Chapter Two

Matthias Delgado

When she closed that door in my face my heart sunk to my feet. I have wanted nothing more than to get her back in my life—and arms—for over a year, and she simply discards me at the first chance.

I have never been good at taking rejection and this is driving me insane. She hurt me. Her words hurt me. And the only thing I can think about is hurting her back. I watch her closely on campus for days until she has another run-in with Amber. I watch Amber push her down on the gravel outside her dorm. I see the pain in her gaze when she stands again, her hands and knees skinned and bloody.

Kaelie pulls her shoulders back as she walks away.

"I will make you leave, Little Mouse," Amber calls after her. "You don't belong here."

And that's when it hits me. If she leaves, I can go back to my life. I can work on trying to have an actual relationship with Amber and doing my duty to my family. Amber has a point. If we can make life here for her unbearable then she will leave, and my life can resume its plotted course.

So, when I see her the next morning, I do exactly what Amber did, and I walk right into her. She falls backward onto the tiles along the hallway. Her gaze collides with mine and I see the pain and confusion in the depths.

"Leave," I grit out between clenched teeth before stomping away.

I go on a full-out campaign to make her life a living hell. I spread rumors behind her back, telling the guys on campus she is easy. I sit in the cafeteria and watch as random guys hit on her, some going so far as to actually smack her ass.

My heart hurts when I see the pain on her face, but I won't stop. Not now. I need her to leave. On the other end, I know Amber is also doing what she does.

It's six months into the school year when I stop my onslaught. It isn't that she finally caved and left school. No, she showed up to our psych class, her face covered in bruises. There were also stitches above her left eyebrow. She looked tired and broken. It hit me that what I was doing was actually hurting her and I couldn't believe I had become this person.

My mother would be disgusted to know this is the kind of man she raised.

****

Kaelie Carter

My entire body hurts. Amber pushed me down a flight of stairs yesterday and sent me to the ER. I'm supposed to be in bed, but I can't afford to miss a class or skip any shifts at work. I need every penny I earn. And I worked too hard to get this scholarship back after my year off to just let it go to waste.

"Are you okay?" Matthias asks me once the last class of the day has cleared out of the room.

I glare at him. Half of this is his fault. Amber isn't the only one terrorizing me, he is just as guilty.

"Like you care," I mumble, slinging my bag over my shoulder and trying to hide the wince at the painful throb of my broken ribs.

"Kaelie," he starts to say but I cut him off.

"Stop." I hold up my hand. "I'm not leaving this college without my degree. It doesn't matter what you or Amber do to me. You'll have to kill me to get me off campus before I'm done doing what I came here to do. Understand?"

"What happened?" He gestures to my face.

"Your girlfriend pushed me down a flight of stairs."

I don't wait for his reaction. I just stomp out of the empty room. I don't care what he has to say or what he thinks, I just want to get away from him before I say or do something I know I will regret.

Thank God it's Friday. I don't have to go to work tonight, and my shift only starts after noon at the diner tomorrow. I head to the dorm room and pack a bag for the weekend before walking the half block to the bus stop.

It takes forty-five minutes on the bus to reach the other side of town and then I walk another three blocks. I stare at the small two-bedroom house from the street and smile. This house is my safe place, my harbor in the storm. Even as a child, when my parents were better than they are now, whenever I needed to just breathe, I would come here.

My grandmama's house. Now that I'm what passes for an adult, I still come here when life gets to be too much. And even when it doesn't, because this is where my heart is.

"I'm home," I call out as I walk through the front door.

My grandmother pokes her head out of the kitchen, a bright smile on her face. I hear a giggle from deeper inside the house, the sound filling my heart and reminding me why I'm doing all of this.