Making Mistakes: A College Bully Romance (Playing Games Book 2)

by Candace Wondrak

  I was so not looking forward to this little chat, assuming he came, but it was the only way we could think of to get him out of his room. As long as he was with me, I knew he wasn’t with Levi. I had to suck it up and talk with him like a civilized person and not a chick who wanted to kick his balls up into his stomach.

  I waited to send the message to Dean until I got a text from Levi saying he’d left the frat house. On his way to the rec with the other guys, but I was ninety-percent sure that if I mentioned Mel in the text, Dean would come running. The sick fuck still liked her, but he was toxic. A toxic man who did awful things to the people who refused to do what he wanted.

  You didn’t act like that. Normal people didn’t act like that. Dean needed to learn that he would not skate by in life by acting like such a big bag of dicks.

  It was a few minutes before I got anything back.

  He was coming. He was coming right now, a dog chasing a bone, but what he didn’t realize was that he was on a treadmill, and the bone hanging in front of him, in this case Mel, hung a few feet before him, off the treadmill. He’d never reach her. He’d never get her again.

  I wanted to crush that man-boy’s hopes and dreams and make his life as miserable as it could possibly be. Did that make me evil? I knew I was already a bitch, rash and stupid sometimes, but to be so spiteful…

  Eh, he deserved it.

  I texted him back and told him where I was, and then I waited, looking bored. With my phone resting before me, I gazed all around. The minute I saw him walking in through the side entrance of the union, I hurriedly texted Levi and told him that he was here, then I hid my phone in my hoodie’s pocket, not wanting Dean to see any messages back.

  Yeah, if he saw Levi’s name flash across my screen, he might get some ideas. Hell, he might get some ideas anyway, but it was worth a shot.

  Inner revilement bubbled up the moment Dean spotted me, sauntering up to me and slipping in the chair facing me. He had a gym bag around his shoulder, which he immediately dropped to the ground beside him. His black hair was cut short; he must’ve recently gotten a haircut. His face looked a bit better than it did before, his nose no longer wearing whatever brace he had last time. Some bruising was still there, though the swelling of his nose had gone down.

  Kind of marred his physical attractiveness, which made me smile.

  What did not make me smile, however, was the grin he wore. That just made me want to throw up.

  “Well, well,” Dean spoke, flashing me his perfect teeth. Teeth that must’ve had braces and some whitening done. “So you want to talk about Mel? It’s about damn time. I’ve been waiting for her to see reason.”

  Oh, that instantly ticked me off.

  “And what reason is that?” I asked him, tilting my head as if clueless, as if I had no idea what the hell he was saying. And I didn’t. There was no reasoning here. Mel should never go back to that assface.

  “She belongs with me,” Dean said.

  “If she belongs with you, why did you fuck her over?” I wasn’t mincing words here. I was still me, after all. Still Kelsey Yates. No filter here, and none to ever be seen. “You are aware that people in relationships don’t normally sleep with other people, unless that relationship is open—and tell me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Mel would like a relationship like that.”

  No, Mel and an open relationship shouldn’t even go in the same sentence.

  “Is this why you wanted to talk to me?” Dean asked, his dark brows coming together. “To lecture me? Fuck that—” He started to get up, to grab his bag, but I was quick to say something else that got him to immediately stop.

  “No, I came here to talk about Mel, not about your relationship with her, or lack of it,” I informed him. “Sit your ass back down, because there’s something you should probably know.”

  Dean’s curiosity was piqued, and he was slow to drop his bag again and sit down in the same chair. His dark eyes never left mine as he asked, “What about her?” Hedging, as if trying not to appear too interested—which was a lie we both knew, because neither of us were dumb enough to believe he didn’t care.

  He cared. He might be a toxic person whom Mel should avoid at all cost, but he cared in his own way.

  I was pretty sure.

  “You sent her the video of her and Levi together,” I said, posing the statement almost like a question, baiting him. It wasn’t like I was recording him, so his confession wouldn’t mean much. In the long run, it didn’t matter what he said to me today; I just had to keep him occupied. “Why? What did you hope to accomplish, Dean? You had to have known how she’d feel watching it.”

  Dean scoffed, turning his face away, but he didn’t get up, didn’t move to storm away again. “Not that it’s any of your fucking business, but I sent that to her to remind her that we all fuck up sometimes—”

  “She wasn’t with you when she was with Levi. It wasn’t like she cheated on you with him and you caught her,” I told him. It was insanely hard to look at his smug face and not reach over the table and strangle him. “You can’t compare it to what you did to her.”

  “I can do whatever the fuck I want, and if that includes telling this whole campus little miss goodie two shoes isn’t so good after all, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

  The nerve of this guy. Mel was so sweet…was he like this when they were in high school, or did college change him this much? Did joining Sigma Chi turn him into some kind of Dick King Douche Canoe? Seriously. Ugh.

  I stared at him for a long while, meeting his dark eyes. Black, soulless, utterly mean and despicable, the very opposite of warm eyes. I hated him. I really, really hated him. Like, on a whole different level than the self-hatred I carried for myself after that weekend at Hillcrest. This was a hatred I would go out of my way to satisfy. This was a hatred that might drag me down to his level of bullying, but I didn’t care. If that made me a spiteful bitch, I say…where’s my bitchin’ sash and my spiteful crown? I’d be the queen, and I’d knock this king down.

  “You have no idea, do you?” I asked quietly, the sound of the chattering around us almost drowning me out.

  Dean blinked, his eyebrows drawing together. “No idea what?”

  “You know what happened last year, after the thing with Levi, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, but what does that have to…” Dean trailed off, his eyes widening—only slightly, but enough to notice. The small change in his facial expression he immediately tried to hide with a stern scowl. “What the fuck are you trying to say?”

  I let my silence speak for itself, at least for a little while. Dean knew, deep down, exactly what I was saying, but I’d tell him word for fucking word what I meant. I’d even draw him a diagram if he needed it: Mel, her body weirdly contorted on the floor, the pill bottle hidden away. Of course, it’d be a shitty diagram because I was no artist, but hey, if it helped the fucking idiot understand the gravity of the shit he’d created, I was all for it.

  “You got one your friends to forward her that video since she blocked you,” I informed him, knowing more than he thought I did. “Do you know how I found her last night? Do you want to know how I came home to find Mel unconscious on the floor, barely breathing?”

  Dean started to shake his head, slowly at first, but then quickly, as if his newfound speed would push the mental image from his mind. If that’s how easy it was to forget, I would’ve forgotten a long time ago. “No, no. You’re wrong. I don’t—”

  Still not wanting to face facts, so I said it in the harshest way possible. Mel didn’t deserve to be spoken of like this, but I found my patience growing short when it came to Dean and his stupid ass self.

  “Mel took a bunch of pills, and she started seizing,” I said, my heart hurting as I told him. I didn’t feel bad for him, but for Mel? God, I hated what happened to her. She got the short end of the stick time and time again.

  That girl…she deserved happiness. She deserved the fucking world.

  Dean was silent
, his jaw tensing, but I plowed on, never one to know when to quit: “It’s a good thing I came home right then, because what if she started seizing when no one was there? What if she choked to death on her own tongue? She almost died—”

  Oh, God. This was hard. I never thought I was the type of girl to burst into tears, but my eyes were definitely watering. No tear fall yet, though. Hopefully I’d be able to keep it in until I no longer sat across from the King of Dicks himself.

  “—and she’s still fighting for her life at the hospital,” I muttered. “So tell me, Dean, is this what you wanted? Are you finally happy now?”

  He was quiet for a while. For a long while. I could see the gears turning in his head, and I wished I knew what he was thinking, what his thought process was. Did he really think spreading that video of her around campus would make her run back to him? It was laughable. Using a video like that…

  “You made her question our friendship, you made her feel alone, isolated, and you made her relive that heartbreak,” I told him when he remained silent. “Everything you’ve done has hurt her, over and over again. You say you want her back, and yet you sleep around. You act obsessed with her, but you couldn’t care less. I mean, look at you. I just told you that she tried to kill herself—and, hell, she might’ve succeeded. She might never wake up. If you really loved her, even just a little, you wouldn’t act like this.”

  Dean let out a long breath. Whatever he was feeling, he had to have been holding it back, hiding his true self, not wanting me to see him for who he really was. Didn’t matter much, because no matter what emotions he had inside, he was a fuckup through and through.

  “No,” he said. “I’m not happy, but that’s the thing—I’m never happy.”

  “So you drag everyone else to the mud with you?” My question was thrown like a knife, a sharp dagger, and I hurled that bitch straight to his heart. “Just because you’re never happy doesn’t mean other people have to be miserable too.”

  Dean looked at me then, and I meant he really looked at me. A hard, serious look—an expression I’d never seen on his face before. He looked older then, not the nineteen he was, as if he held some kind of dark past that led him to make such terrible decisions with his life.

  But you know what? I didn’t care. There was no reason this guy could possibly have to explain why he acted the way he did. There was no redemption for Dean, only revenge, and even if Mel stayed comatose for weeks, months, years, Levi and I would avenge her. It’s the least we could do, for hurting her.

  Dean? Dean had hurt her the most. Dean needed to be taken down a peg. I couldn’t wait until the day I saw him fall—I’d bring popcorn. I’d enjoy the shit out of that movie again and again, hitting replay at least ten times.

  Excessive? Oh, yeah, totally.

  What could I say? Hashtag no shame.

  “If you’re trying to see if I’m happy that Mel hurt herself, I’m not,” Dean hissed, jerking back as he stood up. He wasn’t as tall as Levi, but he had some muscles on that body. Still, it wasn’t enough to intimidate me. I wasn’t the kind of person to ever be intimidated. A good thing, but sometimes a bad thing.

  I got up, glaring at him all the while. He wasn’t reaching for his bag, so I wasn’t sure what he was waiting for. Something, obviously. This conversation was winding down, but it lasted longer than I thought it would. I hoped it was enough time for Levi to do what he needed to do. “You deserve so much more than a kidney-punch, Dean,” I whispered, glaring.

  “I know,” he said simply, shrugging. Dean said nothing else as he grabbed his bag, slung the strap over his shoulder, and walked away.

  I watched him leave the building, not wanting to pull out my phone and text Levi—having him turn his head back to look at me and seeing me on my phone immediately after our encounter might look fishy. So I waited until he left the union, until I saw him walk out those doors, and then I texted Levi that our little chat was done.

  Anticipation danced along every nerve in my body, and I prayed this endeavor of ours would yield some fruit.

  And by fruit, I totally meant dirt. Or even blackmail. Whatever you wanted to call it.

  Chapter Sixteen – Kelsey

  The next week passed slowly. So freaking slowly I wanted to dig my fingers through my hair and pull, all the while screaming into the void. I’d gone to visit Mel a few times, but there was no change. I’d even met her parents. They seemed…well, not like my parents. More overbearing, and a bit rude. I didn’t particularly like them, but that was fine, as I was assuming Mel would have to once again drop out of the semester.

  Which would mean she would no longer be my roommate, and since half an empty room meant less money going to SCC and its for-profit shit, I’d just get another roommate.

  Yeah. That part kind of sucked, and by kind of, I meant a lot. It sucked a lot.

  I didn’t want another roommate. I didn’t want anyone who wasn’t Mel. Maybe that was foolish of me, but she was my friend, and even though I wasn’t the religious sort, every night I prayed for that girl to open her eyes again. I prayed. Never thought I’d see the day when I folded my hands together and spoke to whatever God was listening.

  It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving break, and I sat in my seat in bio lab, trying to pay attention to whatever worksheet my partner and I had to complete. Usually what ended up happening was she figured out all the answers and gave them to me because our grades were linked. One partner couldn’t get an A while the other scored an F. It didn’t work like that, not here. Not in this stupid class.

  I wasn’t going to complain, because after this class, I never wanted to take another science lab ever again. I hated it. I hated it so freaking much it was unbelievable.

  The minutes ticked by, and we were allowed to leave once our worksheet was done—and since my partner was one of the smarter ones in the class, we were one of the first to turn them in. Lucky me for complaining about Levi and nabbing myself a smarty-pants. As I tore the paper from my workbook, following my partner to the front of the room to turn it in, I couldn’t help but glance at the one man I shouldn’t.

  Levi.

  I noticed his worksheet was only half done. His sapphire gaze flicked up and met mine, and I knew once I passed him that he now stared at my ass. He definitely had a thing for it, not like I was going to complain. Once the paper was in the professor’s hand, my partner and I left, mumbling things like Have a good break and Happy Thanksgiving before parting ways.

  The dorm was my destination, and I let my feet drag, slowly making my way there once I was out of the science building. I actually wore two layers under my hoodie; the weather had taken a turn for the worse lately. Ash must have it good down in Hillcrest; I bet they were warmer. Not as warm as lower California or Florida, but still. I was jealous.

  Not that I’d talked to her lately. Still no messages from her, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this Thanksgiving break was going to be an awkward one. What if I saw her around town? We’d be home for a little less than a week; it wasn’t that far-fetched that we’d run into each other.

  I sighed to myself as I entered my dorm room, tossing my key and my bag on my desk. I’d get to it when and if I got to it. Refusing to linger on it was my way of avoiding it, since I couldn’t exactly run away.

  My shoes were kicked off and on the floor, my body laying atop my bed by the time the door opened and Levi snuck in.

  Because we had to sneak. We had to act like we hardly spoke to each other in public, just in case. We had to be careful. Dean couldn’t see us together. It really sucked, living a lie. I could hardly remember what it was like before, when Levi and I were sneaking around, finding the strangest of places to hook up. Those days honestly felt like they took place years ago.

  Funny how much things had changed in one semester.

  Levi locked the door behind him, placing his backpack near mine. He came to join me on the bed, stepping out of his shoes before crawling beside me and wrapping an arm around me. He held
me to him, my back against his chest, and I felt his hot breath on my ear.

  This was how things were supposed to be. This was how life was meant to be. Even with all the shit going on, being in Levi’s arms relaxed me. Well, they relaxed me and worked me up, depending on what we were doing, but I’d take either one no matter what time of the day it was.

  “Are you ready for break?” Levi’s rough, low voice spoke in a bare whisper, sending a shiver down my spine. The way my body reacted to his voice was almost ridiculous. That man could be talking about rainbow ponies and I’d be standing there, losing myself to the timbre of his tone, my thighs clenching.

  “No,” I muttered, grabbing the hand of the arm draped across me and bringing it to my chest, my fingers lightly dancing across his. I didn’t want to go five or six days without seeing him. I depended on this man now; he was literally my strength when I had none.

  “Me either,” he whispered, “but I was thinking…”

  I couldn’t help but smirk at the way his voice trailed off. “You were thinking what?”

  “I was thinking maybe you could come to my house for Thanksgiving, if you want.” I felt him shrug behind me. “I figured you’d want to avoid your parents and your friend Ash.”

  If I went somewhere else for Thanksgiving, my parents would kill me—but, you know what? I didn’t care. Why would we have a family Thanksgiving anyways when we weren’t even a family anymore? My mom and dad were getting divorced, so what was the point in the fake celebration of thanks? Hint: there was none.

  “Your mom would be okay with me tagging along?” I asked, slow to turn around and face him on the bed. We laid on our sides next to each other, and the hand that I’d brought to my chest now moved to rest on the curve of my ass. “Just for the day, or for the whole break?” Frankly, I’d do either without hesitation. Any time spent away from my family would be a win.