Rampage ✔

Chapter sixteen

    Deciding to be a little productive today, I switch out Netflix for the Chemistry lab due next week. Reaching for my backpack on the floor beside my bed, the open window next door catches my eye, or more specifically the shirtless man reclining on the bed. Reece is utterly oblivious to my ogling as he reads in his room. I try to ignore him as much as possible but my gaze keeps travelling from the pages of my textbook to the skin of his bare chest.

    Shirtless Reece is the biggest distraction ever.

    The ringtone of my phone startles me and I jump just about three feet in the air. Fumbling for the phone on my bed, I answer without checking the screen.

"Quinn?"

The voice freezes the blood in my veins, my body tenses in shock.

"Quinn? Are you there?"

"Why are you calling me?" My voice is quiet, meek even though I was going for a strong and collected tone.

"I want to see you and Luke," she explains, "when I went to the house, the neighbor told me you had moved. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well we don't want to see you," I croak. "Why would you want to see us anyway? You're the one who left and abandoned us for some guy that's young enough to be your son."

    Mom gasps. "I never abandoned you! I wanted to give you time to cool off. I was waiting for the right time."

    "You're lying!" I shout.

    I can tell she's crying when she sniffles. "Quinn, please you have to believe me."

    "I don't have to believe anything you say to me. You've lied to all of us. You didn't try to contact me in seven months and you expect me to believe you care?"

    "I do care!" She insists, "I miss you and Luke so much."

    Tears stream down my face at her words. All I've wanted was for her to tell me she missed me and loved me, but it's too late now. She had her chance months ago when everything was crashing down around me. She wasn't there for me when the whispers were being said behind my back. She wasn't there when Luke quit basketball. She wasn't there when I caught dad drinking himself into unconsciousness.

    "I hate you," I whisper through my sobs.

    Her voice goes quiet. "You don't mean that."

    "I hate you!" I hiss louder this time. "I hate you!"

    By this point I'm crying so hard that it's probably impossible to understand what I'm saying and I must be louder than I thought because Luke bursts through the door wielding a wireless Xbox controller in his hand.

    "What's going on!?" His eyes narrow on the phone in my hand and he stomps over to grab it from me. "Who is this?"

    I know it the second she says something because his eyes widen and rage alights his eyes with fire.

    "Never call here again," he grits out harshly.

    Luke's arms wrap tightly around my shoulders as I cry against his chest.

    "It's okay, Quinn," he comforts me. "She's gone and won't call again."

I cry for a while longer before I'm simply left clinging to his comforting embrace. I pull away as he says, "she's fine."

Who's he talking to?

Reece leans out of his window closer to mine to get a better look at me, "Quinn?"