Tempted

Chapter 31

Taylor

After Reis has gone with MJ and Logan, I take a few minutes to clean myself up. First I wash my face, needing to get rid of the tear streaked make-up and pools of mascara around my eyes. I brush my teeth and hair. Then I change into yoga pants and a sweatshirt. Tonight has fried my nerves and I just need to be comfortable.

I have no idea how this conversation is going to go, but I know I need to apologize to Colt for kissing Reis, and I need to allow him to explain what, if anything, happened with Bria.

I pad down the stairs in bare feet, heading to the second floor to Colt’s room. He’ll either be in here, or maybe his office on the first floor. When I turn the corner I nearly get run down. I take a step back, gripping the banister and mumble an apology. I look up to see Samantha, otherwise known as Yes, Colt’s on again off again friend-with-benefits. Holy shit! What is she doing here?

She grins widely as she recognizes me. “You still have the nerve to be here?” She shakes her head, narrowing her eyes. “You did a number on him.”

My fingers grip into the railing, steadying me. “Are you here to see him?” I choke out.

She pats the top of my head. “He called me, sweetheart. Me. Now run along.”

As disgusted as I was by the physical violence tonight, I feel like I could punch her right now. I force a breath in through my nose. “He called you?”

She nods. “Of course. I knew it wouldn’t last with you. The only one he’ll last with is me. I know how to take care of him.” She saunters away, continuing past me on the stairs, heading to his room.

I am so mad, my entire body is humming with anger. I fly back up the stairs to my room, without even thinking I grab a backpack, stuff my laptop and some clothes inside and storm from the room. I am done with this place. There’s no way I’ll stick around to hear her screaming out Colt’s name again.

I head downstairs to the first floor, intent and stealing the key for the fuck truck. Long past caring if I get caught. Just try and stop me. Who’s going to stop me? Colt? Don’t think so. I’d use every self-defense move he taught me until he was on the ground in a heap.

I fish the spare keys from their hiding spot Colt once showed me in the administration office and head out the back door.

It’s only when I’m thirty minutes down the road and merging onto the highway that I realize this might not have been the best idea. It’s eleven at night and home is an six hour drive. But I don’t care. I can’t spend another night at that school. I pull my phone from my purse and fire up the navigation app on my new phone. I hit the voice command and say my parent’s address. I turn up the radio and promise myself I’ll stop for coffee when I get tired, then I settle in for a long night.

The hum of the highway and blur of passing headlights, coupled with cheesy love songs are the perfect way to spend a miserable evening. I just let the tears come, and alternate crying, signing and chugging coffee.

I pull into the driveway just as my parents are leaving for work. I should have waited until I knew they’d be gone, but I’m so exhausted, all I could think about was my bed. My mom flips out when I walk in, shocked to see me, not to mention I’m sure I look horrid.

“What happened?” She grips my arms, inspecting me. I catch my reflection in the window and see my skin is blotchy from the multiple crying spells and dark shadows are etched under my eyes from lack of sleep.

“It’s a long story, Mom.”

“Come sit down. What are you doing here? Did you drive all night?”

She pulls me over to the table and forces me down into a chair. I should be tired of sitting, but I’m so exhausted it’s actually a relief to be off my feet.

“I couldn’t stay there anymore. I know I should have told you all this before, but I was dating Colt, the head of the school’s son who actually took over daily operations and well…we broke up and I just can’t be there.”

“Alright.” She pats my back. “We’ll talk about this later. Do you want me to stay home with you today?”

“No. Go to work. I just need sleep.”

She nods. “Okay, sweetie.” And presses a kiss to the top of my head. “Do you want breakfast first?”

I shake my head.

“Go get in bed.”

My dad comes down the stairs just then, dressed for work. “What in the –“

“She’s alright. Boy troubles,” my mom supplies.

His eyes get wide. “Oh.”

I’ve always been drama free and relatively sane so I can tell my dad is stunned right now. He glances out the window and sees the truck in our driveway. “Who’s truck is that?”

“I borrowed it from the school,” I say. More like stole it, but they don’t need to know that.

After convincing them I’m fine and they are free to leave, they finally agree. “Okay, get some rest today sweetie, and we’ll talk about this tonight. I’ll bring home chicken parm from Balducci’s.” My mom smiles. It’s my favorite Italian restaurant.

“Kay. Love you guys.” My parents are being cooler about this than I would have guessed.

When they leave, I head upstairs and bury myself under the covers.