His eyes flicker around us, making sure we’re not overheard, and not a moment later, his warm fingers curl around my wrist and pull me toward him before he drops his hand to my lower back and leads me up the hallway. He reaches around me, opening an empty classroom and ushers me inside before closing the door behind him and shutting out the world around us.
I lean back against one of the desks, watching as Tanner moves deeper into the room. He steps into me, takes my first period books out of my hands and places them on the desk beside me. “I just need to know one thing,” he starts, a nervous hesitation in his voice. “Do you believe me? Do you think Colby did it?”
I swallow hard, knowing that admitting it out loud is going to kill me. “I think he did it,” I say, meeting his strained stare, watching as relief washes over him. “You need to understand that when I was with him, right at the beginning, he was charming and kind. He never pushed me to do anything I didn’t want to do, and I never once saw him indulge in drugs or any of that shit. What you were saying didn’t make sense to me. It was shocking and you were painting a picture of someone I didn’t know while also being a complete ass and saying things that—”
“Listen—”
“No,” I say, cutting him off. “I’ve been trying to get this out for three days, so just let me talk.” I meet his stare and he nods, letting me go on. “I was kind of a mess after I kicked you out and I started thinking about that night, replaying everything and trying to clear the fog. I was drinking a lot at the party and by that stage of our relationship, he’d started turning into an asshole, so no, I wasn’t putting out, but I shouldn’t be held accountable for that.”
“I know,” he rushes out. “That was a dick thing for me to say and you need to know that I don’t honestly think that. I was angry and words just started spewing out of my mouth. I didn’t mean any of it.”
I nod, swallowing hard. Maybe we’ll circle back to that, but for now, I just need to get it all out. “I called Erica and was asking her about it, and she told me that over the summer, Colby started to get harder into drugs, which was news to me because I didn’t even know that he was doing it before that. His attitude started to change, and I hated being around him. I’d been planning to break up with him all summer but was afraid of how he’d react.”
“What do you mean afraid of how he’d react?” he questions, his hands falling to my thighs.
Letting out a sigh, I pull my phone from my pocket and bring up the texts from Colby, not having even bothered to read the thirty or so new messages which have all come through since Friday night. Handing it over, I watch as he scrolls through them, his brows arching higher by the second. “The fuck is this dude’s problem? Is this how he always talks to you?”
“By the end, yes,” I say. “He wasn’t the same person I knew, and I resented going anywhere with him.”
“Fucking hell,” he says. “Why didn’t you tell me you were getting threats from him?”
“Why would I?” I question. “You and I … we’re not … I don’t even know what this is, but it’s not your responsibility to fight my fights, and besides, I’ve known you all of two seconds, and the majority of that time, we’ve been at each other’s throats. Plus, you made sure I had front row tickets to the blowjob of the century and that kinda killed the vibe.”
He cringes, guilt flashing in his dark eyes and a part of me loves that he hates himself for doing that to me. “I don’t care, Killjoy. If someone is threatening to fuck with you, I want to know about it.”
“Let me get this right,” I say, a smile pulling at my lips. “You can fuck with me, but no one else can?”
“Damn straight,” he says, pressing my phone back into my hand.
A moment of silence passes between us before I find the nerve to continue. “Look, the guy I thought I knew, the one I got to know, he would never have hurt your sister,” I tell him. “But this guy, this stranger who’s messaging me with all this anger and ugliness, the guy who tried to hurt me at the party on Friday night, I believe that guy did exactly what you’re accusing him of doing.”
Tanner steps into me, his hand curling around the back of my neck and using his thumb to press under my chin to raise my gaze to him. “You’re with me?”