*Kane's POV*
After she told me about it, I looked it up and read about signs of relapse and I know she said she didn’t want me to watch her but I can’t help it. When she tells me she’s not hungry, it scares me for a second but when I tell her that it’s not open for discussion, she agrees quickly and I relax a little.
As I sit on her bed with her standing in between my legs and my arms around her waist, it feels impossible to keep fighting this. Every time we’re in the same room our bodies just migrate towards each other. They clearly didn’t get the memo that we can’t be together.
When we hear a key turn in the lock, Violet jumps back from me and I instantly miss her warmth. Stella walks in and looks back and forth between us, trying to figure out, well, everything I suspect.
“So, um, we’re going to breakfast, but I’ll fill you in on everything after, I promise.”
Stella nods and then
*Violet's POV*When I cut the engine in my parking spot, I lean my head back against the seat, attempting to mentally prepare myself for the conversation I’m about to have.I breathe in deeply and find enough willpower to get out of my car and head towards my room. As soon as I round the corner to the front of the building, I see Jace sitting on one of the benches out front.I brace myself before walking up to him. I can see his knee shaking nervously and when he finally notices me coming and looks up, I see the dark circles etched under his red-rimmed eyes.“Vi, baby,” he says coming in for a hug. I put my hand out to keep him away and say, “Don’t Jace. Just don’t.”“Let me explain, please.”“I’m not sure what exactly there is to explain Jace. You fucked another girl! More than once! Not only that, but you let me believe all of this time that we were each other&rs
*Kane's POV*After my phone call, I can’t stop thinking about her. In my head, I know she’s with Stella and she’s fine so I fight the urge to go see her. I fight it all afternoon and then when it’s getting close to dinner time I’m worried that she’s going to try to skip a meal again. Or at least that’s what I tell myself as I drive to pick up Chinese food and bring it to her dorm.I knock on the door and Stella answers, “Vi, it’s for you,” she says and then walks back into the room. I see Violet sitting on Stella’s bed with several chocolate bar wrappers and an empty mickey of vodka.“Kane?” She asks, blinking a few times.“Uh, hi. I brought you guys some food,” I say holding up the bag.“We were just about to order food.”“Guess I have good timing then,” I tell her. I close the door and then go to sit cross-legged on
*Violet's POV*When I feel my phone buzzing on the desk behind my head, I attempt to lift my arm up to turn it off but find myself trapped in Kane’s arms. The more I attempt to free an arm, the more he seems to hold on.“Kane,” I whisper. “Kane, wake up.” Nothing. I turn my head to the side and bite gently on his shoulder since my arms are stuck between us and my top leg is pinned in between his legs. His eyes snap open and he says, “What?”“Alarm.” He reaches one hand up and shuts it off and then brings his arm back down around me.“Did you just bite me, Violet?”“You gave me no choice,” I say but snuggle my head back into his chest.“Uh huh sure.” We lie there for several more minutes when Stella’s alarm goes off. I hear the blanket shuffle a little as she groans and the alarm stops and she goes silent again.“Okay, I go
*Kane's POV*As I lay here, listening to and feeling Violet’s soft breathing against my chest, with my arms wrapped around her I feel...I don’t even know how to describe it but I know I would like nothing more than to feel this way all the time.I drift off again and then a little while later something lands on top of us as Stella says, “Hey, you two hungry?”Violet groans and I pull the blanket down a little to uncover our heads and see that Stella has thrown a pillow at us. Violet scrunches her face up in the most adorable way possible before rolling over to face Stella and propping herself up on her elbow.“I could eat. What were you thinking?”“Literally anywhere with coffee,” Stella replies.Violet throws the pillow back at her and then says, “Sounds good to me,” and goes to start getting up but I hold her down and place my hand on her bare hip, silently reminding h
*Violet's POV*When I get home from class, I find Stella lounging on her bed. She sits up and says, “So, did you have a good time last night?” While wiggling her eyebrows.I drop my bag on the ground and then sit on my bed facing her and say, “We didn’t do anything last night.”“Seriously? You had a man that looks like that in your bed and you just slept?”“I said nothing happened last night. You didn’t ask about this morning,” with a small smile.She laughs and says, “Come on Vi, semantics! So, spill! What happened?”I feel my cheeks flush. I’m really not used to discussing these kinds of things. Stella makes me feel more comfortable talking about it though. I think it’s because she is so...sexually liberated. “Nothing too, you know, over the top. Just hand stuff.”“Ugh, I bet he’s great with his fingers.”I
*Kane's POV*As we sit in the civic, I can’t believe I let her talk me into this. I am apparently wholly incapable of saying no to this girl.When we reach the gym, there are a few cars out front so it’s probably pretty busy. When we begin walking, my gaze flickers down to the tight leggings she has on and I consider making her go back to her room and change into something less appealing.I don’t suggest it though, remembering how mad she was when Jace freaked out about the outfit she wore to that club. When we walk through the doors, several heads turn our way and I make sure to glare at anyone whose eyes linger a little too long, silently telling them to back off. Thankfully, in the short time I’ve been going here, I’ve developed a reputation so they all avert their gazes quickly. I look down to find Violet looking around the gym at the equipment, completely oblivious to all of the attention.I lead her over to the ring whe
*Violet's POV*The walk up to my dorm feels excruciatingly long and I struggle to concentrate enough through the white hot desire raging through my body to unlock the door. When I finally open it, Kane slams it, clicks the lock and drops my bag. I literally jump him and wrap my legs around his waist, rocking my hips against him as I kiss him. He turns us around and pushes my back up against the wall.“More, Kane,” I groan against his mouth. The friction isn’t enough anymore. He backs us off the wall and places me down with my bum on the edge of the bed. He pries my hands from his neck and places them on the bed above my head.“Keep them there,” He says and the dominance in his voice makes me shiver and I nod. “Good girl."He moves his face and hands down to the bottom of my shirt and starts to lift it up, leaving kisses along my stomach as he goes. I arch my back to help him and he lifts the shirt over
*Kane's POV*As we watch the movie, the look on her face when she told me how incredible it was is burned into my brain. Obviously the sex was mind-blowing, but the way she looked at me like I was the only person in the world, like I was special, made me realize what it is I’ve been feeling when I’m with her: happiness. It’s an emotion I haven’t felt in so long. It excites me and terrifies me at the same time because I know it can’t last. How can it?One way or another, this whole thing ends in tragedy, but now that I’ve felt this way again, I am selfishly unable to let it go. I want every minute of this that I can get while I still can.When the movie finishes, I look down to find Violet passed out on my shoulder. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by that. Our evening was quite strenuous, as she put it. I close the laptop and then untangle my fingers and shift my arm around her back so that I can lie her down on
*Violet's POV* We meet my Dad downstairs for breakfast and discuss our strategy for dealing with my mother. Personally, I don’t think it’s going to make any difference what we say if she hasn’t cooled off since yesterday, but it can’t hurt to have a plan. After some discussion, we finally come to the conclusion that none of us has any clue how to approach this so we’re just going to show up and hope she’s feeling more reasonable today. Dad drives us there and we walk up to the front door and stand there awkwardly, unsure if we should be knocking or not. It reminds me of the first time I came here with Kane. Naturally, my brain starts flooding with other memories of that same trip and I feel my cheeks heat up. Get it together Violet. After several seconds, my dad sighs and takes the initiative to knock. We wait there awkwardly for a few minutes before the door swings open to reveal my mother, dressed in a skin tight black dress with her hair curled and
*Kane's POV*I’m very pleasantly surprised that Malcolm is so accepting of this. He’s probably the only stable parental figure I’ve ever witnessed. No wonder Violet talks so highly of him. He’s what a father should be and I’m glad she had him to raise her.Truthfully, I don’t know what I would have done if he had reacted the same way as her mother. I don’t think I would have been able to handle causing her that kind of pain, but at the same time, I’m not sure I would have been able to let her go either.“Are you guys hungry? Should we order some food?” Malcolm asks.“Yeah, I could eat,” Violet says and looks at me and I smile. I’m glad she seems to be doing better since breakfast. It was really hard for me to watch her struggle, knowing it was my fault. Malcolm nods and then raises his hand to get the waiter’s attention.We order our food and we eat mostly in
*Violet's POV*When she tells us to get out, I’m still too mad at her for what she said to Kane to be upset about it. I stand up from my chair and storm out the door, and I know he’s following me.Once I make it out the front door, I storm down the driveway and sit on the curb of the sidewalk. “Well that could have gone better.”Kane sits down beside me and says, “It also could have gone worse.”“I know, you’re right. The important part went okay. And my mom will come around. I think.”He puts his arm around me and I cuddle into his side. “Are you going to be okay if she doesn’t?” He asks me.“I think so. I mean, she was never really there for me before anyway. It’s my dad I’m more nervous about. That would much more difficult.”“I mean, I don’t know your dad, but from what you’ve told me, he seems like a pretty unde
*Kane's POV*After breakfast, we take a shower and then pull out our laptops to study, awaiting the inevitable phone call we’re going to receive today. We both keep checking our phones and I’m a little surprised when it’s lunch time and we still haven’t received anything.We go down to the restaurant and I’m glad to see that Violet is doing better than she did with breakfast. It takes her a while to do it, but she finishes most of her food. If last night caused her to relapse, I would never be able to forgive myself.We head back up to the room, and just as I open my laptop, my phone buzzes and I see Heather’s name pop up. I answer it on speaker phone.“Hello?”“Kane,” Heather sobs through the phone. “Something awful has happened.”“What is it?”“It’s your father. He- He’s dead.” This is the part where my acting skills are
*Violet's POV*As I pull the knife out of the butcher block, I can feel my heart rate increasing. I walk over behind the couch where Harper is sitting. This is the part Kane and I argued most over. He wanted to be the one to do it, but I don’t know how to use a gun.“No. I don’t think that. I think a knife is more your style,” Kane says to him.As I raise the knife up over my head, I don’t allow myself any time to consider my options before I bend over so that my head is about level with his, and then I plunge the knife down into his chest, right where his black heart should be. I let go and back away immediately. He does exactly what I had hoped he would do.He grabs onto the knife with both hands and attempts to pry it out. Now his fingerprints will be the only ones on there. I walk over to stand beside Kane and watch as he looks between the two of us. Blood begins to gurgle out of his mouth and I lean into Kane, plac
*Kane's POV*The whole week, Violet and I spent studying and also going over our plan to the point where it might have been considered slightly obsessive. Exams start next week followed by Christmas break so if we don’t do this now, we’ll have to wait until after Christmas and I don’t think either of us wants to have to spend time with my father over the holidays. Besides, the longer we wait the more danger we’re putting the new housekeeper in.On Friday after class, we head to the hotel as we have every single other time, check in at the counter where the same lady is always working. We head to our room and do all of the things we normally do: we get dressed, go to dinner and then head back up to the room, placing the “do not disturb” sign on the door.Violet then sets up her laptop which is set to play 2 different audio tracks at random times through the night to mimic our normal night time activities. We then proceed
*Violet's POV*When I wake up, I hear Kane’s deep breathing coming through the phone. I usually wake up first on weekends so it’s not a surprise. I sit up in bed and pull out a book to read while I wait for him to wake up.Almost an hour later, I hear movement through the phone and then a clattering sound and then a muffled “Fuck.” I stifle a giggle and then say, “Rough start?”“Sorry darling, did I wake you? I knocked the phone onto the floor.”“No, I was already awake. I was just reading.”“I see. What time are you leaving?”Sometime after lunch. Stella went home for the weekend, so my room is empty tonight.”“Okay, just text me when you’re leaving and I’ll meet you at your room, yeah?”“Yeah. I can’t wait to see you,” I say with a smile. I can’t even believe I’m leaving my father a day ear
*Kane's POV*After hanging up the phone, I sit on my bed and try to calm myself down. I was worried she might run into Jace on this little trip, but I did not consider that she might have dinner with him and then a whole conversation about potentially becoming friends.I know how much she hated it when Jace was all jealous about Lucas so I tried really hard on the phone not to be but now I can’t get images of them laughing and talking and hanging out at dinner with both of their parents; things normal couples do. I can’t give her that and he can.I should have just let her go. I should have let her find some nice, normal guy to date. She shouldn’t be stuck with me. No, she’s not stuck. She wants to be here, right? She tells me that all the time. God I wish she were here now.I realize I’m pacing around my room and try to force myself to calm down. I grab the scotch from my desk drawer and down several gulps and th
*Violet's POV*Once again, driving away from Kane feels like I’m driving in the wrong direction. I blast my music and think about how nice it will be to see my father and Rebecca instead. I really do feel bad about not visiting more often.When I drive past Jace’s old house I cringe. Shit. I didn’t even think about the fact that he would probably be here. Well, hopefully I can just avoid him. Dad told me a few weeks back that Amelia and Preston know about the break up so even if I do run into them, I won’t have to lie.I pull into the driveway and text Kane telling him I arrived and then grab my bag and head inside. When I open the door and walk in, I hear Amelia’s voice coming from the living room. Fuck. Maybe she’s alone? I see my Dad walk around the corner and he comes up to give me a hug.“Hey kiddo! It’s so good to see you!”“Hi Dad. It’s good to see you too. Did I h