King of Denial : An Academy Bully Romance (Boys of Almadale Book 3)

by Jacie Lennon

  “No. You two have done more than enough,” I say over my shoulder, letting them see a small smile. I truly couldn’t have found two better friends. And I’m thankful they’ve been by my side through everything. “Can I have a few more moments alone?”

  “Of course. We will be right out here if you need us.” With that, Landry closes the door, and it shuts with a soft click.

  I smooth my hands down the front of my pajamas and look at my perfectly coifed hair. I look beautiful; I can’t deny it. Exactly how I’d want to look on my wedding day. Except for that dress. I shudder when I think about walking down the aisle in it. I shudder when I think about walking down the aisle in general.

  I dreamed last night about the time Bodhi had bought me the horrible doll. The one I’ve kept all this time even though I hate it. It’s the physical manifestation of our relationship in a way. It’s when we cemented our friendship, and the doll was supposed to be my good-luck charm.

  Some good-luck charm it turned out to be. I think it’s actually possessed.

  As soon as I woke up, I dug the doll from my closet, where I’d stashed it once school ended, and threw it in the trash along with my anklet. We aren’t friends anymore. Then, I lay on my bed and cried before frantically digging them both out of the trash and holding them against my chest as I cried harder.

  I glance down to the half-heart that I fastened around my ankle after I finished crying. Maybe it’s my last rebellious act to wear it underneath my dress. Something for me to think about while I’m trussed up in front of the church, repeating vows I don’t mean to a man I despise.

  I won’t let any tears fall now. I’ve put the waterworks behind me, and I will move on to finding new ways to cope with my future.

  I turn away from the mirror and head to the door. I need my girls to help me dress, and I can’t stall any longer.

  A tap on the window beside where my dress is hanging has me stopping and turning to look. The windows are frosted glass, and I can only make out a shadowy form. I watch as the person—a guy from the looks of it or a tall girl—cups their hands against the glass and presses their face to it to try and see inside.

  I look back to make sure the door is still closed and no one else heard the noise before crossing the room to the window. It takes me a minute to figure out the latching mechanism, and after a few good pulls, it finally squeaks free, releasing the window enough for me to get my nails underneath the bottom and tug up.

  “Ow,” I say, pulling my hand back, seeing one fingernail chipped. There goes my wedding-day manicure. But the face staring at me when I look back up is what takes my breath away. “What are you doing here?” I ask.

  Bodhi’s eyes rake over me for a moment before he pushes himself up and over the sill. A first-floor church window into a bridal room apparently doubles as an acceptable entrance in Bodhi’s world.

  “What are you doing here?” I repeat when he doesn’t answer.

  “I had to see you,” he says, stepping toward me but I move back. He frowns.

  “Why? You’ve been a complete ass to me over the past month and a half.”

  “I know,” he says, staring down at the floor for a moment. I wait for him to speak again. “I have my reasons.”

  “I’d love to hear them,” I say, throwing my arms out. “I’m all ears.” Anger shoots through me. It’s been bottled up since the time he dissed me in the courtyard.

  “I—I don’t have time. We don’t have time. Will you come with me?”

  I glance back over my shoulder, knowing that Landry or Peyton or my mom could come in at any moment.

  “Come with you?” I shake my head.

  This is a dream. My brain has finally lost it and is making me hallucinate.

  “Yes. Right now. I have a way out of this.”

  He does? He has a way that I could escape my fate?

  “What is it?”

  “Trixie, I’ll explain once we get out of here.”

  “I’m not budging until you get to talking.”

  I’m so tired of secrets and games and never being in the know. I want to control one thing in my life. I cross my arms over my chest and raise my chin, leveling him with my most serious look.

  Bodhi chews on the inside of his cheek, as if he’s thinking. Then, he steps forward right as the dressing room door opens. We both freeze for a moment and then turn to look.

  Landry steps inside and sees us, her eyes widening. She quickly shuts it behind her and then leans against it.

  “Took you long enough,” she hisses at Bodhi, and I narrow my eyes at her.

  “You knew he was coming, and you didn’t tell me?” I ask, incredulous.

  “Trix, babe, we’ve got to go.”

  “Don’t call me babe,” I say, whirling on him, one finger pointed. Then, I spin back around. “And you—” I point at Landry, but she waves her arms around in the air to get me to stop talking.

  “I’ll stall for you. Go, go.” She shoos us toward the window that’s still open.

  Bodhi lunges forward, grabbing me around the waist and hoisting me over his shoulder. I wish I could say I was mad about it, but I enjoy the feeling of finally touching him again too much.

  He carries me across the room and places me on the window ledge, picking my feet up and pushing them through for me. He glances to the side and growls as he spots my dress, and his words come back to haunt me.

  “You look like a fucking whore.”

  I put one hand out as he reaches for it, and when he looks at me, I shake my head.

  “No. It needs to stay as I left it.”

  “Yeah, don’t tear anything up,” Landry says, coming up to us. “I’ll close the window behind you.”

  I jump down, landing on the balls of my bare feet, and look back to see Bodhi already through the window. Landry lowers it and then gives me a big grin and a wave before turning, and then she’s gone from my sight. Apparently, a first-floor church window also doubles as an exit for a runaway bride.

  I glance around, knowing that we could be spotted at any time.

  “Well?” I ask Bodhi, putting my hands on my hips.

  “This way,” he says, grabbing my hand and pulling me around the back.

  A still-running blacked-out SUV is parked haphazardly, and he opens one of the back doors, bending and picking me up and then setting me inside before climbing in behind me.

  Brock turns around in the driver’s seat to look at us as we get settled.

  “You sure you want to do this?” he asks, and Bodhi growls at him.

  Brock guns the SUV, flinging me against the seat as we peel out of the parking lot, and I’m thrown sideways against Bodhi. He puts one arm around me, pulling me in tight.

  I place one hand on his chest and push back, trying to look at him. “Okay, spill. What are we doing right now? Did you want to talk in private?”

  “Something like that,” Bodhi murmurs.

  I worry my lower lip. Brock is driving like a bat out of hell, and we are sliding in every direction in the back.

  My silk pajamas are not helping matters; I’m moving around and unable to gain traction. Bodhi picks me up, sets me on his lap, and wraps his arms around me, keeping me in place. I can feel his short breaths on my shoulder as he pulls me against his chest. Then, his nose nuzzles into the hair on the side of my head. His teeth nip my earlobe, and goose bumps break out over my body as I shiver.

  “I’ve missed you,” he whispers in my ear, and I turn my head slightly, bumping his.

  “It didn’t feel like it,” I whisper.

  He drops forward, his forehead resting on my shoulder. “I know. I’m so sorry, babe. I did what I had to do.”

  I frown as I try to figure out his meaning. “You did what you had to do?”

  “I’ll explain it all soon. But there’s something else I—we—have to do first.” He raises his head again and holds me tighter as we take a corner on what feels like two wheels.

  I sit still, staring straight ahead as we co
ntinue to ride, but my chest feels like it’s going to explode. Bodhi has treated me like shit since my birthday night, and I jumped out of a window for him without any explanation.

  Why am I so weak when it comes to Bodhi Montgomery?

  “I can feel you tensing up,” he says, his arms tightening in response. “We are going way too fast for you to jump.”

  I laugh, unable to stop myself, as I envision myself tumbling out of the car door.

  “I’m not tensing up.”

  “Yes, you are.”

  I decide to be honest. “I’m trying to figure out what made me leave with you after you treated me like dirt for the past few months.”

  He’s silent for a few moments.

  “I told you—”

  “Yes, I heard you. That’s what everyone says. You’ll know later. You don’t need to know. Blah, blah, blah. All ways to shut me up, and I’m tired of it. Everyone else is running my life, and don’t you think that’s strange? It’s my life. I should be the one running it, but I have zero control.”

  Brock looks over his shoulder at us, and I glare at him.

  “Eyes on the road, buddy.”

  He cocks an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything before turning around. I think I see his shoulders shake for a moment. Good, let him laugh.

  “So, if you don’t want me to open the door and bail—” I stop as I hear the locks click into place when Brock hits the button in the front. I meet his gaze in the rearview mirror, and he grins at me. “Hypothetically, if you don’t want me to do that, then you’d better get to talking, Bodhi Trent Montgomery.”

  I feel Bodhi’s chest expand, and then his long breath brushes against my skin. I don’t know if my words will make him talk, but I have to try. I need to know something. To feel like I have control.

  “Fine, I wasn’t going to tell you anything until we arrived. Mostly because I didn’t want you to have a lot of time to say no.”

  I cross my arms over my chest and turn in his lap to raise my eyebrows at him. “Go on. This should be good.”

  “We need to keep you from marrying Seth. There’s a way, but you have to cooperate, and we have to act now.”

  I continue to stare at him.

  We jerk to a stop, and Brock turns around.

  “We’re here,” he says.

  “Oh, thank God,” Bodhi mutters and pulls the door handle to open it, but it doesn’t budge.

  “Sorry,” Brock says, hitting the button to disengage the locks.

  Bodhi finally throws it open and sets me outside the vehicle before climbing out himself.

  “You aren’t getting out of this,” I say, and Bodhi takes my hand.

  “Come on,” he urges.

  I finally look up at the building we are standing in front of, and my eyes widen.

  “What are we doing here?” I ask.

  Bodhi continues to pull me up the front steps. We get to the top, and he turns to me, grabbing my hands. I feel him fiddle with my left hand and look down to see him removing my engagement ring from Seth. He throws it on the ground.

  “Oh my God, Bodhi, that’s three carats,” I say. I’m a little in shock that he would do that.

  “Then, the person who finds it will have a good fucking day,” he says with a smirk.

  I look back at him in time to see him dropping down to, I think, find the ring he threw, but he doesn’t appear to be searching.

  “What are you doing?” I scrunch my nose up.

  “Beatrice Honeybuns Northcutt,” he says, grabbing my hands, and I snort.

  “Not my middle name,” I say, fighting a smile, and he bites his bottom lip.

  “Beatrice Lucinda Northcutt, this is not a conventional way to do this, but nothing about you and me has been conventional.” He clears his throat, and I wait. “Uh, I know we are young, but you were about to get married anyway.” His thumbs rub across the backs of my hands. “And it’s not right that you’d have to marry that asshat when you could marry this asshat instead.”

  I suck in a breath and open my mouth.

  “No, don’t talk yet. I’ve been horrible to you, and I want you to have the facts. It doesn’t change how I’ve treated you, but it might make my actions a little clearer. Seth threatened me with violence to you if I didn’t stay away from you. I couldn’t deal with that, knowing that my actions could mean something bad for you. I had to make sure we stayed away from each other, and I thought I knew the best way to make that happen. Make you hate me. I died a little inside each time I saw your face fall or the effect that I had on you. I hate myself for the way I treated you.

  “I love you, Trix, and I was willing to let you go to keep you from harm instead of fighting for you. I was in denial, thinking that what I was doing was saving you. But it wasn’t. I was so wrong. I was sending you to your death by not taking action.

  “So, here I am, kneeling before you, letting you know that you are my everything. You are what I think about when I wake up and before I go to sleep. And that might sound cliché, but it’s true. You are mine, Trix. I can’t let anyone else have you. So, marry me today. Right now. Marry. Me.”

  Bodhi slides a ring up my finger as tears pour down my cheeks. I bite my lip, thoughts whirling around in my head as I stare at him. As he kneels before me, his gaze never wavering from mine, I feel myself nod once.

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  “Would you have forced me to marry you if I’d said no?” I want to squeeze my eyes shut and escape from this answer in case it’s not the one I want to hear.

  “No. I would have figured something else out,” he says, gripping my hands tightly, still watching me.

  “Then, yes, I’ll marry you. But, Bo?”

  “Yeah?”

  “The ring goes on my left hand.”

  He looks down and then laughs. He switches it and then stands, wrapping me in his arms and spinning me. On the street, the car horn beeps twice, and we glance over, seeing Brock giving us a thumbs-up through the window before he drives away.

  As soon as Bodhi sets me back on my feet, I grab his cheeks, pulling him in for a kiss. “I love you too. Even when you are an asshat.”

  35

  Trixie

  Bodhi hustles me inside and up the middle stairs of the courthouse. There’s a room to the right, and I spot Corbin standing outside of it. He smiles at us as soon as we see him, and I smile back.

  “Happy couple?” he asks, and I give a quick nod. He fist-bumps Bodhi. “Congrats, you guys.”

  “Thanks, Corbin,” I reply, my cheeks reddening at the congratulations. I can’t believe this is happening.

  “This is your dressing room,” he says, stepping back, and I frown.

  “What?”

  “Can’t get married in pajamas, Trix,” Bodhi says, turning the knob and lightly pushing me through.

  Before I can turn and say anything else to him, the door is shutting behind me. I spy movement in the corner of the room. Suddenly, arms are around me, and I gasp.

  “Hey, sis,” the woman whispers in my ear.

  I pull back, looking into Linna’s face. “You’re here. How are you here?”

  “I couldn’t miss my baby sister’s wedding,” she says, pulling me back into a hug.

  “Can you believe this?” I ask, and she shakes her head, sniffling. “Don’t cry. Then, I’ll cry. And you know how puffy my face gets.”

  “Okay, come on. I get to put you in your dress, and oh my God, Trix, he did so good.”

  “What are you talking about?” I frown.

  “The dress Bodhi got you.” She strides to the corner she was in when I walked in and unzips a large garment bag.

  I gasp again, covering my mouth with my hand. It’s the dress.

  The one from La Mariée that I fell in love with.

  The one Bodhi said I looked like a whore in.

  That makes my hand fall away, and I’m gaping because, now, I know that his asshole ways were to keep me safe. But I’m going to have to talk to hi
m about this one because that was unnecessary. I’ll save it until after we are married, I guess.

  Linna readies the dress while I shed my silky jammies, and then I step in, waiting for her to fasten me in. The dress feels the same as it did at the shop—magical. There’s a small mirror that I can see myself in, and I turn to see the dress in every direction. I love the blush color and the lace and pearl overlays. I love it.

  I frown when I get to my hair, pulled up in a severe coif that I loved when I saw earlier, but now, I don’t think it fits. It represents my old life, which existed only hours before. I reach up and start extracting bobby pins, throwing them on the floor until my short hair is free and curling around my face in waves, like an old Hollywood glamour star.

  Now, everything is perfect. I feel like a bride.

  “You look beautiful,” Linna says, extracting a small bouquet from a vase of water. “It’s not much, and I made it myself.” She hands it to me.

  “It’s everything,” I whisper, looking down at it. “Thank you for being here.”

  “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” She looks sad for a fleeting moment, and I want to ask what’s wrong, but as quickly as the frown appeared, she wipes it from her face, replacing it with a wide smile. “Let’s go get you married.”

  She bends down to gather my train, following behind me as I open the door and step out into the hallway. Corbin glances behind him and smiles as he sees me.

  “Looking good, Trixie. I promised Landry I would send a picture, so smile,” he says as he brings his phone up.

  I grin as he takes the photo, and then he sends it off to Landry.

  “I guess we need to do this quickly,” I say.

  “Yeah, they’ve probably noticed you are gone by now,” Corbin agrees, and he gestures for me to walk with him.

  I feel like I’m in slow motion and going fast, all at the same time. It’s a weird sensation, almost like I’m outside my body, watching this happen. Never in a million years would I have guessed my wedding day would end up like this.

  We stop outside some double doors, and Linna arranges my train in a pretty circle and then kisses me on the cheek.