After The Bet

9

"You sent my whole world tumbling down."

Charlotte

"I'm sorry to inform you that your nose is broken. Luckily, you don't need surgery. We will help you splint and tape it into place and show you how to do it. Make sure you also take plenty of pain medicine to help with the throbbing and inflammation."

"Thank you." I whispered under my breath to the doctor as he left the room. I looked over to Dylan who had his gaze set on the tile floor. His foot tapped angrily and his eyebrows were furrowed together. "Dylan, stop with the mad face."

"How can I?" He hissed through his teeth, refusing to look at me. "He broke your nose."

"I'll be okay though, I promise." I tried to offer him a small smile, but he still wouldn't look up.

The doctor walked back into the room with the proper tools to help tape and splint my nose. It was hard not to flinch at every little touch since it was still swollen.

"Just remember to keep it clean and don't remove the splint early. You don't want to have surgery. Feel better soon." The doctor gave me a sheet to give the woman at checkout and made his way out.

Dylan still wouldn't talk as he walked me over to checkout. He pulled out his phone to get us an Uber back. The lady at checkout eyed my face, and handed me a pamphlet and leaned in closer to me.

"Keep this just in case, we have resources." She offered me a small smile as she waved me off. I turned around and began to walk out as I read the pamphlet. The heading said Domestic Abuse..?

Well, I can't blame her for giving me this. My excuse I gave the doctor was a pretty lame one. They probably do have woman coming through here suffering from domestic abuse.

"Let's go." Dylan said as he held the door open for me. We both walked side by side to the Uber he got. "Just take us back to campus, thank you." He told the driver as we got in.

The ride to campus was silent. The awkward tension in the air was making me stare out the window to watch the trees pass by. The sky was still dark, and there were barely any stars to help light our way.

"Charlotte." I heard Dylan's voice trying to break me out of my trance, but I continued looking out the window. At one of the stop lights, the car pulled to a quick halt as we waited for the light to turn green.

On the corner of the street in front of one of New York City's fanciest restaurants, there was a man down on his knee proposing to a woman. She nodded her head happily, jumping into his arms. The crowd that had seen what happened began cheering and clapping for the newly engaged couple.

Seeing this brought tears to my eyes. I thought that one day that would be me and Cole, with him on one knee proposing to me. Even if he did it with a ring pop I still would have said yes. That's because I truly did love him.

"Charlotte, we're back to campus." Dylan shook my arm lightly to get me to look at him. I nodded my head and didn't say a word to the Uber driver as I got out of the car. Dylan gave him a quick thank you before chasing after me. "Hey, if you want–"

"Did you know about this?" I snapped at him as I turned around to face him. A look of surprise washed over Dylan's face as he reached his hand behind him to scratch his neck. His hesitation gave me the answer I needed. "Does that mean Andy knew too?"

"Yes, we both knew. Both of us wanted to tell you, I can't speak for the others though."

I shook my head as I began to walk away from him. I heard him following close behind me, so I spoke without even turning around.

"Don't follow me, just leave me alone."

With that, I made it to my dorm. I swiped my keycard to let me in and closed the door quickly behind me just in case Dylan was following. Tears began to slip down my cheeks once again as I walked to my room.

I hesitated when I got to my door. Cole was my suite mate, and so was Andy. I wasn't ready to face him. I never even wanted to see his face again. The pain in my chest came back as I thought about him walking through our connected bathroom into our room to talk to me.

My shoulders were shaking as I began walking down the hallway, and I could barely even walk straight. Tears clouded my vision and my makeup was smeared all over my face. My eyes had black half circles under them from the broken nose, and this splint was annoying me more and more by the minute.

I made it to Cierra's room down the hall from mine. I managed to knock on her door, and within seconds she had it opened. Her face was covered in distraught as she looked at me.

"Honey, what the hell happened to you?" She gasped as she motioned for me to come in. I wrapped my arms around myself as I stumbled through her door.

"Cole and I broke up."

"Did he do this to you?" Cierra didn't take her gaze off of me as I nodded my head. Her eyes were filled with rage as she went to head back out the door. "I'm going to kick his fûcking âss."

"It was an accident, at least the broken nose was." My bottom lip quivered slightly as I crashed in one of her bean bag chairs.

Cierra stopped for a moment and came to kneel down in front of me. She took my hands in hers and looked up at me.

"Do you want to talk about it right now?"

I shook my head no. Cierra nodded her head as she stood back up.

"Well, you're welcome to stay here as long as you want. Natasha shouldn't mind, you can take the couch."

"Thank you, I think I'll just get some sleep for now."

"Alright hon, let me know if you need anything." Cierra offered me a weak smile as she let go of my hands and went off to her own room.

I laid with my back against the couch and just stared up as I watched the ceiling fan twirl around noisily. I tried not to think about what happened earlier tonight, but my mind had it all on repeat.

There was a sex video of me, and Ian had it readily available. Cole kept it on his laptop. He showed his friends to make a quick buck. I was just a pawn in his sick little game.

What the hell does it even mean to be in love? Love is worth nothing anymore.

•

So.. if you actually are reading this I freaking love you. It's been like 6-7 months since I last updated. Last semester of college was TERRIBLE.

I was stressed to the max and even got mono and was bed ridden for weeks. It was just a really rough semester.

But here I am, typing this WAYYY overdue chapter and it wasn't even that good. I'm going to try and FINALLY finish this book eventually lol.

But seriously, if you read this chapter and saw that I updated you're amazing. Thank you so much for all of your continued support.