CHARLOTTETaide cursed, immediately letting go of me.I stumbled back a little, a bit stunned by the force of my head slamming against his nose. Taide’s grip on me was gone, his hands now on his nose that was rapidly gushing out blood.I watched with intense satisfaction as crimson trailed from his nose, down past his lips and chin, onto his shirt. From the amount of it, I could tell that it was broken. And that was almost enough to bring a smile onto my face.Almost. Because rather than hunch over in pain, Taide grinned, his eyes glimmering with mirth. I watched his lips spread apart to show his bloodied teeth and excitement seemed to radiate off him, his hand remained clutching his nose, but only loosely, like he wasn’t at all concerned by the pain.Not at all the expression you’d expect from someone who just got headbutted.“Fuck,” he whispered in a laughing tone. “You really broke it.”The laugh in his voice set my teeth on edge. If I was angry before, I felt beyond irritated now.
CHARLOTTETaide rolled off his back, pushing up to his hands and knees as he stared at the ground.He shook his head back and forth in a repetitive motion before another bloodied grin took over his features. “I gotta say, I’ve missed you, man.”I was puzzled by what he meant, but Mads just scoffed at her brothers, clearly irritated by the show they were putting on.Taide jumped to his feet and moved so he and Caeson were toe to toe, staring each other down with inscrutable expressions on their faces. I held my breath, waiting for one of them to take a swing at the other, but before they could, they were shoved apart by the other person who shared their face.“What the hell is going on in this house?” Reigh asked.Taide smirked and tilted his head towards me. “Why don’t you ask her?”That would have been enough to set me off and attack him again, but Madeline was still holding me.“Enough!” Mads said. “We need to set some fucking rules in this house.”“And we need to have a meeting to
CHARLOTTE I anxiously tapped my finger against the side of my phone, my eyes fixed on the little word written under my text. ‘Read.’ I’d sent him this message just after we’d concluded our sham of a meeting. Madeline had wanted to talk to me, but she gave me the space I needed. The triplets, as usual, disappeared goddess knows where. All the better, I didn’t want to have to deal with any of them any longer. Vance had read my message almost twelve hours ago and still… nothing. I let out a tired sigh and squeezed my phone tightly, all my frustration from the past few days, pouring out as I did. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected when I sent this message. A text, a call… anything. Even if it was him telling me to leave him alone, anything would be better than this bitter silence. I bit down on my lower lip and looked away from my phone for the first time in a while, only to jolt slightly when the sight of keys dangling in front of me came into view. When I tilted my
CHARLOTTE I sat in the library, my notes spread out in front of me, but my mind was somewhere else. I had been trying to study for midterms, but something felt off. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe it was everything that was going on with Vance, or maybe I just missed my sister even more after I’d gone to see her. Either way, I couldn’t focus. The library was quiet, the soft rustling of pages and the distant hum of computers creating a peaceful background. I had come here to study because I didn’t have any textbooks at home. Setting up camp in the library would be my best bet if I’m going to have a chance at midterms, but even here, I couldn’t shake off the uneasy feeling. After staring blankly at the same page for what felt like an eternity, I looked up and glanced around the room. The familiar rows of bookshelves stood tall, their contents neatly organized, and the large windows let in the soft, afternoon light. My gaze drifted toward the window in front of me, and th
CHARLOTTE After my conversation with Vance, I gave up on studying. I’m becoming one of those girls who let their men problems rule their lives. It’s pathetic. My mind was too busy running through itself multiple times to actually focus on my textbooks. So, I returned whatever books I had to, and took the few books I could leave with back to the mansion. I dumped my bag on the couch and walked over to the kitchen, pausing when I realized that there was the sound of something pounding reverberating through the house. I frowned, but made my way to the kitchen and towards the fridge. I opened it and eyed the selection of sweets and pastries. Doughnuts, chocolate, candy--it was excessive. I rolled my eyes at the the significant lack of actual food compared to sweets, but settled on an unopened pack of gummy bears. I shoved a handful in my mouth and followed the sound of banging which seemed to be coming from outside, just beyond the backyard. I paused at the patio door when I f
CHARLOTTEMadeline wasn’t home… again.My fingers flew over the screen of my phone idly. The sun was barely out, the scent of coffee brewing hung in the air, and the house was silent. These were moments of the day I usually enjoyed, but lately, with Madeline’s new schedule of sneaking out in the early hours and returning late at night, I found myself unable to relax.I considered texting her, but I knew there was no point. She was always incredibly vague about where she was disappearing to, muttering something or other before vanishing. But that was only after thoroughly pressing me to reassure her that I’d be fine in her absence.I sighed under my breath and dropped my phone, unable to even focus on mindlessly scrolling through social media. I’d considered that Mads had a misplaced sense of guilt over her brothers’ actions, which had only intensified after the incident at the party. Something about the way she was constantly apologizing and trying to make up for their actions, even w
CHARLOTTEI laid on my back and stared at the ceiling.My thoughts and emotions were a mess, a jumbled-up mix of feelings I didn’t want to get into. I let one of my hands fall to my neck until my fingers brushed over my mark, over the smooth plane of healed skin, only disturbed slightly by its presence.I swallowed thickly as my thoughts started to quiet, all my focus was suddenly on where my hands were and what they were doing, it felt like an involuntary motion as I moved my fingers, but I didn’t stop myself from the silent exploration.My eyes darted over to the laptop sitting on my table, still unused.I couldn’t count how many times I just sat in front of it with the screen on, debating on whether or not I should lower my pride and just use it. My hand on my mark stilled when I heard footsteps approaching my door, then flew off my chest when my door was shoved open and Madeline strode in with armfuls of shopping bags. I frowned and parted my lips to ask where she’d been, but my
CHARLOTTE“What if we crash?” I whispered to Madeline, my fingers clutching the wheel of the very expensive car almost fearfully.Madeline laughed and whipped out her phone to take a picture of my nervous but excited face. I frowned at her, but at least she wasn’t grumbling about how inane it was to be awake before noon on a Saturday.I woke up earlier than I usually would on a weekend, and the first thing my eyes had landed on were Caeson’s keys sitting pretty on my study table. I guessed they were ‘my’ keys now, and seeing them reminded me of Vance and the fact that he won them for me.He’d pretty much made it clear that we were over now, so why not grieve what I’d lost in whatever way I saw fit?And with that thought, I got out of bed, ran over to Madeline’s room and insisted that she teach me how to drive. She wasn’t too eager to get up, but soon, we were in the car and in the position that we were now.“We won’t crash, come on,” she patted my thigh. “Get your foot off the brake p