Little Sweet Dreamer

Chapter 15

Sasha and Evan scrambled away from each other; Sasha yanked the sheets over her naked body, and Evan fell off the bed while throwing on his pants.

"Oh no, Hazel, I didn't mean for you to see this," Evan said, sounding genuinely sorry while advancing toward me. He was a damn good actor. 

Grey stood between us. He put his arm out in front of me, pushing me behind the rest of his body.

"You're a piece of crap," Grey said harshly. Evan ignored him and tried to push past to get to me. I took a step back and avoided his eyes.

"Stay away from her," Grey said, shoving Evan back.

"Get away from me!" Evan shouted. "She's my girlfriend."

"You think that she's still going to stay with you?" Grey asked. "Is that what you both think? You two wanted each other. So have each other." Grey shoved Evan back again, then led me out the door, slamming it shut. I stood still as he angrily clenched his fist and then turned and punched the door. The wood cracked beneath his weight.

He regained composure and walked down the stairs without another word. I followed after him quickly, pushing past the mobs of drunk teenagers. When I finally escaped into the night air, I saw him angrily kick in Evan's car door. I ran up to him and stood between him and the car.

He looked enraged before saying, "Get out of my way, Mutey!"

"You're gonna do more harm than good!" I signed.

"She cheated on me!" he exclaimed, running his hands throughout his hair, pulling at it. "Again! And with the same person! He was supposed to be my friend!"

"You don't need them!" I signed. "They aren't good friends. Don't stoop to their level."

His voice strained as he responded, "Get out of my way."

"No." I stared him straight in the eyes as he stepped toward me. "I won't ask again," he hissed. I placed my hand on his chest as he took another step. His heart spasmed under my palm, pulsating so hard it could burst out of his ribcage. He flinched and took a step back, swallowing.

"Why won't you let me do this?" he asked. His voice sounded too vulnerable, his eyes unable to meet mine as I stepped closer to him. He didn't move. I hesitantly wrapped my arms around him, encasing him in a hug.

For a moment, he was still—his heart was the only thing that seemed to still stir in him. But then, he returned; he gently pried himself free of my grasp. "I don't need your pity, remember?"

"I don't pity you. I... I know you're hurting."

He chuckled bitterly and rolled his eyes. "You know nothing about me. I'm not even hurting. I'm just angry."

"I know a lot more than you realize." Hazel, you're giving away too much. Bite your damn tongue-fingers.

"We've hardly even talked!" he said exasperatedly. 

He stomped away from me and went to the other side of the car to begin vandalizing it again. I shoved him back and signed, "This won't help!"

"Says who?" he shouted. "He'll have to deal with getting a new car, and I get the satisfaction of knowing that. Move!"

"Why does this have you so angry?"

"It's not just this, Hazel. It's everything. I'm angry at everything that's happened in my life. You just don't get it. You don't know what I've been through."

"Yes, I do."

"You know nothing! Stop trying to play mediator. You're just making me angrier. You think you can understand because you're compassionate or whatever you think you are, Miss Goody Two-Shoes, but I know you're nothing but a mute girl who's angry. So shut the hell up, damn it!" He kicked the car next to me, and I yelped slightly. "Just shut up!"

"Grey, please..."

"I'm so fed up with this damn world. Sasha was the only one who helped me. She understood what I went through. Evan, too. And what did they do?" He laughed bitterly. "And now you want to help? Why? You're just like them." He added slightly under his breath, "Everyone is fake. I'll never let people know about my trauma ever again."

"I already know your mother drowned... I get the pain of losing—"

"How the hell do you know my mother drowned?" he asked coldly.

I didn't even realize I slipped. I froze, and Grey stared at me, waiting for an answer. We stayed like that for a moment. My eyes glued to the floor in panic.

"How... do you know that?" he asked. My eyes remained staring down. "Hazel." His voice was laced with anger. "How do you know that? Did Evan tell you?" I shook my head. "Liar."

"He didn't tell me," I finally signed, my eyes meeting his.

"There's no other way you'd know that!" he shouted. "What, do you stalk me? Is that how you know? Mutey, the Stalker, is that it?"

"No!"

"Then tell me how you know," he growled, forcing my back into the car. I shook my head. "Tell me." His hands encased my face, causing my breath to hitch in my throat. "Who told you?"

"What are you doing?" Andy shouted. A relieved sigh escaped my throat as Grey released my face and took a step away from me. I steadied myself as Andy came to my side. Ana, Blake, Mindy, and Arnold followed suit.

"You okay?" Ana asked me. I nodded and leaned into her as she wrapped her arm around me. Grey didn't spare them a second glance. Instead, he walked away from us, his hands in his pockets, almost as if he was never angry. But, for some reason, he let me know he was.

"What was he doing to you?" Andy asked. I shook my head and waved the question away.

"Well, our plan worked," Blake said. "Good job, everybody."

"I feel so bad for him," Ana said. "When I gave him ideas about dates he could have with Sasha, he seemed genuinely happy to hear about them. Big oof."

"If anything, he'll get back together with her," Blake said. "But we've freed Hazel from Evan, and that's all that matters."

"Are you sure Grey will get back together with her?" Mindy asked, causing us to all look at her. "Like... what was going on over here, Hazel?"

I pulled out my phone and wrote, "He was angry, so he took it out on me."

"That's not my definition of taking it out," Mindy said. "It seemed like he was full-on, ready to kiss you passionately." I felt my cheeks heat up, but I shook my head and hurriedly typed, "Trust me, he wouldn't have. He was being intense."

"Sure," Mindy said with a smirk teasing her lips. I turned away before she was able to read too much. In all honesty, I didn't know what Grey wanted to do. He was so close to me.

The thought of his lips touching mine sent a flood of butterflies swarming into my stomach. My steady breathing broke for a second, and I hoped nobody noticed.

"Well, now that this party has officially crashed, you guys want to go home?" Ana asked.

"Nah, let's hang out somewhere else," Andy said. "There's a nice lake around here we can go to."

My stomach dropped.