You’re Mine by Penny Brooks novel Chapter 75

Chapter 75

Harper

“What in the ever-loving fuck just happened?” Sadie says, rushing to my side the second I leave the cafeteria. “Blake just hauled ass to the nurse, bleeding profusely. Mrs. Scott just dragged Easton toward her office and Aisha’s smiling like she just got fucked against a wall.” She holds my shoulders. “And you look like you’re about to burst into tears.”

The moment Easton got dragged away and Blake left for the nurse, Aisha gave me the nastiest smirk and took off, leaving me alone in the cafeteria, drops of Blake’s blood by my feet. I haven’t even had a chance to catch my breath yet. My whole body is tingling and numb, my chest aching.

I don’t want Easton to get in trouble.

I don’t want him fighting with Blake.

I don’t want anyone fighting anymore. Between my brother punching Easton in our backyard and Easton punching Blake today, I’ve had enough.

What makes it worse is that both instances were over me.

“Sadie …” | move us over to a row of lockers, leaning against one, needing something to take my weight and hold me up. “I couldn’t get Easton to stop, he was raging mad angrier than I’ve ever seen him-and he exploded on Blake.” I pull my hair back, the heat on my neck making it hard to breathe. “Blake was loving it, he was egging him on. It’s like he wanted Easton to punch him.”

“Of course Blake wants to start shit with Easton, he wants Easton to look as bad as possible in front of you, so Blake looks like a saint.” She twirls a piece of my hair. “Harper, he’s obsessed with you, he’ll do anything to be with you.”

“Even getting punched in the face?”

She shrugs. “Looks like it.”

| swallow, needing the tightness in my throat to go away. “I don’t know, Sadie. This is all so crazy, and it isn’t over, I feel like things are just getting started between them.”

Sadie’s eyes widen. “Shhh, here comes trouble.”

I turn around, meeting the smug smile that I hate so much.

“Did you enjoy that?” Aisha asks, now standing next to us. “Watching your little boyfriends fight over you?”

“I only have one boyfriend,” I tell her. “Let’s get that straight before you run around school, starting rumors that aren’t true.”

“I only speak the truth.” She eyes me up and down. “But from what went down today, the whore everyone has been calling you seems to fit.”

“You‘re a cunt,” Sadie snaps.

“And I’m hardly a whore,” I add, “but you certainly like to write that word out-maybe it makes you feel like less of a whore yourself, you know, like when you spray painted it

across my garage.”

“Hold up …” Her stare intensifies. “You’ve got the wrong person.”

Now it’s my turn to smile and laugh. “Yeah, right. No one but you could have done that to

me.”

Her face turns serious, an expression I haven’t seen from her. “That wasn’t me.”

“You expect us to believe that?” Sadie asks. “You despise Harper, so of course it was

you.”

Aisha glares at both of us. “I most definitely despise you and I don’t want you to be with Easton and, you’re right, I am a cunt, but it wasn’t me who spray painted your house.” She crosses her arms. “It really wasn’t, I was out of town.”

I can’t believe my brain is even considering this, but something about her response makes me believe her.

If it wasn’t Aisha, then who was it?

Because it can’t be Blake … can it?

Would he really do that to me?

“We’ve seen enough of your face for one day,” Sadie says to Aisha. “Get out of here.”

Aisha looks like she’s about to snarl. “You should take a long, hard look at the people in your circle.” She eyes up Sadie. “Those are the ones you should question whether you can trust.”

She walks away and Sadie says to me, “Do you believe her?”

I search the crowd of students as if the answer is waiting for me out there. “I don’t know what to believe right now. All of this is so overwhelming.”

“Well, you know you can trust me.”

The truth is, she’s the only person I can trust.

Sadie loops her arm through mine and we walk down the hallway toward class. As we‘re passing the front office, the door swings open and Easton comes rushing through it.

He doesn’t look at me.

He’s staring straight ahead, his face dripping in anger.

“Hey,” I say the moment he passes me, grabbing his arm to stop him.

He halts and glances down at me, a look in his eyes that he’s almost bothered by me.

“What happened?” | ask. “Are you all right? Did you get in trouble?”

He just stares, saying nothing. The anger in his expression now mixed with something else-something I can’t place.

When he still doesn’t respond, I add, “Easton?”

He pulls his arm out of my hold. “Get away from me, Harper.” He takes a step back. “I need to be alone.”

Alone?

But all I want to do is hug him.

Be there for him.

And now he’s walking away from me, not even looking back.

A wave of emotion comes over me as I whisper, “What did I do?”

Sadie wraps her arms around me and pulls me into a hug. “Babe, you did nothing, don’t worry. Easton is just sour because he probably got in serious trouble and his parents are going to whip his ass and he’s losing his mind about it.”

“But why didn’t he just say that?” My eyes are burning from the tears. “Why won’t he open up to me?”

She rubs my back. “He’s a boy, they struggle with those kinds of things.”

“What he s-said,” I stutter, the sob working through my chest. “Was so n-nasty.”

“Once he cools down, he won’t be such a dick.”

She doesn’t know that, she’s just trying to make me feel better. Easton’s past is full of dickhead moments, treating me terribly, and he’s just started to soften toward me.

But now, we’re here again, not communicating, pushing me away, when all I want is to be in his arms.

“What do I do, Sadie?” I pull away and wipe my eyes. “How do I make this better?”

“You wait until school is over, and then you go to his locker, and you go home with him.” She smiles. “That’s the only way to take care of men like Easton.”