Page 37

I thought she was getting better, but I guess I was wrong.

I need to call my brother, and let him know, so we can come up with a plan, maybe one that requires her going to rehab. I probably should call my dad too, but he’s harder to talk to about these things. He’s a quiet man that lives a simple life, and he likes it that way. We never even told him about what happened at that party. I’m not even sure how he’d have reacted if we did.

When I finally broke down and told my brother about it, he ended up almost losing his scholarship after he beat the hell out of one of Liam’s friends. He wanted to beat up Liam too, but my sister stopped him. I however, seized the opportunity while everyone was arguing and kicked him in the balls and bash my fist across his face. This resulted in him shoving me and that lead to my knee getting fucked up. The cops showed up not too long after that.

Thankfully, my sister managed to talk Liam out of pressing charges. Although, thankful is a stretch. Liam deserved what I did to him—he deserves worse. But I took the first swing therefore it was considered assault on my part. The irony in that is not lost to me, considering the role he played that night. If it were up to me, he’d be in jail, but Zoe refused.

I still don’t fully understand what in the hell she was thinking. I wish I did, but her opening up is the only way that’ll happen and she only ever talks about it when she’s high. Even then, it’s a rambling of incoherent things since she has holes in her memory too.

“Harper?” A voice rises over the sound of the wind and the splatter of raindrops against the dirt.

I lift my head up, my eyelashes flutter against the raindrops. Wylder standing in front of me. He has jeans and a hoodie on with the hood drawn up over his head so his hair doesn’t get wet. But raindrops bead his lips and nose.

“Hi,” I say in a casually lame way since it’s clear I am anything but casual right now.

I mean, I’m literally having a mental breakdown in the middle of a rainstorm.

“Hi… Are you okay?” He has his hands stuffed into his pockets and a crease is between his brows

I nod. “I’m fine.”

He doesn’t buy into my lame attempt at lying “I don’t think you are.” Hesitating, he removes his hands from his pockets, unzips his hoodie, and shucks it off.

“What’re you doing?” I ask as I wrap my arms around myself.

He steps forward and drapes the hoodie over my shoulders.

“Let’s get you inside, okay?” He steps back and waits for me to stand up.

I stare up at him. “Aren’t you going to get cold?”

“I’m okay. You’re shivering,” he adds and then he offers me his hand. “I promise once I know you’ve made it inside, I’ll leave you alone.”

I’m suddenly reminded of how I ignored his message. I should probably give his jacket and walk away, but the rain has chilled through my clothes and to my bones, shivers wracking through my body.

I take his hand and I swear he releases a breath of relief before pulling me to my feet.

He lets go of my hand the moment I’m standing up, but remains close as we start across the campus yard toward my dorm building. Neither of us speak and with hardly anyone being outside due to the rain, the air is quiet except for the rain and wind and our shoes splashing through the puddles.

The longer the silence drags on, the more I need to explain myself. I’m not even positive why. I don’t owe him anything. Maybe it’s not that I need to explain myself. Perhaps I just need to unload.

“My sister won’t let me help her,” I mumble. “And she needs help. Like badly. But she won’t let me and she gets upset with me when I try. Part of me just wants to give up and let her ruin her own life. How much of an asshole does that make me?”

Raindrops drip down his face as he stares at me. “I’m not sure I can answer that when I don’t have all the facts. But you don’t seem like the type of person who’d do something just to be an asshole.”

“You don’t even know me,” I remind him as we slow to a halt in front of the door that leads into my dorm building.

“I don’t know you very well,” he corrects, stuffing his hands back into his pockets. “But I know you’re the type of person who will throw down with a guy twice her size just to defend her friend, and that says a lot about a person.”

I eye him over. “Maybe I was just having a nice moment.”

His lips tug into a half smile. “I doubt that. But why are you trying to act like you’re not a nice person?”

Because I feel guilty.

All the damn time.

If I hadn’t gone that night, maybe my sister would have either.