Chapter 66: Candid


    “That’s weird,” I said under my breath, peeling away the bandages the rest of the way while Jessica


    and Lori watched with confused expressions on their faces.


    Where my knee had beenpletely torn up the night before, it was now perfectly fine… As though I


    had never been injured at all. I furrowed my brow and poked the area where I had been injured, but felt


    nothing out of the ordinary. Had the blood just made it appear worse than it really was? No… I


    remembered clearly that the skin was broken. I even had a gaping hole in the knee of my jeans to


    prove it.


    Suddenly, my phone started buzzing and made all of us jump. I picked it up to see James’ number on


    my screen, momentarily making me forget about the strange urrence with my knee.


    “Hello?” I said, holding the phone up to my ear.


    “Hey,” James said, sounding a bit excitable. “I have something to show you. Meet me on the quad in


    fifteen?”


    “Uh, sure,” I replied.


    I was still holding the bloody gauze in my hand when I hung up, and Lori and Jessica were still staring


    at me. This was definitely something I would have to talk to Enzo aboutter… Maybe he had simply


    healed my knee when I fell asleep. That was the only reasonable exnation, but it certainly wasn’t an


    exnation that I could give my roommates.


    “I guess it just wasn’t as bad as it looked,” I said, tossing the bandage in the trash and walking back to


    my room as nonchntly as I could while Jessica and Lori stared after me confusedly .


    I met James at the quad fifteen minutes


    I furrowed my brows and wordlessly opened the folder. It contained Ronan’s physical records — all


    showing incredibly superior strength and speed — as well as several newspaper clippings.


    “Ronan’s father is a CEO of apany that’s inpetition with Enzo’s father’spany,” James


    said, pointing at the newspaper clippings. ” Not to mention the insane physical records. It makes me


    wonder…”


    “…Maybe Ronan was sent here specifically to beat Enzo,” I said out loud, while another possibility


    floated through my mind as I studied Ronan’s impressive physical skills. Was Ronan truly human, or


    was he hiding something? Enzo hadn’t mentioned anything seeming out of the ordinary about him, but


    maybe he just didn’t want to say anything…


    James smirked and nodded. “But why is the question,” he whispered. “Is the Blizzard Tournament really


    so important that two CEOS would nt their insanely talented sons topete against each other?”


    Before either of us could say anything else, James and I were rudely interrupted.


    “Whore!” a familiar female voice suddenly shouted from across the quad. James and I both looked up


    to see a gaggle of girls staring at us and giggling. One of them wasing toward me… and it was


    Lisa. Her face was beet red as she stormed toward me, Starbucks coffee cup in hand.


    When had shee out of hiding? And why now, of all times?


    Lisa stormed over to me, brushing past James to get up in my face. It was oddly simr to how she had


    acted the night she attacked me. Didn’t Enzo im that she had been cured of the werewolf bite?


    “Lisa, you need to calm down,” I started to say, holding my hands up in surrender — but I was promptly


    interrupted by a lukewarm cup of coffee being thrown directly into my face. I stood there with my mouth


    hanging open in surprise as the coffee seeped through my clothes, burned my eyes, and made my


    soaked bangs cling to my forehead. Even James was speechless.


    “You’re pathetic,” she growled, throwing the coffee cup on the ground. “I know you saw Enzo walking


    me home that night and just couldn’t stand it, so you just had to weasel your way into his heart.”


    Before I could wipe the coffee from my eyes and respond, Lisa turned on her heel with a hmph and


    stormed off with her gaggle of friends.


    “Nina, are you oka–“James started to say, but I just wanted to run away and hide Without another word,


    I dropped Ronan’s file and ran back to my dorm with the intention of staying in there until the day I died.


    I ran past shocked students in the lobby and sprinted up the stairs two at a time. When I finally made it


    back to my apartment, I burst inside and ran into my room, locking the door behind me while a


    confused Lori and Jessica stood in shock in the middle of the living room.


    “Go away!” I shouted when they knocked on my door. I heard concerned muttering on the other side of


    the door, but I didn’t care, all I wanted was to curl up into my shell and nevere out again.


    By that night, to no one’s surprise, more photos had been taken of me that morning and were posted to


    the anonymous Twitter ount.


    Photographs were taken of me talking to James, as well as the moment when Lisa threw her coffee in


    my face. Had Lisa hired someone to photograph that very moment, just to humiliate me?


    Clearly, this was all a part of Lisa’s n to turn me into a social pariah in a desperate attempt to get


    Enzo back. As I scrolled through thements, it seemed that her n was working.This is property ? N?velDrama.Org.


    “She’s so heartless, stealing Enzo from Lisa. And she’s already hanging out with other guys less than


    24 hourster!”


    “She clearly faked that knee injury for attention, too.”


    “Not to mention the fact that she went on a date with the opposing hockey


    captain at the fair. ” “What a fucking capital S SLUT!”


    My eyes filled with tears and my vision became blurry as I continued to scroll. I finally gave up, closing


    my phone and throwing it down on my bed as a sob escaped my throat. None of these things were


    true. Everything was taken out of context and twisted to fit their narrative


    I had to talk to Enzo. I needed his help. I opened my phone again to call him, but before I did, a text


    suddenly popped up on my screen.It was from an unknown number


    “Get away from Enzo Rivers,” it read, followed by all caps. “OR ELSE.”


    As soon as I finished reading the text, another one came through… An image this time. An image of


    me taken through my window of this exact moment. I could see the glow of myptop in my dark room


    and the shape of my body under the covers. I jumped up and ran to my window and looked out into the


    darkness, expecting to see Lisa- but there was no one as far as I could tell.


    There was nothing out there as far as I could see, but it was so dark that I couldn’t be sure.


    Shuddering, I closed my blinds.


    Just before I did, I could’ve sworn I saw the branches move… But there was no one there .