Page 107 of The Draft
“Well, then you need to do your thing.” She flailed her hands in his direction. “Because, frankly, I’m tired of doing your job for you. Why haven’t you gotten rid of him already?”
I tipped my chin as I stood, recognizing Todd as one of the more motivated Crusher fans at this college. He’d always sit in the first row, banging on the plexiglass, wearing a polar bear’s head with purple body paint. “Todd.”
“Dash, what are you doing here?” Todd gave me an uneasy look, but Icould tell that he wanted to give me the benefit of the doubt. He glanced at Aster, who clearly didn’t believe or trust me at this point. For a small thing, she was pretty damn feisty.
“He needs to leave, Todd. It’s past visiting hours, Madison’s not here, and I’ve got a ton of work I need to do, which is impossible with him screaming at the windows.”
Todd sucked in a breath and looked at me with unease. “There’s not much I can do, Aster. He’s not in the building. He’s not currently shouting, and he’s standing on campus. Something he’s allowed to do because he’s a student here.”
“Are you serious? But he’s stalking a resident.”
Todd rolled his neck so he was looking at me. “Are you stalking Madison Bright?” Maybe it was because he was a sucker for the Crushers, but man, Todd made a weak security guard.
“No. She’s my teammate’s sister, and I need to talk to her.”
“Can it wait until morning?”
“Not really. Can you let me up to speak to her?”
Aster tipped on her toes, piping up, “I already told you, she’s not in there.” She flailed her arms in Todd’s face. “Do something.”
“Sorry, Dash, but I think you’ll need to try again in the morning.”
“Sure,” I drawled out, taking a few steps back. They might not have wanted me here, but I wasn’t leaving. I strolled over to the bench across the path and took a seat.
“Todd! Look, he’s sitting there.”
“It’s a bench on campus, Aster. I can’t force him to move. Unless he starts acting up, then there’s nothing I can do.”
“Well, then you better stand right there and watch him,” Aster huffed out before stomping her way back into the dorm. Todd sighed, but followed behind her, nonetheless.
I wasn’t going to leave. Madison was too important for that.
Standing outside of the dorm, I looked at the window that I thought was her room one last time and decided to call her again. I could have sworn I saw the flicker of a light, but it could have just been my wishful thinking.
“Madison. This isn’t over between us.”
I left my message at that. Yes, it was mildly threatening, but it was thetruth. If she thought she could be done with me over a misunderstanding, then she was about to be very disappointed.
Chapter 26
With my head hung low, I tentatively stepped out of my bedroom and into the dorm hallway. Thankfully, it was still early enough that no one was around. I needed the quiet to get out of here with no one seeing my red, raw eyes from crying myself to sleep last night.
I glanced at my phone on the desk before closing my door. I turned it off before going to sleep and planned on leaving it like that for the rest of the day because I didn’t see the point in taking it with me.
Why have it when the only person I wanted to talk to was also the only person I was too afraid to get a message from?
Dash had been hounding me with calls and texts, and if I were a better person, I would have answered and heard him out. Scotty raised a lot of good points during our chat, and after some thinking, I decided I needed to focus on myself for a hot second instead of everyone else. I’d been so hell-bent on getting Dash’s attention that I’d failed to see the bigger picture with all of this. I failed to remember who I was.
So that was what I was doing right now.
Focusing on myself because no one else was.
I needed to take a breath, and make sure that I was doing the right thing for me.
Putting my sunglasses on, I pushed through the doors and walked out of the building before tucking my hands in my sweatshirt. With my head down, I hoped I could get a coffee and walk to class without anyone seeing me.
“Madison.”