Afterglow

grim

"No, you'd better hold me back, otherwise I'm going back for round two for that bitch. A slap isn't enough for her!"

"Actually, it left a pretty damn good mark. Her nails caught a bit of her cheek and she was bleeding when we left," Taylor filled Vera in, some of the fight leaving her as she looked at me triumphantly with pride shining in her eyes, but what I had done was nothing to be proud of. I'd laid hands on another human being...I'd stooped to his level.

And she was bleeding? I'd made Jenna bleed from a single slap? Maybe I was worse off than I thought, the demons inside of me festering and just waiting to pounce like I'd done to Jenna.

Those damn blue eyes flashed in my mind's eye and once again I felt the need to punch them straight out of her head, the cerulean irises squishing under my feet once I was done, but those images made the pot roast I'd eaten earlier in the night want to make a second appearance so I focused on something else, anything else...mainly Lachlan.

"And what were you doing there," Blythe asked her brother accusatorially, like he was the one to instigate the altercation in the first place, not the one who shut it down so quickly.

Lachlan shifted under her stare but didn't back down or look uncomfortable, always seeming on top of the situation.

"I heard screaming and came by to see our Kat here about to jump Jenna, so I grabbed her and brought her back here."

Taylor's eyes twitched in recognition of something as Lachlan spoke, but of what I wasn't sure. Everyone then turned their eyes to me as if to ask if that was true.

"Yeah, because I'm obviously not staying with her anymore," I said and everyone seemed happy with my answer.

"I can call my dad and ask if he can talk to the headmaster and get your room switched? If you want?"

"No. I'll talk to dad, Blythe."

Lachlan's voice held no room for arguments so she shut down and then when everything had been settled, Taylor and Lachlan walked out. I waited a few seconds before telling the girls I had dropped something from my bag on the way over, and dashed out of the room before they could argue with me.

He was waiting around a corridor when I came looking for him.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I didn't even have to reach for him, those arms enveloping me in his scent and strength that numbed those grim senses that always tried to throw me overboard.

"I'm fine, not sure I'm okay yet. Thank you for being there, for stopping me from...whatever it was I was about to do. I'm not usually like that, I've never put my hands on another person before."

"She deserved it, Kat, she was totally out of line. She has no idea what you're going through."

"Yeah, maybe not, but it still wasn't right what I did. I need to just stay away from her and Sloane, they trigger me way too much."

We stayed like that wrapped up in each other's arms, his hands drawing circles across my back that sent chills dancing up and down my spine from the contact. I had no idea what we were to each other, but that was okay.

He saved me from my mind, and that was everything I needed.

"Kat?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you only let me call you that?"

My mouth quirked up in a sly smirk as I pulled back slightly to peer up into his eyes.

"I don't let you, you choose to call me that."

There was that grin that I'd grown to crave in the short time that we'd spent together.