Silent Desires (Shattered Silence Duet Book 1)
Silent Desires: Chapter 41

As I turn off my alarm clock, my body is more tired than usual. Considering I actually sleep for almost ten hours, I should feel well-rested. I rub the sleep from my eyes as I sit up and glance at my mattress. I’m probably just tired from trying to dodge that stupid spring all night.

When I’m allowed to use the bathroom and finally get a chance to look at my arm, it makes me cringe. The cleaning I did yesterday didn’t seem to help at all. It actually might have somehow made it worse. My entire upper arm is tender to the touch now. Dammit. School is gonna suck.

My stomach is almost healed, but my back and side are both quite sore still. They are nowhere near as bad as my arm, but they aren’t great. I’m not sure I can carry my bag on my back at all today. Then again, for the past two days, the twins have shown up during my walk. They’ve probably guessed my route to school by now, but still don’t know which house I actually live in. They’ve been carrying my bag around at school, too, which is why I’ve been able to hide my injury from them so far. I just need to be extra careful with my arm today. Their hugs are likely to touch it, so I’ll have to keep a bit of distance, I’d hate to vomit on them.

I leave the house without eating, like every morning, and start walking down the street, hugging my bag to my chest with my good arm. When I reach the end of the street, I’m winded and have to stop. I sit down on the curb to catch my breath. I’ve never had to stop on my walk to school before, but I feel so tired.

Opening my bag, I grab my phone and turn it on. I pull out Max’s hoodie and hug it; not having the energy to put it on yet. I give it a good sniff and am happy to know it still smells like him. That thought gives me the energy to slowly pull it on. Just as I finish, I see a vehicle driving toward me.

I wait, hoping it’s my twins, and I’m not disappointed when I recognize their truck. I smile, knowing they’ll help me get to school.

“Good morning, Angel!” Jasper says as he opens the door and hops down, holding his hand out to me. He pulls me up from the curb and hugs me before I can remember my plan to keep some distance today. Luckily, he doesn’t touch my injured arm, just my back, and I’m able to hide my reaction.

He helps me into the truck as Max greets me. “Hey, Sweetheart, come give me a hug.”

He reaches out an arm, and I slide towards him. He kisses my head and I manage to give him a side hug that doesn’t touch my arm.

He starts driving as he asks, “why were you sitting on the curb?”

I shrug, not really knowing why I did it, I was just tired.

“Ah, you were waiting for us, weren’t you?” He smirks at me, and I smile back.

Jasper has been quiet, so I turn to him. He’s looking out the side window, but when he realizes I’m watching him, he turns to me.

“Hi, Angel. Are you doing okay?” I nod and he goes back to looking out the window.

He seems sad and I don’t like it. I want him to be happy. Not knowing what else to do, I tentatively reach out and take his hand, pulling it into my lap. Holding it between both of mine, I gently stroke his soft skin with my thumbs to try to soothe him as I watch out the front windshield. He leans towards me and places a kiss on my temple, making me smile.

I could get used to mornings like this.

I’m starting to enjoy math and chemistry class. Both teachers are really nice and leave me to work through the books that Gideon provides for me. During chemistry, I take a bathroom break to check my arm. It’s really sore, and I want to make sure nothing is oozing or bleeding out from the sides of the bandage.

I go into one of the stalls and start to pull off the bandage when I hear a few girls enter as they chat loudly.

“Did you guys see Mr. Hargrove today? I swear I’m running out of excuses to go see him,” the first girl says with a sigh.

“Sarah, oh my god, you’re terrible!” the second voice giggles.

“What? You know you’d love to get a piece of that if you could!”

There’s a pause, then Sarah says, “Don’t roll your eyes, Rachel. Not all of us are lucky enough to replace a super-hot college boyfriend.”

One of the girls giggles again.

“You’ve met him, Sarah?” a third voice asks.

“No, but Rachel hasn’t stopped talking about him. When are you seeing him again?”

“Probably tonight. We pretty much hook up every night in the back of his car. He is so good in bed. The dirty shit he is in too… Plus, I swear he lasts for at least five minutes every time!” Rachel says, apparently bragging to her friends.

“O-M-G, girl, you’re too much!” Sarah laughs as I hear them exit.

I finish up in the bathroom and re-wrap my arm as best I can. It’s still just as tender as it was this morning, unfortunately, but it’s not leaking out of the bandage. I’ll be heading to the guys’ house soon, and I know how much they love to touch me. I’m not sure how I can avoid it. Normally, I wouldn’t want to, but I can’t have them touching my arm, it’s too painful today. Even now I want to throw up from the pain of wrapping it.

Walking down the hall, I see a couple of students pulling binders from their lockers, and I realize I have the perfect excuse to not to go to the guy’s house today. I’m supposed to spend that time working on my independent study project, and I haven’t even started.

When I get back to class, we only have a few minutes before we start packing up. Jasper asks if I’m ready to head to his house. I open my phone and type him a message.

Me: I can’t. I need to work on my independent study today. I haven’t started it yet. I need to spend lunch and third period in the library.

“You can work on it at our house. We have tons of books, plus the internet—and the bonus of there being food and us there,” he says with a smile as he leads me by my hand towards the parking lot.

I nod. I’m not sure how to argue that, and it will still keep me busy. Besides, I don’t really want to spend the lunch period in the busy library. I’m just going to have to be careful.