“I’ll lose it then,” he says without blinking. “I’ll get beaten up to prove a point.”
My lips fall open, but I quickly recuperate. “I don’t want that.”
“That’s what you’ll get.” He brushes my hair again. “And you’ll watch every moment of it, baby. If you dare leave, I’ll send that cousin of yours into a coma.”
“You…wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
“Why the hell are you doing all of this? Are you…insane?”
“Maybe. After all, insanity, evil, and ruthlessness are boundless and lawless. I’d rather be insane than an ordinary fool.” He leans over and my heart stops beating for a fraction of a second as he kisses the top of my head slowly, gently. “Wait for me, baby.”
And then his touch is gone, and so are the remnants of my fragile sanity.
I can only watch as he rushes through the crowd and heads to the middle of the ring.
8
GLYNDON
This is crazy.
He’s crazy.
I've been well aware of that fact since the first time I met him, but I’m one hundred percent sure now. There’s no doubt about his psychosis.
My fingers clench and I slide them against my shorts, then fish out my phone and tap the number called ‘Emergency.’
It rings once. Twice.
And then he picks up with a half-sleeping voice. “Hello? Glyndon?” The older male voice speaks with its usual warmth. “Are you there?”
“Um, yeah. Sorry if I woke you up.”
“No, I was just watching TV and dozed off. Where are you? It sounds noisy.”
“I’m outside with friends.” I kick an imaginary pebble. “It’s coming back, Dr. Ferrell. I can’t… I can’t control it anymore.”
“That’s okay. Breathe.” His voice sobers up, sounding soothing like that first time Mum took me to him at my request.
Ever since my early teens, I suffered with a huge inferiority complex and I couldn’t survive in our household without the need to do something nefarious.
It didn’t matter how much my parents tried to talk to me, I always found a way to escape into my own head and block them out.
Which is where Dr. Ferrell came in. I was too hesitant to talk to my family, but I could pour my heart out to a professional. He taught me how to recognize when I’m overwhelmed, to talk about it instead of burying it, to paint it instead of letting it rip me from the inside out.
But I don’t have my brush and canvas now, so I could only call him. This late. Like a creep.
“What made it come back?” he asks after a moment.
“I don’t know. Everything?”
“Does this concern Devlin?”
“Yes and no. I don’t like people living their lives as if Devlin was never a part of it. I don’t like how they tiptoe around his name as if he was never there, or how they’re even starting rumors about his weird tendencies. I was his only friend, I knew him best, I could defend him best, but the moment I want to talk, my tongue gets tied up and I start hyperventilating. I hate it, this, them, the fact that they erased him as if he never existed.” A tear cascades down my cheek. “He said it would happen, that he and I would be forgotten, and I think…maybe…maybe that’s true.”
“We agreed not to go there, Glyndon. Devlin was loved by you and he’s remembered by you.”
“But that’s not enough.”
“I’m sure it is for him.”
A long breath whooshes out of me, letting his words sink in. Right. The world never understood Dev, so why should he be remembered by them?
I’m enough.
“Can you tell me the reason behind the trigger of your emotions?”
I rub my palm against my shorts and stare at the crowd where that psycho disappeared. He’s not even in sight anymore, and yet, he’s, without doubt, the reason every stone I carefully laid inside me is tumbling down.
Or at least, he’s the drop that made the cup overflow.
But I can’t tell Dr. Ferrell about that, because he’ll read into everything prior to tonight, and I’m just not ready to let it all out.
Maybe he’ll judge me for keeping it a secret.
Maybe he’ll know the actual reason why I’m keeping it a secret.
So I change direction. “I got a weird text.”
“Of what nature?”
“Someone who keeps telling me that I should’ve had the same fate as Dev and to watch my back.”
“Did their tone sound threatening?”
“It’s weird, but no. I guess my feelings are all over the place if I don’t see what they said as threatening.”
“You have every right to be that way. Don’t beat yourself up for it. And if those texts change in nature, promise you’ll let me know and report it.”
“I promise.”
The crowd buzzes with energy, some people jumping up and down to get a view of the ring.
“I gotta go, Dr. Ferrell. And thanks for listening to me.”
“Anytime.”
I hang up absentmindedly as I focus on the uproar of the crowd.
The students from REU go crazy as Creigh jumps into the ring. He’s wearing white shorts, no shirt, and his hands are wrapped in bandages.
“Go get ’em, spawn!” Remi shouts from the sidelines. “Show them what my lordship raised.”
Landon gives our cousin an ‘I’m watching you’ look from the booth above, most likely telling him that he bet on him. He’s surrounded by a few guys and girls, probably from his stupid club, Elites.
Eli is nowhere to be found, though.
My eyes automatically slip to the other side. On the sidelines stands a huge, heavily intimidating tattooed guy who I think is rumored to run in the same circles as Jeremy. He’s wearing a flashy black satin robe and jumping in place as he punches the air.
I frown. I thought Killian was going to fight Creigh, not someone else. But maybe he changed his mind, after all.
It’s impossible to imagine someone like him willingly losing anything anyway.
“Phew! I didn’t miss the big fight.” Ava slides in beside me, pushing a few rebel blonde hairs away from her eyes.
I search behind her. “Where’s Ces?”
“With Annika in obligatory confinement at the dormitory. She didn’t have to stay with her, but she was like, fuck Jeremy—I know, she really wants to die young—and kept Anni company.” Ava exhales. “That chap is scary as fuck and he doesn’t have to talk to relay it. Just his icy stare is enough. He even has guards and full-on security on freaking campus. I didn’t believe Anni could be anything but the prettiest doll alive, but she’s a mafia princess, after all.”
“Are you sure they’ll be okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. He won’t actually hurt his sister. He’s just being overprotective.”
“Cecily isn’t his sister, though.”
“No, but she has balls bigger than his guards. Don’t worry about her.” She throws up a dismissive hand. “Now, what did I miss?”
“The other player is about to get in.” I tilt my head toward the one covered with a satin robe.
“O.M.G. Nikolai Sokolov?”
“You know him?”
“Everyone on campus but you does.” She rolls her eyes. “I have to educate you on everything, I swear. What would you do without me?”