Dark Moon Falls: Reed

Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO

HAYLEY CARTER STARED at her cell phone, not wanting to answer it. She did not need another lecture from her mother on how she was screwing up her life. She could very well be screwing up her life, but it was her life to screw up. She didn’t need her mother nagging her to change her mind. There was no changing her mind. Not after everything that happened, not after being rejected the way she had. Not after coming face-to-face with her feelings, feelings she had fought for two whole semesters and had finally chosen to accept. With a sigh, she swiped right, sending her mother to voicemail.

“You sent your mother to voicemail?” Kendra Morrison asked, her brows c****d in surprise as she stared at Hayley. “Are you not planning on returning home? Ever? I’ve met your mother. Not sure that was a smart move.”

Hayley rolled her eyes. “She’ll get over it.” She reached for her laptop, shoving it into her backpack. “And no, I’m not going home. Not sure that’s a good idea with what’s expected of me back there.”

“Your parents would really go through with it?” Kendra asked as she plopped down on the bed, hands clasped together. “I mean, in today’s day and age, do people still do that? Arrange marriages and such?” She shook her head. “For crying out loud, it’s a whole other century. People barely even get married these days. They just… Who knows what they do? But they don’t marry who their parents tell them to marry.”

Hayley chuckled, shaking her head as she zipped up her backpack. “My parents didn’t exactly arrange the marriage. It was more like they strongly suggested that this was the best match for me, regardless of what I wanted.”

“And this guy back home isn’t who you wanted?” Kendra c****d her head to the side as she studied her friend. “Seems to me, it wasn’t too long ago that you were doodling his name all over your notebook like girls do in high school. What changed?” She grinned, one brow c****d again. “Or should I ask, who changed your mind?”

Hayley closed her eyes, taking a slow, deep breath. She didn’t want to admit what her friend already knew. Saying it out loud just seemed so… Wrong. Instead, she grabbed an empty box and started stuffing her possessions inside.

“Have you talked to him?” Kendra asked, her tone full of sympathy. “The professor, that is. Not, you know, whatever the other guy was. I heard Teach resigned and is heading back to his hometown.”

Hayley nodded. “I heard that, too.” She grabbed more stuff, shoving it into her box. The gossip flew around the campus as soon as Reed ended his teaching career there, most believing he had actually got caught with his pants down. That never happened, damn it. She hated that he was forced out of his position, but there wasn’t much she could do about it.

“You think he knows that you dropped out?”

Hayley gave a weak shrug, moving over to the window. Crossing her arms over her chest, she leaned on the frame and stared out at the courtyard in the middle of the dorms. “I honestly don’t know what he thinks or knows or even feels at this point. I haven’t spoken to him since the accusations came out. I was worried that my being around would make things worse for him.” She stared at her reflection in the window, taking in her long red hair, her thin eyebrows and high cheekbones, the softness of her dark green eyes. It wasn’t vanity that told her she was pretty; it was truth, and that was what people saw when they noticed her with the professor, a pretty college-aged woman half his age, clinging to his arm for special favors. She didn’t want special favors, however. She wanted Reed Walker. She would have left with him if he would only have asked her.

“Don’t you want to at least make sure he’s all right? His entire career is over. He’s lost everything. Do you really want him to lose you, too?”

Hayley glanced back over at her friend, her lips downturned in a frown. “He never really had me,” she said, and the admission weighed down her heart. “We never made it that far before Chance’s goon squad started their shit.”

“You got close enough to make people start wagging their tongues,” Kendra said, brows c****d. “I still can’t believe your ex sent people to spy on you. That’s pretty stalkerish and creepy. He does understand that no means no, right?”

Hayley made a snort of derision. “More like possessive. And no, I don’t think he comprehends the words ‘It’s over.’ It also tells me what my life would be like if I did marry him. It’d be hell. I don’t need some man having me tracked every second of the day, especially when we aren’t even together anymore.” She shook her head, glancing back out the window. “Chance has always had a caveman-like quality to him, and not in the I want him to knock me over the head and take me home to f**k my brains out kind of way. More like the brutish, thug-like, disgusting kind of way. So not my style.”

“Don’t like the strong alpha male?”

“Please, Chance isn’t an alpha. He’s a bully. There’s a major difference.” She shook her head as she saw a familiar gray sedan drive past the dorms. There he goes. Not even a goodbye. She sighed. Not that I blame him. He warned me that we couldn’t be anything to each other. Told me that it wasn’t right, that what I felt was just the chemistry between teacher and student. She leaned her head on the window frame. If that’s all it was, though, why do I feel like s**t?

“So, what changed? You liked his type well enough a couple of months ago. Why not now.”

“Because the universe showed me something better,” Hayley said, still staring at Reed’s departing vehicle. I didn’t care how old he was. I just wanted him.

“Hey, let’s go get a bite to eat before you take off,” Kendra said when the silence stretched out too long. “After all, you don’t even know where you’re going, right? What’s the point of rushing off?” She made a slight bounce on the bed, standing as she slid her hands to her hips. “Besides, I’m hungry. Watching you pack worked up my appetite.”

Hayley chuckled as she pushed herself away from the window. “I’m glad I could help you out there.” She shook her head, glancing around at her room, boxes stacked along the walls. “What the hell. I don’t feel like hauling this s**t down to the car yet, anyway.” She glanced up at her friend, the one person who stuck by her when the rumors swirled around campus and didn’t whisper nasty things about her behind her back. “Let’s go get a bite to eat. But not at the cafeteria. I don’t feel like dealing with dirty looks. Let’s head to Chester’s. I’ll miss his jalapeno burgers.”

“I’ll send you a care package of all your favorite foods,” Kendra promised as she followed Hayley out of the room. “Of course, I can’t guarantee they’ll actually make it there once I get them back to my room, but just know the good intention is there.”

Hayley laughed, shaking her head as she locked her door. “I hear ya. Rude. That’s all I have to say about it. Just plain rude.”

The two turned down the hall, heading for the stairs and avoiding the elevator for Hayley’s sake. Since people started gossiping about her alleged affair with Professor Reed Walker, she had avoided common places where she would run into other students. Rarely would lazy college kids take the stairs, so she had made that her access point to her room.

Once they hit the first floor, she quickly moved her way to the main door and shoved her way outside, forcing herself to hold her head straight up as if nothing in the world was wrong. She may do her best to avoid the drama of the other students, but she refused to allow them to know how much their nasty words and disparaging glares hurt her. She would not give them the satisfaction.

As she crossed the courtyard, she took a glance around at the buildings, the maples, oaks, and hemlock dotting the landscape, the students camped out on the lawn, studying or cuddling, a few playing Frisbee. She soaked it all in, making a lasting memory of everything around her. She knew dropping out of school was the best thing, even if it made her look guilty in most people’s eyes. There was just no way she was going to put herself through their accusatory looks day in and day out. She wanted a fresh start, even if she didn’t know what that start was yet.

When they reached her car, Hayley opened the door and paused, leaning on the roof a moment as she took one more look around. Leaning against one of the brick dormitories stood one of the men she recognized from a few weeks back when all this s**t started. Aaron Fuller. A greasy punk who thought he had power simply because of who he knew. Chance had sent him, and Aaron was always around no matter where Hayley went. He just stood there, arms over his chest, as he stared at Hayley. He didn’t move; he just stared at her.

Hayley shook her head, blowing out a frustrated breath. Damn you, Chance. Send your goons home. She stared at the man and then in a burst of childish rage, flipped him off before sliding into the driver’s seat. Asshole. And she didn’t mean the guy leaning on the building.