Tortured Hearts

Will’s P.O.V

I managed to escape the rest of the trip without any more requests from Hanna. It was a long journey back and I hated myself as I entered my house, going to shower and get ready for the drive to the University.
I stormed past Danielle and slammed my door shut, making it clear I didn’t want her speaking to me. Obviously she ignored this and barged in as I was flinging stuff out of my bag and into the washing hamper.
“Hello to you too,” she quipped. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” I replied, not wanting to bring her into it.
“Come on, Will. What is it?”
I looked at Danielle and wondered whether I could tell her. Would she understand? I sighed and realized she was the only person I could tell before Alicia. We were close siblings and the only secret I kept from her was about my heart, because I knew she’d worry and let slip to mom and dad.
“Danni, I… it’s hard to explain.”
“You look upset,” she noticed, coming to hug me. “Please tell me. I want to help.”
I nodded and she pulled away as tears started to form in my eyes. I told her about Hanna blackmailing me, but I lied about why. I said it was because she’d seen Steve using an inhaler when you weren’t allowed on the team if you were asthmatic. I said she’d taken a liking to me and that she’d said she wouldn’t tell about Steve if I did everything she asked of me. Steve begged me to do it and I couldn’t say no. I agreed, before I knew what she wanted from me.
Danni’s mouth dropped when I told her about the second thing she’d asked of me. “She’s a slut!”
“I don’t know what to do,” I sobbed, letting the tears fall in front of Danni; I could let my walls down around her.
“Will, you can’t tell Alicia.”
“What? Why not? She has a right to know.”
“She’d dump you!” She shouted. “Come on, Will. She’s understanding but she’s not going to forgive you if you finds out about this. You could have said no in her eyes; I know you couldn’t let your friend down, but she won’t see it like that. You can’t let her know.”
“So you suggest I act like nothing happened?” I asked in shock, surely she didn’t mean that?
“That’s exactly what you have to do. If you value your relationship and you love her, you won’t hurt her with this. Avoid Hanna at all costs. If she can’t speak to you, she can’t blackmail you.”
“Right.” Except, she still had one bottle of my tablets. I had more at home but she could always take the ones she had to the coach, ending my time at the Uni.
“Now get a shower while I do your washing. You need to set off within the next hour if you want to get there in good time.” Danielle kissed my cheek before she collected up my washing hamper, taking it downstairs.

When I finally arrived at the Uni, I went to find Alicia straight away. Upon seeing her chestnut coloured long hair being brushed by the breeze, I felt my stomach start to flutter and my heartbeat sped up. No, I realised, I wouldn't ever let Hanna come near me ever again. That way, she'd never be able to spoil what I had with Alicia. She grinned at me sexily as I ran over to her, pulling her into my arms and loving the way she seemed to perfectly fit there. She was perfect.
"Miss me much?" I asked her cheekily, resting my forehead against hers and gazing into her sparkling eyes.
"A little," She teased me playfully and I couldn't help but smile. Everything she said made me happy, even when she was poking fun at me.
"Alicia." I let go of Alicia to see a girl with light strawberry blonde hair rushing over, smiling at Alicia and me. Alicia smiled and waved in return; obviously she'd been busy making friends already. I voiced this aloud to Alicia, happy to know that at least this one was a girl. As a guy, it's impossible not to dislike competition from anyone (no matter how unlikely the competition may be, other guys were always trouble). "Boyfriend?" The girl asked, looking between Alicia and I with knowing eyes.
"Yeah, this is Will. Will, this is Cora." Alicia's voice always had a funny effect on me. Sounds corny, but it gave me a thrill to hear her saying my name. As though I belonged to her and vice versa.
"I have heard a lot about you," Cora winked cheekily at Alicia as she spoke to me.
"All good things, I hope." I hoped Alicia thought more good than bad about me... although if she found out about Hanna, that might change. Alicia nudged me, flushing a delightful shade of pink that made me want to kiss her. She was cute when she was embarrassed.
A little while later and we were alone again. Alicia started to help me lift boxes from the back of my car. "Have fun on your trip?"
"Yeah," I said smiling, trying my hardest to look natural and unbothered. "I made some good friends. If I'm lucky I might share the same floor as them." Hopefully Steve would be there, since he turned out to be a good laugh on the trip. If God hated me, Hanna would be sharing the floor; but no-one is that unlucky, right?
"How many are on your course?"
I shook my head, trying to make my mouth form an answer whilst I continued to think about my problems with Hanna. "I don't know... too many to count."
"You'd have to be really lucky, then." Lucky? It took me a moment to realise what she was talking about.
After dumping the boxes in my new room, Alicia and I walked towards the kitchen to find out who I was going to be sharing this new journey with. Instantly I clocked two big guys talking about the game we'd all played on the last day of the trip.
"Hey," I said, giving a wave that would hopefully seem friendly.
"Hey man," one of them said, giving me a greeting hug, slapping my back; he had a strong hand, I can tell you that.
"Will."
"Turner."
"Shane," said the other one, staring at Alicia with come-to-bed eyes. It made me want to start throwing punches.
"Oh, this is my girlfriend, Alicia. She's on campus doing English," I said, staking my claim in the beautiful girl that was my girlfriend. I put my arm around her shoulder, pulling her into me as if telling Shane to back off. This was my territory.
"That's cool," Turner said, smiling at Alicia but not in the same way as Shane.
The door behind us opened and my stomach lurched as the smell of her perfume wafted in.
"Hey, you guys living across the hall?" The brunette asked; if I remembered rightly, her name began with the letter... N?
"Yeah, we must be living together," Turner replied.
"Mandy," she replied. Ok, I was close with the name... or not really.
Seeing Hanna staring at me, almost smirking at me. Her eyes told me she was going to bend me to her will and every whim at every chance she got. I hated her.
Turner cleared his throat and I realised I'd been staring at Hanna for a while now, it was making the room awkward.
"Oh, sorry. I'm Hanna." The bitch, I felt she should have added at the end.
Everyone introduced themselves, including me so as not to seem suspicious. Then I wanted to get Alicia out of there. Sweat was welling up at the nape of my neck at the thought of Hanna turning to Alicia and saying, "By the way, I'm using your boyfriend. He's practically my bitch."
"Well, we'd better be going now. I still haven't unpacked yet." When we got to my room, I went to kiss Alicia but deferred to her cheek; my guilt was eating me up from inside. "So, I'll see you at dinner later?" Cora had asked us to eat at some pizza place.
Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion, a cute expression that made me want to blurt out the entire truth. I resisted as she said, "Don't you want any help setting up your room?"
"No, I'll be fine." I attempted smiling, but the effort was wasted. Who was I kidding? She knew something, she must do.
"Ok then. Just give me a call if you need any help." She held out her hand for my phone and started to type in a number.
"Where did you get that?" I asked, wondering whether some other guy had been buying her presents when I wasn't there.
"Charlie bought it for me." She handed me back my phone. The casing was warm from her touch. "A leaving present."
"Right," I said tightly. I was thinking about how I was quick to judge her, yet she was always honest with me.

Once she'd left, I breathed a heavy sigh of relief and started to put my room into order. An hour later, there was a knock at the door. I hoped it was Alicia but knew better. Opening the door, Hanna's blonde hair pushed past me into my room.
"So, that's the girlfriend, then. She's very pretty; you never said."
"Get out." My tone was as hostile as I felt. Hanna started to lounge on my bed, watching me through catlike eyes.
"Have you told her about us?"
"There is no us ," I hissed at her; she was not only psychotic but delusional now.
"Before I'm through, Alicia will be a thing of the past."
"Leave her out of this. You've had your fun. It's time you stopped playing these stupid games with me."
"No. William, you don't get to call the shots. Just remember that every time you kiss that girlfriend of yours, my lips will have already been on yours." She got up and quickly pecked a kiss on my lips before I had time to even register what she was doing. "See you later, William."

A few nights later, Hanna was torturing me by making me take her out for dinner. She said she had 'many things' planned for our night. Alicia called me, her voice bright as she asked me out to dinner with her and her friends. I had to decline, saying I was too busy to be of any fun. I took Hanna out of town, into a neighbouring city. She spent the whole night sneaking her hand onto the inside of my thigh, making me jump and hiss at her every time. She was trying to seduce me and it wasn't working.
"Come on, babe," she drawled, "Loosen up."
"Don't call me that," I replied to her, ready to storm out of there and give everything up. Surely my place on the team wasn't that important... only so much that the major league teams picked players specifically from the Uni I was attending. Yeah, not that important.
"Where did you say you were going tonight?" Hanna asked, leaning in so that she was exposing most of her cleavage. Some guys would probably jump at a girl like Hanna; she flaunted her body as though it was the only thing going for her. I preferred personality over that any day.
Back in the beginning of highschool, I'd dated girls just like Hanna. Being on the football team, I dated a few of the cheerleaders and found them to be just as Hanna was. They couldn't possibly fathom that wearing a low cut top or high riding skirt was completely different to being confident. Alicia was confident; even though she wouldn't admit it, she had always been comfortable with who she was. There was no need to lure guys with her body, she used her smarts instead. That's partly why I had been drawn to her in the first place.

Back when I first met Alicia, I realised quickly that she wasn't the type of girl to be impressed by an expensive car and a hot guy; she would always want more than just that. I had never met a girl like Alicia before that day that I begged her to hear me out, convincing her to keep my secret. There was a look in her eye that suggested there was something more to her than just beauty (and she was beautiful). After that initial meeting, I couldn't stop thinking about her. The heart that beat in my chest was identical to hers, it was her twin sister's, and I used this connection to try to get closer to her. I fell quick and fast, wanting to know as much about her as possible.

"I said are you done eating?" Hanna repeated, snapping me out of my daydreaming.
“Yes. Let’s go.” I didn’t want to spend a minute longer in her company but her grin said she had further things planned for that evening. I didn’t like the thought of it.
Driving back to campus, I almost freaked out upon seeing Alicia with two of her friends. My heart hammered in my chest and I didn’t relax until they were out of sight.
“Calm down,” Hanna laughed next to me in the passenger side. “They wouldn’t have seen you, they were completely drunk.”
“It’s not them seeing me that I was worried about. It was them seeing you in my car.” I glared at her, hating her for doing this to me.
“Quit the death glare, it’s not attractive.”
I laughed scathingly. “No? Well good, hopefully you’ll get the picture that I don’t want to attract you.”
“Oh get over yourself, William.”
We entered the halls and Hanna pulled me towards her room. She had a look on her face that told me I was in for trouble. “I think I should go to my own room now.” There was a warning tone to my voice, but she just rolled her eyes as she opened the door, ushering me in there.
“Right, now for my third want.” Dare I ask? No, instead I crossed my arms heavily over my chest. “You know what comes next in this relationship of ours."
I narrowed my eyes, wondering whether she was being serious. “That’s never going to happen.”
“It will,” she said fiercely. “Or I’ll tell Alicia about what we’ve done so far and I’ll tell coach about what you’ve been hiding.”
“Don’t threaten me,” I glowered, turning around and walking out of her room.
“Fine, I’ll give you some time,” she said, rushing towards me and grabbing my arm, stopping me from leaving till she’d finished. “But you don’t have long. If you don’t sleep with me by tomorrow night, then I’ll spill everything. You’ll lose your girlfriend and your place on the team.” With that, she slammed her door in my face.