Ice Cold

Chapter Eight

I got out of bed the next day exhausted. I hadn't even gotten a minute of sleep. I walked over to Hayden's room and peeked in. Hayden was pulling on a shirt and I saw what looked like fading bruises on his side. Hayden looked over to the door and when he saw me he pulled his shirt down.

Hayden looked at me for a few seconds waiting on me to explain. "You weren't here last night. What happened to you? Where'd you go?" I asked, stepping farther into his room.

"I had to go take care of some things," Hayden said.

"Like go take care of that guy that was in my room?" I asked.

"I taught him a lesson and sent a message back to his friends," Hayden said and walked over to me. "You won't be hurt by him again or his friends," Hayden said looking over to the cut on my face.

I looked away from him so he wouldn't see the cut. "Are you going to explain or am I going to have to find out myself?" I asked, looking up at him.

Hayden hesitated for a moment before responding, "the only thing I can tell you is that the person who was in your room and his friends are a gang of sorts and they want me out of the way so they can take everything I've accomplished here," Hayden said.

"By out of the way do you mean they want you dead? And what is it that you've accomplished here?" I asked.

"Since I'm not complying and letting them take everything, yes, they want me dead. As to your other question, I've protected a lot of things here and made sure things don't happen to keep Redwood a good place. Now, that's all I can answer," Hayden explained, and edge in his voice as he completed his sentence.

"One more question, how'd you get those bruises on your side?" I asked.

"In a fight against that guy in your room. Our second fight, when I left, they'll be gone soon enough," Hayden said.

I nodded and then walked towards the door. "Lex?" Hayden asked and I turned around.

"Don't mention any of this to anybody," Hayden said in a deep, dark voice that meant he was serious.

I nodded hesitantly and then left his room to get ready. I pulled on a T-shirt and skinny jeans and then walked over to my dresser. I looked at the cut that went across my whole cheek and stopped a couple inches before reaching my mouth. There was no covering it up so I did my makeup and brushed my teeth and hair. I pulled on my converses and then grabbed my bag from beside my bed and headed towards the door.

Hayden walked out his room when he heard me walk by and followed me to the door. We both grabbed something small to eat for breakfast and then headed to the car. "I'm driving," Hayden said, grabbing the keys. We got in the car and drove the quiet few minutes to school.
         ***
I'd gotten countless questions about the cut on my face and I'd told each and every person who'd asked that I'd fallen in the kitchen and cut my face on a broken plate. As the day went on I did nothing but overthink everything that had happened last night. That intruder had been so intent on killing me. I also wondered what Hayden had to be doing to be involved with something as serious as this. That intruder and his people want Hayden dead or weak enough for them to take over whatever it is that Hayden is doing.

I needed more answers than what Hayden had given me this morning. Nothing with what Hayden was telling me and then my parents behavior after the break in was adding up. My parents were hiding something from me and Hayden wasn't giving me the whole truth. I thought back to last night when Hayden had turned around to look at me before my parents had gotten to my room.

Hayden had seemed like a different person. The way he looked at my cut before he ran from the room was what disturbed me. That was when he seemed to be a different person completely. His face wasn't guarded and he'd started walking forward in an almost predatory way.

The look in his eye scared me then. I'd thought Hayden was going to hurt me and never, not in a million years, would I have ever guessed he'd do that. Then when my parents came into my room it seemed like it took every ounce of willpower inside of him to run from the room. To run from me.

He was even acting like a different person in his room this morning. When Hayden had looked at me I could see a wanting in his eyes and curiosity behind that. He looked like he wanted to tell me something but refrained from it. I'd been hoping he was going to tell me everything he was hiding, but once again, he shut down and left me with more questions than before.

By the time lunch came around I'd forgotten all about Connor and his people. The only thing that reminded me that they were even here was when I ran straight into Connor as I was walking towards the lunch line with Jade right at my heels. I'd almost fallen but Connor had reached out and steadied me.

I looked up at him when I regained my balance, "you should watch where you are going, miss...?" Connor said, waiting for my name.

I hesitated for a moment, not sure I should trust him, even with just my name. "Come on now, I saved you the embarrassment of falling, the least you can do is tell me your name," Connor said and smiled for the first time since he'd been here.

He had a perfect smile with a set of dimples to go along with it. I glanced down at his hands that were still wrapped around my forearm. Connor slowly removed them as he looked down at me. When I looked back up at him he seemed to be expecting an answer.

"You have all my classes with me, I'm sure you'll find out soon enough, but thank you for not letting me fall," I said and then a shadow appeared next to me.

I looked over to see Hayden. He was staring down Connor with an ice cold glare without saying a word. Connor acted like he wasn't inclined to take Hayden's warning, but to save them both the trouble he stepped away from me. Parker and the others behind him glared at Hayden then.

"Hayden," Connor said in greeting and then started to walk away but stopped to whisper something into Hayden's ear before walking to his table.

After that Hayden seemed to be a little shaken up, but he tried not to show it. When we got back to our table, Jade started a conversation about how Connor had to be so caring for him to of kept me from falling. I gave her my opinion and agreed that it was nice of him to help me out like that. I kept glancing at Hayden to see what was wrong since he had been staring out the window for the past twenty minutes.

Eventually I confronted him, "Hayden, what did Connor tell you?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it," he said and then the bell rang and he was gone in less than a minute and gone from my view.