Chapter 99: My girlfriend
WILLA
This might be the worst advice I had ever gotten.
It was supposed to be a simple apology. So why the hell was I standing here in an almost transparent top that barely covered my belly button and a denim skirt so short no sane person would wear it outside?
No one but Verah, apparently.
Whatever you’re imagining is probably right.
She had forced me into the outfit and practically begged one of her flings from the academy to give me a ride here.
I was only here to apologize to Kol, but I already looked desperate, like a whore begging for his attention.
I shouldn’t have listened to her yesterday. Or today, when she ran through the plan again like it was genius.
I smoothed my hands over the ridiculously short skirt for the umpteenth time, hovering nervously in front of the doorbell.
I groaned, pulled my hand back, and turned to leave but a sharp glare from where Verah was hiding stopped me cold.
"Okay," I breathed, inhaling deeply before reaching for the doorbell again. My fingers met nothing but air as the door suddenly swung open.
A beautiful brunette stood in the doorway.
I froze, breath catching in my throat.
This wasn’t Iris.
The girl had curves in all the right places, stood tall like a runway model, and possessed a face so perfectly sculpted and symmetrical it looked almost unreal.
My heart clenched with sharp, immediate jealousy. She didn’t look anything like Kol, so she was probably one of the girls he was seeing.
As if Iris wasn’t enough competition already. Now he had someone even prettier.
Her eyes narrowed on my face, then slowly trailed down the length of my body in clear condescension. I flushed hot, cursing myself for showing up like this.
"Hi," I said lightly, hoping to cut through the sudden thick awkwardness hanging between us.
"Who are you?" she asked, her tone ice-cold.
"I... I’m Kol’s—"
"My girlfriend," Kol’s voice cut in from deeper inside the house.
My cheeks burned at the label, but I stayed silent. The girl snorted.
"You saw every girl in the academy and decided to settle for a whore?" she said, voice dripping with scorn.
I didn’t know who she was to Kol, but one thing was clear, she loathed me.
"Whom I choose to be with is none of your business," Kol replied flatly.
"Of course it is!" she snapped, turning away from me. She slammed the door shut right in my face.
"Rude," I muttered. "How can she judge me when she doesn’t even know me?"
In an instant, my phone buzzed inside the small pink purse I was carrying. I fished it out.
"Verah," I whispered, glancing toward the large tree she was hiding behind. She made a frantic "call me" gesture.
I answered.
"Who’s that bitch?" she asked immediately.
"Thank you for making me look like a whore," I said dryly.
Verah snorted. "That’s hardly whorish. I gave you the most decent thing in my wardrobe."
Well, she never owned anything decent to begin with.
"So what are you still standing there for? You should be inside by now!"
"The bitch slammed the door in my face," I told her, staring at the Wi-Fi lock on the steel door. Getting in without Kol coming out seemed impossible.
"I didn’t know Kol kept sluts. He might be even worse than Eric and Lance," Verah gagged dramatically.
In my opinion, there wasn’t really a "worse" or "better" between the boys. For the sake of my sanity, I just tried to deal with whatever version of them I got.
However, I wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about seeing them with sluts either.
"What are you going to do?" Verah’s voice pulled me out of my spiraling thoughts again.
I hesitated. Leaving might be the smartest move. I could catch Kol somewhere else later and apologize properly.
"I’m going hom—" The words died in my throat as the door opened again.
This time it wasn’t the girl.
Kol stood there in nothing but plain black boxer briefs. My throat went dry. My eyes traced the hard lines of his defined abs, and my fingers itched with the sudden, ridiculous urge to touch them, to feel how solid they were. His body was so perfectly sculpted it was hard to look away.
"What are you doing here?"
His dark gaze fixated to my face, pulling me back to reality.
I swallowed hard, shifting nervously from foot to foot. "Hi," I said, lifting my hand in an awkward little wave.
He raised one brow, clearly waiting for me to explain myself.
"I’m here to—"
"Fuck him," the girl cut in, appearing behind Kol like some venomous shadow. She shot me a disgusted look. "Isn’t that what girls like you do? Then charge money for it afterward?"
"I... no," I shook my head quickly.
"No?" she repeated, disbelief dripping from her voice as she gave me another slow, condescending once-over.
"I’m decent," I rushed out, gesturing weakly at my outfit. "This... it’s nothing."
"Sure you are," she replied sarcastically. She stepped closer to Kol’s side, folding her arms under her chest. "Aren’t you Elyse Maddox?"
I nodded, immediately regretting it as she continued.
"The girl who’s slept with half the boys in the academy," she snarled. "You must really enjoy selling your pussy—"
"Becca," Kol growled, low and dangerous.
Becca didn’t answer. Instead, she closed the distance between us, leaning in until she was yelling right in my face. "Newsflash, whore. Kol wants a decent girl, not some overused community commodity!"
What the hell was her problem? She didn’t even know me.
"And if I were you—"
"Stop it," Kol interrupted sharply.
Becca ignored him and kept going, her insults pouring out like poison.
"I’ll leave as soon as possible and make sure you never show your disgusting face near him again—"
"I said enough!" Kol thundered.
His voice was like ice cracking through the air. A chill shot down my spine. Becca flinched hard, her eyes widening in shock.
"Elyse is my guest," Kol said through gritted teeth, "and I’m the only one who gets to decide who stays and who doesn’t. You have no fucking right."
Becca’s face flushed deep red with fury. She opened her mouth to argue, but Kol wasn’t finished.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me firmly into the house. "Shut the door on your way out," he told her coldly, already walking deeper inside with me.