t w e n t y s i x


I HEAR THE opening of a door and I groan, rolling over onto my back and slapping my arm across my eyes.


"She's over there." I hear Noah's voice and I pull my arm away, opening one droopy eye and watching as Chase walks through the door way.


After getting back to Caldwell at about one-thirty this morning and upon shoving my hands into the pockets of the leather jacket, I realised I had lost my dorm key. We searched Noah's Jeep from top to bottom before reaching the conclusion that there was no way I was getting into my dorm.


I was too damn tired to wait for Chase to get back and Noah offered his bed to me. He was honestly such a sweetheart and slept on the floor on an array of comforters and pillows Noah has locked away in his closet for freezing snow days.


"What time is it?" I question but it came out as a incoherent slur.


Chase somehow made sense of it and answers as he crouches before the bed, "Almost five."


"You idiot, I told you to wake me when you got back." I growl quietly, trying not to wake up Ryan who was fast asleep across the room. It was a nightmare trying to get in last night.


"I am back, Jones. And I am waking you." Chase retorts, being his smartass self. It's obviously a 24-7 type of thing. Chase slips one hand under my legs and the other under my back as he pulls me into his chest, carrying me bridal style. I rest my head on his shoulder, half asleep and delirious as he carries me out of Noah's dorm.


Chase unlocks and opens the door all while still holding me and if I could, I would applaud him, he stalks across the room and lowers me down onto the familiar feeling of my mattress.


I mumble mindlessly, "I have to go to class soon."


"You need to sleep, Jones." Chase chuckles to himself quietly as he pulls my covers over me. My eyes were closed, but I turn my head so I was facing him. I think.


"You need to sleep." I retort lamely, "I...you..."


And then I was out.


♤♤♤♤


I yawn heavily as I walk through the door of the classroom and out into the busy hall. I was still tired even though I didn't wake up until half past twelve earlier. But then again, I'm always tired.


I was struggling to keep my eyes open as I trudged down the hall and feel someone tug on my denim jacket.


"Uh, earth to Hayden?" I turn around, noticing Penn's smiling face, "I was calling you."


"Oh, shit sorry. I'm so damn tired." I try to say without yawning but it doesn't work. I cover my mouth as Penn laughs lightly at me and we continue walking down the hall together.


"So does that answer why you weren't in class earlier?" Penn questions as I nod slowly, hugging my folder closer to my body, "You didn't miss much. But Libby Donaldson spilled oil paints all over her portrait and has to start again. So that was quite funny."


"Aw, I'm influencing you!" I wrap my arm around her shoulder and laugh, "Hey, I left my textbook for Calculus in my dorm. I'm just going to grab that quickly."


"I don't feel like going to my Good Behaviour class just yet so I'll come with you." Penn smiles before we lock arms and head in the direction of Elwood hall. When we were outside and in a much more quieter environment, Penn says, "I heard you're Mom came. How was it? I'm sure you'd miss her."


"Yeah, I missed her so much." I gush and glance down at my shoes. It was oddly sunny today, freezing but the sun was out and blazing across the campus. "She's getting married to some super rich doctor."


"Ooh, that's exciting."


"I know right? Mom also said I could bring a couple friends if you up for it. It's during our Winter break." I explain as I nudge her slightly, "That's if you're not spending Christmas with your father and if you are then I totally understand."


"Well, I haven't spent the last seventeen with him so I hardly find how this one will be any different." Pen grins at me, "Of course I'll come, Hay."


We make it to Elwood and catch the finally fixed elevator up to the third level. We were laughing all the way up after I told her of the time Spencer got a job at the local elderly home in Holden Bay and accepted brownies from a sweet old lady with arthritis. Turns out the brownies were pot brownies to help her with her pain and Spencer was high in an elderly home.


He became some ladies very own doll and was done up all pretty like.


"It was fucking hilarious when I went to pick him up later in the afternoon." I laugh as I unlock my dorm room door, struggling slightly like always before the wooden slab finally swings open. I walk in and freeze instantly.


What. The. Fuck.


The entire side of my room was completely trashed. My desk was covered in rubbish as was the floor, my bed covers ripped open, my pillows sliced, everything from the walls was savagely ripped down. It was as if a fucking pissed off lion had torn through here, shredding everything in sight. Chase's side was untouched.


"Holy shit..." Penn whispers behind me almost as shocked as I was. I couldn't move, all I could do was stare at it like a damn gold fish. "Who did this, Hay?"


"I-I-" I stutter before fisting the pleats of my school skirt with one hand and snapping out of my speechless state, "I know."


I spin on my heels, pushing past Penn and sprinting down the stairs. I run rampage through campus, Penn eagerly trying to keep up behind me. I looked like a madwoman on crack but I cared not. I was too damn pissed off to give a single fuck about what anyone was thinking as I stormed past them.


I find her, sitting in the wide courtyard surrounded my manicured gardens outside the library. She was with her friends and they were cackling like a bunch of geese about something stupid. I march across the courtyard, rage burning brightly in my veins and stop before her.


Lea glances up at me through her black cat eye shades and scoffs, "Ugh, what do you want?"


"That was a real bitchy move, Lea." I fold my arms and glare at her. Her two friends snicker lightly but try to cover it up as a cough, "Trashing my dorm room, great idea. So fucking original."


"I'm sorry, I haven't the faintest clue what you're talking about Hayden." Lea stands up from her seat, her hand placed against her chest in a sorrowful manner. But the wicked smile stretching across her face made me want to slap it off instantly.


I step closer to her, getting all up in her damn business, "Try that again and you'll fucking regret it."


I turn around, not letting her get to me any more and take a deep breath as I focus on Penn who was standing a few feet away, clutching her plaid coat to her petite body. She gives me a small supportive smile.


"Just a heads up, Hay, you shouldn't really leave your dorm key just lying around. Bad things can happen." Lea chides sarcastically from behind me and that was all it took to send me spiralling over the edge.


I spin around, my fist clenched as I swing in a wide arc. I feel her skin, her muscle and her bone. I feel the pain explode throughout my hand as I make contact with her face and send her stumbling back onto the bench.


The courtyard went dead silent as Lea clutches the left side of her face with both hands, glancing up at me with an expression that I could only describe


"Did you....did you just punch me?" She questions, dumfounded and confused, as he two friends stare up at me in silence.


I shrug with a cocky smirk, "Well, someone had to fucking do it."


Then all hell breaks loose.


Lea pounces on me like a damn cat, tackling me to the ground as she pulls at my hair. We were both screaming manically as I watch in quick flashes as students begin to swarm around us. I manage to push Lea off me but I wasn't done. Not even fucking close.


I grab a hold of her hair, finally pulling out the damn fake extensions from her scalp and throwing them onto the concrete. Lea jabs her elbow into my rib and I wheeze out in pain.


"Get off me you psycho!" She screams out shoving me hard.


"You fucking started this!" I retort pulling and punching at her as she delivers the same back. It was probably the most cliche girl fight on this fucking planet but I was too angry to care.


I feel an arm wrap around my waist, pulling me off Lea and away. I kick both lies into the air as I struggle against the stranger's grasp until I feel there hot breath of the side of my neck.


"Calm down, Jones. It's me." Chase whispers calmly into my air as I slowly stop writing against him. Through my curtain of crazed and disheveled hair, I notice that Lea had been pulled from the ground as was now being held back at the other end of the circle of congregated students.


"Go to hell, bitch!" Lea screams at me as two guys struggle to contain her.


"Where the fuck do you think I came from!" I shout back as I continue to struggle against Chase, my anger sparking again.


Chase continues to whispers softly to me, "Hey, Jones. Just breathe, she isn't worth it."


I breathe deeply, placing my feet back onto the ground as Chase slowly unwraps his arms from my waist. I push my hair back behind my ears as I stare at the ground, trying to get my heart race under control.


"She's fucking crazy!" Lea shrieks, outraged as my gaze snaps across the circle to see her pointing at me.


"I'll show you fucking crazy!" I yell, stepping forward ready for round fucking two but then Noah and Levi both step in front of me like gates. I jump slightly, trying to see over their big ass shoulders, "Let me through! I'm not finished!"


"Yes you damn well are." Chase orders sternly as he grabs a hold of my hand and pulls me further away. "Penn, can you take Jones back to her dorm?"


"Uh, yeah sure." Penn says, slightly nervous as she quickly makes her way over to us.


"I'll go with you two. Keep this little fire cracker from exploding again." Noah states as he folds his arms, trying to seem tough and strong while standing next to Penn. The height difference was kinda cute.


"What? No? I'm not going anywhere." I announce firmly, standing my ground as I glance back and forth between Noah and Chase.


"Leave, Jones." Chase demands and I have to admit it was both scary and attractive. Ugh, why am I like this? "I'll sort everything out, don't worry."


"Let's go Hay." Penn says as she softly holds me hand and begins leading me away.



wooo! lea finally got what was coming to her bitch ass.


i'm definetly the students standing on the outside ring in a fight.


there's no way in hell i'd be in the middle.

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