2. Haven

My eyes!

Oh God, my eyes had lost their ability to see correctly, because I had to be seeing things. A mirage, or hallucination…or something. That’s all there was to it.

Because I absolutely refused to believe what my brain was trying to tell me that my eyes seriously thought they saw.

No other way could my boyfriend of three years be inside my dorm, naked, with my roommate—also naked—as he gripped her hair hard enough from behind to cant her head back at an awkward angle while he pounded into her ass on, yes, my fucking couch that he’d helped me pick out this summer and haul up two flights of stairs to move into this very apartment.

But why would my eyes play those kinds of evil tricks on me? That was just cruel and unusual punishment. Did they hate me for some reason? Had I pissed them off for staying up late one night too many, straining them to exhaustion as I’d squinted at my laptop and furiously tried to finish papers I had due the next day? They thought they’d get their revenge on me and play this kind of horrible game, telling me I was seeing things that in no way could actually be real.

The couple on the couch startled in surprise when I accidentally alerted them to my presence by losing my grip on the two grocery sacks I was holding, which crashed loudly to the floor by my feet.

Annabeth glanced over her shoulder and screamed when she saw my silhouette in the doorway. Grabbing a throw pillow—also mine—she desperately tried to cover her bouncing breasts, while Topher yanked himself from her body to spin my way and flash me with a disturbing view of his dick that was still hard and wet from dipping itself inside Annabeth.

“Oh, fuck! Haven!” he cried in guilty despair, covering his junk with both hands as if to prove no misdeeds had been going on here. Nothing to see, just two people hanging out on a couch, all chill and relaxed. It was just total happenstance they both happened to be naked and their privates had been connecting…repeatedly. No biggie.

“Baby, I can explain.”

Well, hell. Now my ears were in on the conspiracy because that sure sounded like my boyfriend’s voice as he flew off the couch, away from Annabeth.

But what had I done to piss off my ears into making me hear things that weren’t real? I didn’t play music too loudly or attend eardrum-bursting concerts. I swear I even kept the volume in my earbuds at a nice, moderate level. Why would my ears betray me like this, too?

It must be my eyes, going behind my back and tempting my ears over to the dark side. Yeah. Let’s fuck up Haven’s life and make her see and hear things that aren’t real. It’ll be fun.

Bastards.

Topher staggered toward me, stretching out a hand, his eyes filled with concern and apology. I jerked a step back, freaking out, because what if he touched me and I actually felt him? Two senses turning on me and playing tricks on my mind I could buy, but if a third joined the game…? I don’t know. That would make this feel a little too real. And if this was real, then… Then my boyfriend of three fucking years was cheating on me. In my apartment. With my roommate. On my goddamn couch!

That’s when it happened. Sensory receptor number three kicked in, and my nose perked to attention, sniffing out the scent of sex.

“Oh, God,” I uttered, backing away and shaking my head in denial.

I saw it, I heard it, I smelled it. That was empirical evidence right there; this was very much happening.

I’d just become a miserable cliché, one of those poor girls who’d just walked in on her boyfriend in the actual act of having sex with someone close to her.

So not cool.

“Haven, just…wait!”

Of course, I didn’t wait. Like I’d do anything that cheating bastard ordered me to do. Yeah, think again, pal.

Spinning away, I took off in a blind panic. I swear, my brain literally shut down on me, and I reacted on pure instinct. Flight-or-fight time, baby, and I was flying this coop because the idea of fighting didn’t appeal. I mean, what if I tried to kick him in the nads and accidentally experienced some skin-on-skin contact and felt squishy, dangling parts, parts he’d just been putting inside someone else?

Nope, couldn’t do that. So running was in and fighting, out.

Just until I regrouped, processed, and figured out what I was going to do about this, though. Because, holy shit, what the hell was I going to do about this? My entire life had just altered in the space of two seconds. Like flipped onto its freaking axis, a one-hundred-eighty-degree polar altercation of everything I knew and everything I was.

Topher hadn’t just been my boyfriend; he’d been my future. I’d been making plans to move in with him after graduation, pay all my bills with him, eat all my meals with him, eventually marry and start a family with him, share my entire freaking life with him. He was supposed to be the partner and companion I shared everything with. And he’d just ruined that.

All of it.

Blindsided by the betrayal and mortified for being a sucker who’d actually trusted such a liar, I shook my head as my breathing went scattered and my chest heaved, feeling as if it’d just been hit by a Mack truck.

But seriously, how could he do this to me? Oh my God, it hurt. I’d put all my confidence, and faith, and loyalties into this guy. I knew he wasn’t perfect but I had still loved him for everything he tried to be. Except this…this…

Black dots danced in my vision and vertigo assailed me as I shoved open the door to the stairwell and the steps going down seemed to sway unsteadily. I had bypassed the elevator because elevators meant standing and waiting, and who the fuck could stand there and just wait in the midst of a full-on, panic-mode crisis?

Yes, running was really the thing to do right now. No idea where I was running to, but I was trying to get there as fast as was humanly possible. Clutching the railing for dear life, I managed to drunkenly wobble my way down the stairs at warp speed. It’d be a miracle if I made it out of the building alive. There was another flight of steps after this one.

Above me, Topher crashed through the doorway, yelling my name. I glanced back, my hair flying into my face. Between brown tangled strands, I noticed he’d put on pants and was in the process of tugging a shirt over his head. Dammit. In the state I was in, he’d catch me soon.

Being caught would be bad. I’d probably claw his face off. And while there was some appeal to that idea—and I mean a lot of appeal—something in me said it was still probably a bad plan, something to do with legalities and jail time. Though, if he caught me and it came to that, I’d gladly spend the night behind bars because the claws would come out. And it’d be so worth it to sink them into his stupid, lying face.

But then, I also worried I’d start crying if he caught me, and there was just no way I was going to let that cheater see one drop of my precious heartbreak. It was hard for me to share my tears with anyone. So he definitely wouldn’t be getting them.

Changing tactics because I really didn’t want to trip and fall headlong down the steps, and the flip-flops I wore were hampering my flight considerably, I pushed through the doorway that led to the second-floor dorms—full of freshmen and sophomores, who had to share a single room, unlike the nicer apartments we seniors had up on the third floor.

Once I entered the hall, it was about an eighty-foot race to the other end, where I could hopefully escape through another door into the stairwell on the opposite side of the building and hurry down before Topher caught up. That was the wish and the hope flooding my veins, and I ran for all I was worth toward the door in front of me to attain that very goal. I was about halfway there when one of the dorm room doors opened, and some guy stepped into the hall, directly into my path.

I didn’t have time to slow down or even warn him I was there before I struck, pounding into him with a force that would’ve knocked pretty much anyone off their feet and sent us both crashing to the floor. But not this guy.

Felt like I collided into a steel wall.

Dazed by the impact, I began to crumble.

“Shit.” In the middle of stumbling backward himself, he caught me with one arm and steadied us both by reaching out to brace himself against the wall with his other. “Sorry about that. I didn’t see you there. Are you okay?”

“No!” I hollered ungracefully, glancing behind me in a panic, even though I hadn’t regained my balance yet. The handle to the door I’d just escaped through started to turn. Topher would enter this very hall in a matter of moments.

Desperate to avoid even eye contact with him, I screeched, “Go, go, go!” and shoved the guy back through the opening of the room he’d been exiting because our little collision had happened so quickly that the door hadn’t even had time to close yet.

“What…?” Caught off guard, he tumbled backward into the room with me, and this time we did crash to the floor, a tangle of arms and legs. But at least we landed all the way inside the room, enough so that I could kick my toes out and slam the door behind us. Then I scrambled to my feet, pretty sure I kneed the guy I’d landed on in a couple of different places in my hurry to get off him so I could return to the door and flip the lock.

Throughout everything, I heard a girl shriek in surprise, crying, “Wick? What the hell?”

Now that I had a locked portal separating me from Topher, I was able to focus enough to become aware of my surroundings. And the word Wick was the first thing to catch my attention.

I knew of a guy named Wick. He was on the team with Topher. I’d never actually spoken to him before, because he and Topher were mortal enemies, and also because Topher had told me Wick had called me a horse-faced troll once.

I don’t know why. He might’ve only been talking shit about me because I’d been dating his nemesis, or maybe he really did think I was butt ugly, but at the moment, I didn’t give a damn what he thought about my appearance. He hated Topher, so he might’ve just become my new best friend.

Whirling around, I latched my gaze onto the guy who was still on the floor, just now sitting up and dusting his hands off on the thighs of his jeans. And yep, he was definitely the Wick I’d pictured.

Topher’s archrival: Wick Webster.

In looks, the guy ranked up there with the four Chrises. He was Pratt, Pine, Evans, and Hemsworth gorgeous. Being the team’s safety, I’d heard he led the entire league with having more interceptions than any other player in the division. This made him stupid hot because his body was in prime physical condition. His pecs and biceps were basically suffocating in the plain black T-shirt he wore.

I wanted to snicker and roll my eyes, tell the douche he needed to lay off the tight shirts, but holy damn, the only reason I could think that he had those muscles was because God was apologizing to the rest of us for Webster’s shitty attitude—and I’m guessing he must have a shitty attitude if he could so easily call a complete stranger like me a horse-faced troll—therefore, his torso really should be displayed as fabulously as it was.

But he wasn’t just fit, he had a pretty face to go with the body. Full, plush lips; deep, penetrating, and super pale blue eyes; an angular jaw; and not super defined, but pleasantly shaped cheekbones. Then there was his hair. God, his hair was magnificent. Dark with a dash of lighter streaks, it looked silky and soft enough that I’d admired it from afar more than once. It was just long enough for a girl to grip while he was—

Well… Let’s just say it was really, really too bad he was most likely a complete jerk. And besides, no girl would be doing anything with him, anyway; Topher had told me he was gay, so I guess it’d have to be some guy—not a girl—who’d get to discover just how graspable his hair was.

When his gaze connected with mine, recognition flared in his eyes, and we both kind of just froze as if neither of us was sure what to do next. The girl whose room I assumed this belonged to—since this was a girls-only building—surged up from the bed where she’d been studying.

Pointing at me, she gaped. “You’re Haven Gamble.” She turned to Wick. “Oh my God. She’s Haven Gamble. Why did you just drag Haven Gamble into my room?”

Still on the floor, he looked at her, seemingly a little dazed himself. Then he shook his head. “I didn’t. She dragged me in here.”

The girl shook her head, obviously confused. “But—”

She and I both shrieked when a fist pounded on the door, and Topher’s muffled voice hollered, “Haven! Dammit, get out here right now.”

I backed away from the portal, shaking my head adamantly, as he jiggled the handle.

“Haven!”

I sent the door a mean mug, only to yelp when I backed into the girl. She clutched my arm, and I wasn’t sure if she was seeking safety or trying to give it, but I clutched her right back for both reasons.

“Who’s that?” she whispered fearfully.

“My boyfriend,” I uttered, beginning to tremble. Then I shook my head because boyfriend sounded all wrong now. “Ex-boyfriend,” I revised.

The entire door shuddered as Topher manually tried to break it down.

“Son of a bitch,” Wick growled, finally getting to his feet.

“Don’t open that door,” I ordered at the same time the girl clinging to me begged, “Wick, do something!”

He glanced at us, blinking away the two polar opposite commands we’d given him. I shook my head, silently warning him not to oust me. Don’t even try it, buddy, my eyes threatened. You’ll THINK horse-faced troll once I’m done with you if you go anywhere near that door.

That’s when he shattered me with a single question.

“Did he hurt you?”

My lips parted in surprise. It was such a simple, short inquiry. There didn’t even seem to be much emotion behind it. But the way his gaze pierced into me with intensity, gauging my reaction, had me shuddering out a breath, dumbfounded by the fact that he even cared enough to ask.

“Physically, no.” I shook my head, hoping that would be that.

But Wick Webster wasn’t done rattling me to my core. “What about every other way?”

My chin wobbled and tears filled my eyes as my throat went dry with pain. Reality slammed into me, reminding me of everything that had just transpired in the past two minutes: the loss, the agony, the humiliation, the betrayal. I totally didn’t mean to and I certainly didn’t want to, but I began full-on crying.

In front of Wick Webster.

“Oh God,” I croaked when a sob caught in my chest and caused my entire body to heave. Pressing my hands to my heart, I folded in around myself and began to disintegrate into nothing. I couldn’t deal any longer. Going down with the ship. Sinking.

Soft, supporting hands caught me, and the girl whose room I had invaded helped me lower myself until I was sitting on the edge of her bed.

“Motherfucker,” Wick snarled from across the room. Spinning away, he stormed toward the door.

“No,” I rasped, my voice breaking and barely making a sound as I tried to stand again.

I had to stop him.

But the girl grabbed me, pulling me back down. “No, it’s okay,” she murmured, petting my arm in reassurance. “Wick’s got this. It’ll be okay.”

I turned to look incredulously at her, and she smiled brightly. “I’m Izzy, by the way. Wick’s sister. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

What? Why did she say finally? I blinked, only to whirl my attention back to the door as Wick jerked it open enough to fill the entrance with the entire width of his body. Then he growled, “Stop pounding on this door before I break your fucking throwing arm, asshole.”

My eyebrows shot up, only for me to gasp and jerk backward when Topher’s voice tore into the room. “Get out of my way, Webster. I need to talk to my girlfriend.”

“I don’t think so, fuck face. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I ever let you into this room, and besides, your girlfriend’s not here.”

I kind of liked how he emphasized girlfriend because Topher’s girlfriend really wasn’t in here. That dick didn’t have a girlfriend any longer.

Smooth wording, Webster, I wanted to cheer, because he’d almost just made up for the fact that he’d called me a troll once, except, yeah… No, he didn’t at all.

“Bullshit,” Topher argued.

Wick lurched an inch back as if my ex had just tried to plow through him but hadn’t gotten very far.

“I saw the door slam shut as soon as I stepped into the hall, and besides, she dropped her fucking sandal right outside this room.”

Izzy and I both looked down at my feet. I was indeed only wearing one flip-flop. Damn, I hadn’t even noticed.

“That’s mine,” Wick answered, snagging the sandal from Topher and tossing it blindly into the room over his shoulder so that it landed with a thud in the center of the floor.

“You son of a bitch,” Topher exploded. “I know she’s in there. Haven!” he called frantically over Wick’s shoulder, struggling to get in, but having no luck whatsoever. “I know what you saw. But it was all a big mistake. I can explain. Please, baby, just talk to me.”

I flinched at the word baby and turned my head aside. Izzy Webster quickly hugged me and patted my back.

At the doorway, Wick boomed, “Enough!” as his back muscles tensed and elbows jutted toward us before he shoved forward, his voice going slightly muffled as he followed Topher into the hall. “I said she’s not in there, and even if she were, I still wouldn’t let you in. Now move away from this door before I rearrange your face. And if I ever see you back here again, you’ll wish I’d only fucked up that pretty mug. Go look somewhere else for your girlfriend. She’s not here.”

Topher had always been bigger talk than action. I could tell Wick’s threats had gotten him to back down when he hissed, “I swear to God, Webster. If I find out she was in there, after all, I’ll make you pay.”

I heard footsteps stomp away, and my shoulders slumped with relief. It had worked. Whatever Wick had done out there, it had worked, and Topher was leaving. Thank God. I was suddenly buzzing with so much gratefulness from the reprieve that I barely missed Wick’s parting words to Topher who’d already left.

“You already made me pay,” he quietly told the empty hallway. “Since the moment you fucked me over freshman year, I’ve been paying.”

I glanced toward his sister. Furrowing my brow, I asked, “What’d he mean by that?”

Her eyes were wide as she bit her lip and shook her head slowly back and forth. “I don’t think we were supposed to hear that part.”

Yeah, but we had heard it, so now I wanted my curiosity appeased.

I opened my mouth to ask if she at least knew what he’d meant, even if she didn’t want to share with the class, but Wick strode back into the room and shut the door behind him, his jaw tight and eyes narrowed with distaste.

When he glanced my way, his shoulders flinched before he slowly started to relax. He blinked the anger from his eyes until he looked almost regretful as if he’d somehow let me down.

“I don’t know if he’ll stay away, but he’s gone for now.”

I gulped and wiped the wetness off my cheeks. My knees felt weak and wobbly, but I pushed upright anyway so I could cross the room to the boy who’d just helped me. All differences we might have aside, he’d gotten me out of a difficult situation. I wouldn’t forget this.

Opening my arms, I hugged him, letting him know just how grateful I was for what he’d done. “Thank you,” I said into a hard, pleasant-smelling chest.

Then I burst into tears again, sobbing all over him.