Fallen Crest Forever (Fallen Crest Series Book 7)(87)

A barely contained scream erupted from her throat, but she kept her mouth shut and only stomped once. I suppose I should give her a little credit there? Only one stomp, not two. She was like a five year old throwing a tantrum.

“What?” I asked. “Can’t control me? Can’t manipulate me? I’m not falling in line like all your other girls? Please.” I was the one to roll my eyes now. “Get outta here.”

“Stop!”

I had started to go again, but swung back. “Make it quick, Shaw. I have no patience for you today.”

“My God! What is wrong with you? Your attitude is tenfold what it normally is.”

I had a whole list I could’ve recited for her:

My boyfriend/fiancé’s mother was in town, who hated me.

Our engagement was out on a national scale, and I didn’t know how I felt about it yet.

That same boyfriend/fiancé went and found a camera where another old friend of mine had been videotaped having sex.

Oh, and I had some incredibly hot sex, which had left only thirty minutes for sleeping this morning.

“Talk while I’m still standing here.”

“Coach is going to make us run together.”

“No.” I started for class again.

She began walking with me. “I hate you on a personal level, but I admire you on a runner’s level, and I’m sure you feel the same—”

“Not even a little bit. I don’t give two shits about you: personal, professional, runner’s, any way.”

The group of guys that had been standing around Mason and Logan was still there. I spotted both of them, but didn’t feel like fighting to get to their side. I moved past them into the building and headed for the classroom. We’d all synced our schedules to have this class together—except for Taylor because she’d already taken it. So they’d be coming my way eventually.

I reached for the door, and Faith grabbed it as I went through. She was right with me.

“Okay, I get it,” she said. “Insults, insults, insults. I got it. I was more than a bitch to you in the beginning, and deserve this. I do. I’ll take it, but I mean it when I say that Coach is going to have us run together. He wants us to push each other even more, and if it’s just you and me, he thinks that’ll happen. If we run with the others, there’s more distraction.”

“For you.” I turned right down the hallway.

She was still hot on my heels. “You too. You get distracted because of your friend Taylor. You’re distracted when you worry about her.”

“Courtney and Grace can run with her.”

“You know what I mean.”

I kept going. The door was just in front of me.

“Hey!” She stopped behind me, her voice getting the attention of other students as they came and went from the classroom.

I braked. “What?” I looked back to her. “What do you want me to say?”

“That you’ll run with me.”

“And why should I do that?” I started toward her, one step at a time. I knew when she clued in that maybe she should be wary of me. Her head straightened. Her eyes grew alert, and she began to edge backward.

“Why not? We’re running mates.”

“We’re on the same team. Unfortunately.” I advanced one more step.

She began to look around, but for what or who, I didn’t know. She stopped backing up and tucked her hands behind her back this time. Her head lowered a little too, but not much. She chewed on the inside of her lip.

“What are you saying, Samantha? That you won’t run with me? You don’t have a choice. We’re on the same team.”

“You’re right. I don’t have a choice about that, but I do have a choice if I’m going to run with only you. I don’t trust you. What part of that sentence don’t you understand? I know why Coach wants us to run together, but it has nothing to do with my distraction. I’m a pro at shutting things out. If I want to go, I will go. No, he wants me to help you. He wants to hone in on your competitiveness, and if the two of us run together and only together, only one person is going to be helped by that arrangement. You. You’ll get better.”

She swallowed, her throat moving up and down. She seemed timid, then suddenly it was all gone. Her eyes closed to slits, and she almost hissed back at me. “Because of your race time on Friday, this university now has an Olympic hopeful. Do you know what that’s going to do for this school? For money? They can blast that all over their promotions. It’s huge. And because of my increased race time, it’s proven that I can get even better than I have been. You’re helping me, yes. You will continue to help me, yes. You’re going to do that just by being on the team, but if you think you have a say about running with me, think again. This isn’t Coach’s idea. This is coming down from his boss’s boss. You will run with me, or you won’t run at all. I’m here to save some time because we both know that when Coach brings this to us later today, you’ll have the same fight we just did. But you’re new to college sports. You don’t know the politics that go on behind closed doors, and trust me when I say that you’ll find it’s easier to accept that you’re going to be running with me alone than fighting it in the long run. And you’re wrong. I will help you too, because the better I get, the more you’re going to hate it, and the more you’re going to push to destroy me.”