Page 29 of Escape

Chapter 23

Kel

She was so close. With her hands pressed to mine against the glass, all I wanted to do was bust through it and clutch her close to my chest. Ten years of watching her from the shadows had been agony, every second like a stab to my gut. But the end to my suffering was in sight, whatever she decided to do.

I had no idea what she must have been thinking of me. The way she studied me through the glass injected a fresh dose of hope into my veins. I knew she was confused. I knew she was scared. But I could also see her slowly piecing the truth together. I could see her taking back her control.

Why I couldn’t just walk up to her like a normal adult and confess my feelings was a mystery I didn’t care to get into. I was the first to admit that I was a little bit fucked up, always had been. When you grow up with a addict mom who ultimately ended up offing herself, on Christmas of all fucking days, some of your screws come loose and can never really be tightened again. Jasmine was the first and only attachment I’d felt to anyone after that. Ever.

After I buried my mom is when I clung to my perfect stargirl. I’d just moved across the state to live with my dad, who, up until that point, had been completely absent from my life. I was the product of his midlife crisis affair and he wasn’t thrilled to have his mistake join the family. Even less so when I wasn’t as perfect as his other kids, who had already grown and were off to college.

When I started Maple Meadow High School as a junior, the students had just come back from Christmas break and the new classes for the new semester were starting. I first saw Jasmine in my second-period math class. I’d somehow ended up in algebra II, despite passing it with flying colors at my last school, but the second I saw her face, all the complaints dissipated.

Every morning, I’d get to class early and take the seat in the back corner and every morning she would stride in a few moments later and take the seat right next to me. Before she sat, her eyes would flicker to me for just a few seconds. Her plump, glistening brown lips would twitch in a polite smile and my heart would squeeze every time.

By the third week, it was clear she was drowning in the class. She even resorted to scribbling in her notebook during lessons, completely giving up on herself. Selfishly, I saw it as an opportunity to wriggle my way into her orbit.

During the first test, she was scribbling her normal blue stars with her pen, her head resting in her palm. I’d finished mine quickly and slid the paper to the edge of my desk, tapping my pencil rhythmically on the edge. At first, she didn’t notice, fully lost in her doodled world. I tapped a bit harder and aggressively cleared my throat. Still nothing.

Eventually, I worked up the courage to stretch my leg over and nudge her ankle with the toe of my boot. A little gasp escaped her perfect lips and she tilted her head toward me with her brows furrowed. Carefully, I inched my completed test closer to the edge and her eyes widened in question. I nodded and she glanced over at our teacher before hastily copying down the answers.

After the bell rang, she followed me out into the hallway to thank me. I offered to help tutor her and that was the beginning of our story. What began as passing little notes in class morphed into skipped class periods and late nights. I caught on to her learning styles and within a few weeks, she was an algebra pro. When she aced her first test is when she kissed me for the first time and my devotion to her solidified.

But she avoided me after that. In my disappointment, I determined that it was a fluke. The kiss was just an aggressive show of her appreciation. I respected her space, but I ached inside. To feed my obsession, I’d follow her through the halls and on her walk back home, making sure she got everywhere safely. Always available in case she needed help. It seemed she had forgotten me, or so I’d thought.

A few weeks after our kiss, she slipped a note on my desk at the end of the algebra period. Janitor’s closet, 4th period. I remembered how my body vibrated in excitement, barely able to sit through my next class and lunch before finally getting to meet her.

The second I crept into the closet, she grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled me into her intoxicating lips. I grabbed her hips, pulling her closer as I deepened the kiss. She sighed into me and I was a goner. Hers for life.

The day it ended almost ended me for good. I’d planned on taking my life, just like my mom. But even though she’d left me behind, I couldn’t leave her. The stubborn devotion that bloomed inside me had rooted deep into my soul. I couldn’t help but worry about what would happen if she were ever in danger. What if there was nobody there when she needed it? So I stayed. Watching her from the shadows as her silent protector. Waiting for the day she might need me or come running back to me.

After ten years, the day was finally here. She finally needed me and I was there. But as ready as I was to drop to my knees and promise myself to her, I needed her to choose me this time. Just like she had all those years ago when she first pulled me into the closet. I needed her to know the truth of what really happened that day. Of what was happening right under her nose.

Shaking myself from the memories, I cut the lights of the secret room behind the principal's office and hoisted the screaming, traitorous woman over my shoulder. After stabbing a needle into her neck and pushing the tranquilizing drugs into her veins, I typed out a quick text and slipped into the hallway.

I carefully snaked through the hallways and into the cafeteria, passing through the kitchen and out the back door. Within a few seconds, an unmarked SUV pulled up to the back of the building.

My two accomplices hopped from the car with ski masks pulled over their faces. I scoffed as the woman on the left strutted over in skin-tight leather pants and a matching halter top that showed all of her tattoos, her dip-dyed green locs poking from underneath her mask.

“Nova, I don’t think your disguise is hiding you very well.”

Her deep, moss-green eyes rolled to the back of her head. She was sassy, but she was the most well-connected of us all. We didn’t know everything, just that she came from one of the most respected, deeply rooted gangs on the West Coast. She could commit a crime in a fucking banana suit with her full name printed on the front and somehow not get caught.

“Some of us like to commit crimes in style,” she chuckled, her voice full of sarcasm. “Plus, I have…” She paused, lifting her hand in front of her face and counting on her fingers. “Three of the hottest women on Earth waiting back at Nik’s after this.”

I looked over to Nik with a cocked brow. I knew she and her two wives liked to share sometimes, I just had no idea it had included members of our little network.

“It’s a fairly new development. Strictly physical.”

“No judgment here, I’d pay to see it.” I winked. “Now, can you please take her? I have my own girl to get back to.”

They both snapped back into action as if just noticing the limp, passed-out woman slung over my shoulder. Nik effortlessly transferred Ariana to her own shoulder as Nova opened the SUV’s trunk.

“Good luck, K,” Nova said as she climbed back into the passenger seat. “You look scary as shit by the way.”

I rolled my eyes as she motioned towards my mask.

“Thank you, Nova. Nik,” I craned my head to acknowledge Nik in the driver’s seat. “Be safe. Let me know when the issue has been taken care of.”