Path of Destruction (5 page)

A part of him fist pumped the air because, hell yeah, Ella Jane Mason wouldn’t be left behind in Hope’s Grove with Joe Dirt. She’d be with him too, would have to face him. She couldn’t ignore him in person the way she’d done by phone. So far, he hadn’t been brave enough to get online and check out his social media pages because he’d been constantly helping with his grandma and he wasn’t up for perusing pictures of Ella Jane and Cooper. But when he saw her in person, he would explain. She would listen. And understand.

He hoped.

But another part of him was terrified at the many ways this could go wrong. She hadn’t even come to his grandfather’s funeral, which he thought was odd. If she had been there, he hadn’t seen her. The fact that she couldn’t even say hello to him told him the damage from his brief encounter with Cami was much worse than he’d originally estimated.

And holy hell, Cami and Ella Jane in the same school was pretty much a recipe for disaster. In his mind, Ella Jane didn’t belong in any mundane school anywhere. She was wild and free like a dandelion growing wherever it chose. Sticking her inside a confining school building was like planting a flower in the middle of concrete.

He was still contemplating this when he literally bumped into Cami in front of the trophy case in the front hallway.

She turned to him, her eyes wide in horror as if she’d seen a ghost.

“You okay, Cami?”

For an awkwardly long moment she gaped at him like a fish in search of water. Finding none, tears filled her eyes and he reached out, unsure what could possibly have upset her this much before first period had even begun.

“Cami-girl? You all right?”

She was dressed normal. Normal for her, anyways. Short skirt, tight top, shoes that looked uncomfortable as hell. But the look in her eyes was all wrong. Broken. Panicked. Desperation rolled off her and onto him. In all his years knowing her, she’d never been one to allow herself to appear vulnerable in public—or ever for that matter—but in that moment, that’s exactly what she was.

“Cami? Are you with me?” He looked around for anyone who might be able to help if she fainted.

“With you,” she choked out, shifting her purse on her shoulder. She nodded and licked her lips. “Yes, Hayden. I want to be with you. Let’s just forget the past few months, okay? Pretend this last summer never happened.”

“Wh—”

She cut his question off by brushing her lips across his. It wasn’t the excitement of an unexpected kiss that caused him to pause and allow it. There was a sort of desperation in her actions that led him to believe if he didn’t hold on to her she might collapse in his arms. Something had her desperate for his touch and he would have bet his last dollar that it had little, if nothing to do with him.

Whistles and catcalls rang out around them. Cami tucked her face into Hayden’s shoulder and he felt her shiver as she took in a ragged breath.

“Get it, girl,” a female voice said while several male ones chanted his last name.

Hayden pulled back as firmly as possibly without rudely rejecting her in front of a live audience. “Whoa, there. That was, um, unexpected.”

She kept her hands on his waist, and he felt the forward pull from her as if she were using his body to keep herself upright.

“I changed my mind, Hay. About everything. I just…I need to forget the entire summer, okay? Let’s just go back to how it was. Please? Can we do that?”

It should’ve have been easy enough. It’s what they’d done every year. But Ella Jane’s face was burned into his retinas or his brain because even though he was standing in front of a brunette with brown eyes, it was a blonde with blue ones that he saw.

“We could, Cami. It’s just—”

“We can. I know we can. It’ll be just like it was. Better, even. You’ll see.” Cameron Nickelson lifted on her tiptoes and pressed another firm kiss to his lips before disappearing down the hall.

Shaking his head and trying to figure out how to disentangle himself from that particular situation, he turned and saw the one person he wanted to see the most and the least in that moment.

Her arm linked with Brantley Cooper’s, Ella Jane regarded him with guarded eyes. Judging from the set of Cooper’s jaw, they’d witnessed his strange encounter with Cami.

“That wasn’t what it looked like,” slipped from his mouth before he even had time to realize how ridiculous it sounded.

Ella Jane arched a brow as if she couldn’t care less. Her eyes dropped to his cast, but he saw the ripple of pain that danced across her face before she had time to hide it.

“I’m not with her. I mean, I wasn’t with her. We’re not together.” He took a step towards her, but Cooper lifted a hand.

“Back up, Pretty Boy.”

“Ella Jane, I—”

“I said back the hell up. Now.” Cooper squared his shoulders and practically bared his teeth so Hayden halted.

Was she with Cooper now? Was that why she hadn’t returned his calls? Even if she was, he didn’t think she’d ever be the type of girl to let her boyfriend speak for her or act like a dominant guard dog that decided who she was allowed to speak to.

Drew Pennington, a buddy of his from the lacrosse team, came to stand beside Hayden, but he didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention so he backed up as Cooper had requested. Or demanded, really.

“Everything cool, Prescott?”

Hayden nodded at his teammate. “Yeah, man. Thanks.”

He watched as Cooper said something too low for him to hear into Ella Jane’s ear and she nodded and walked away from them.

What in the hell is going on here?

He wondered if somehow Joe Dirt had brainwashed her, turning the independent girl he’d met that summer into a mindless zombie.

“Since when do you decide who she can and cannot speak to?”

“Listen to me, Pretty Boy. I’m going to talk real slow so that you can keep up.” Cooper stepped toward him, causing Drew to square his shoulders beside him. “First of all, keeping the PDA to a minimum with the girlfriend would be much appreciated. Ellie’s been through enough without being reminded of the huge-ass mistake she made this summer. And secondly, I respected your granddad enough not to put my fist through your face right now, but consider this a one-time-only pass.”

Hayden smirked. “Gee, thanks. Must be my lucky day.”

Cooper’s face remained serious. “Must be. Because the next time you decide to go at it with your girl in front of Kyle Mason’s memorial display while Ella Jane is anywhere near the vicinity, I will make you spit teeth. And honestly, I never liked you anyway. So as much as I hate that you seem to be hell-bent on hurting her, and I would do anything to keep her from being hurt, I am sincerely looking forward to finally putting you on your ass.”

The only words that really registered in Hayden’s mind were Kyle Mason and memorial. Turning slowly, he confirmed what Cooper had just told him.

Kyle Mason was dead.

His intestines suddenly knotted a dozen different ways. Cooper might as well have punched him for how hard he was working not to double over.

The way Mrs. Mason had been swarmed at Pop’s visitation, the murmurs he’d overheard at his granddad’s funeral—it all made so much more sense now.

Such a shame.

Was headed to OSU on a football scholarship.

His poor mama. Losing her husband and now this.

He’d been too busy looking after his grandmother to pay much attention to discussions about others who’d lost their lives in the storm, but he’d caught a few odd comments here and there.

As Cooper glared at him, Hayden felt sick. They’d all been talking about Kyle Mason and he hadn’t been mentally present enough to figure it out. Her brother, Cooper’s best friend, and the dude who’d punched him while defending his sister’s honor—the reason his jaw still clicked—was gone.

She’d lost her brother and she hadn’t wanted him, hadn’t called to talk or come to him for comfort. When Hayden had woken up in the hospital and learned that his injuries were minor but his grandfather was dead, she was the only person he’d wanted to see or talk to. Apparently, the feeling wasn’t mutual.

He eyed Cooper carefully, realizing that he’d lost. Maybe he’d never even had a chance. Maybe he’d just been the rebound guy and now that Cooper was stepping up, she was his as she’d been all along.

“I didn’t know,” was the only thought he could voice at that particular moment.

Cooper looked unfazed by his admission. “She hasn’t said a word since they told her. Not one word. Not even at his funeral. And just now, seeing you swapping gum with Prom Queen, she flinched. So guess what? You managed to hurt a girl who’s been stone solid for weeks. Congratulations, asshole. But that’s not the best part. The best part is, I asked her if she wanted me to handle it or if she wanted me to back off so she could talk to you. Pretty sure she just made her answer crystal clear. So if you go near her again, I promise I’ll make you wish you hadn’t. Whatever little thing you had going this summer is over. Got it?”

Hayden spoke through clenched teeth. “How about we let her decide that, Joe?”

“Did you blink?” Cooper’s upper lip curled slightly. “She just did.”

E
lla Jane took a seat in the back of first period pre-calculus. Drained from seeing the living, breathing reminder of how very responsible she was for her brother’s death, she placed her head on her folded arms atop her desk while the other students gossiped about summer vacation and hook-ups.

“Forget Hayden. Do you hear me, EJ? Forget him. Get home right now.”

They were some of the last words her brother had spoken to her. She’d heard them each and every time Hayden had called or texted. She’d heard them in surround sound as she sat alone in her empty house while her mom attended his grandfather’s visitation.

“It’s the right thing to do, Ella Jane. It’d be disrespectful not to go,” her mother had said.

But she just…couldn’t. She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to attend another visitation or funeral unless it was her own. Kyle’s had nearly killed her. Everyone else’s grief had piled onto her as they laid it around her neck with a hug or an “I’m so sorry.”

By the time it had ended, she’d felt as if her soul had been crushed to dust or maybe vacuumed-sucked from her body.

A muscular man with tan skin and a short, blond, cropped, military-style haircut stood at the front of the room. “I’m Coach McDermott, your teacher for all intents and purposes. And I’m going to start this year off by teaching you a very important lesson.”

EJ didn’t bother to lift her head even though his ice-blue eyes seemed to be trained on her specifically.

“Not everything in life is easy,” the thick-necked man barked at the classroom as if reading her mind. “In fact, most things aren’t, despite what most of you may think.”

No shit, buddy.

“That being said, I bet the rest of your teachers will hand out a syllabus and a lollipop today. I’m all out of lollipops, but I do have a pop quiz for you.”

As if a pop quiz on the first day weren’t bad enough, Hayden breezed into the classroom and took a seat near the teacher’s desk. The man nodded at him even though he was late. Guess he didn’t get the same tardy lecture as everyone else.

“And passing out the quizzes today will be my student assistant and star midfielder. You can call him Hayden. Or Mr. Prescott.”

A few of the girls in front of her giggled and began whispering loudly about what they’d like to call him. Ella Jane wanted to close her eyes and disappear. Of course her math teacher would be his lacrosse coach and he’d have study hall this period and use it to kiss his coach’s ass. Of freaking course.

He’d welcomed her to Summit Bluffs High School by making out with his girlfriend in front of the memorial display case the school had dedicated to the tornado victims. The one where her brother’s picture was front and center. This was nothing compared to how much that had hurt. And that was a miniscule pinprick compared to the pain of knowing she’d never see Kyle again other than in pictures.

She was fine. This wasn’t a big deal. She could handle it.

Exerting the small amount of energy she had left, she sat up and leaned back in her chair, leaving her desk open for him to place her quiz on. Watching as he flirted with the girls in front of her—likely saying the same kinds of things he’d said to her all summer—made her stomach turn. His tan hand reached over a passed a quiz to a one of his loyal subjects, who eyed him appreciatively.

“Thanks,
Mr. Prescott
,” a nearby brunette with stark blond and red streaks in her hair said, lowering her voice seductively.

Ella Jane raised an eyebrow. Probably one of his many conquests. It made her nauseated to be on that list, not to mention grouped with this girl who was wearing a bedazzled tank top in any way, shape, or form.

“You’re welcome, Raquel,” Hayden said, turning away from her quickly. “Hey,” he said quietly, placing the sheet of cheap copier paper face down on her desk. “Can we talk later?”

Ella Jane turned her head to keep from seeing eyes she knew to be green with flecks of gold in them. She noticed the chick he’d called Raquel paying especially close attention to their exchange.