction.
Unfortunately, she noticed me. Her hand lifted into the air, waving enthusiastically.
I kept walking.
"Wren?"
I closed my eyes briefly.
I turned around while continuing to walk backward.
"Practice, Poppy. Later."
I simply turned and left. Honestly, I was exhausted.
A pathetic attempt at revenge against Axel and Poppy had somehow landed me in a nightmare involving Knox Callaway.
Every time I thought about it, I wanted to scream. I seriously didn't have the energy to deal with any of them anymore.
Not Axel.
Not Poppy.
And definitely not Knox.
So I focused on practice instead. For a few hours, I let myself forget everything.
The betrayal. The blackmail. The envelope. The threats.
I threw myself into every routine, every formation, every jump. By the end of practice, my muscles ached and sweat clung to my skin, but at least my mind was quieter.
Maybe Knox would come to his senses.
Maybe he'd wake up and realize how ridiculous all of this was.
Maybe he'd find someone else to torment.
Maybe if I ignored him long enough, the entire thing would disappear.
A girl could hope.
- Writer
