Previously on Saving Grace: “Just thought you would like to know,” she chimed as she walked away, hips swinging as she left him to watch her leave, unable to move from the spot as his hands clenched into fists. Down the road, the golden beauty snickered, dusting off some phantom grime from the sleeves of her coat as she melded into the shadows.

One down. Two to go.

Alex was not talking to her anymore. He made that clear every time she attempted to say so much as a word in his direction. The male would completely divert his path in the opposite direction, to Grace’s shock. It had been a month since Piper’s disappearance—since she merged with her—and now Alex wanted nothing to do with her.

He was avoiding her.

Instead, she would catch glimpses of him in other groups, always accompanied by a blonde haired woman who’s arm wrapped around his, her chin on his shoulder as her dark eyes gazed up at him. Grace grimaced as she passed, head bowed as she quickly sent a text to Connor. She needed him, for at least he was still around. He hadn’t left her.

“You’re shaken up today,” Connor  offered his hand to her, pulling her onto the bike as she pulled on the helmet he had offered.

“Just get us out of here.” Somewhere far away, away from Alex and the woman and their posey, she thought, her head resting against his shoulder blade. Her hands wrapped around his waist as the motor purred under them, roaring as they shot forward down the road and away from the campus.

In the park, Connor watched as she walked a straight line along the borders to the playground, arms held out to either side. She jumped off at the corner, bowing before him as Connor applauded her, his arms propping him up in the grass as his legs were spread out before him. For the first time in over a month, she felt at peace. This was her escape…from everything.

“Are you going to tell me what is bothering you?”

He drug her back to the reason they were here in the first place, the reason she had needed to escape that place. Grace crossed her arms over her chest, shrugging. “That woman, I don’t like that she is getting so close to Alex. Something’s off about her.”

Connor pinched his nose as he sighed, releasing more than a few curses in one breath. “And you have tried to talk to him, I assume.”

“We’ve already talked about this Connor. You know what happens when I try to talk to him,” Grace kicked a stone in front of her path, her hands tangled in her hair as she pushed it back, out of her face. “It’s like he doesn’t even see me anymore. All he has time for is that blonde-haired siren on his arm. It’s like she has become his entire world.”

“You have to keep trying. Alex is…”

“What?” Grace turned to face him, gesturing for him to continue. “Maybe if you told me things once in a while I would be able to fix all of this…go home. That’s what you want, isn’t it? Whatever you are.” He was just in  her head. She had to remember that, even when the way he looked at her made her heart skip.

He cast his eyes downward as he pulled his knees to his chest, moving to stand. “He’s important. You need to go to him tonight.”

Important. She waited for him to say something else, something more that might explain, but he was silent. Connor only offered his hand to her once more as they made the walk back to his motorcycle, a part of a routine they had begun whenever she needed to get away from something.

He broke the silence when they pulled into campus, outside of the dorms. His gaze was elsewhere as he spoke. “You can’t keep running away. You need to face it.”

Grace followed his eyes toward blinding lights and the sound of blaring music. Someone was having a party in the dorms. Looking back at Connor, he only nodded to her as she got of the motorcycle. She hugged herself as she began to take the first few steps toward her dorm, where the music was blaring the loudest. She looked back once more from the doorway to see him watching her, still sitting out on the street, in the light of one lone street-lamp.

She found him surrounded by his posey in the midst of the chaos, a red solo cup in hand, hair in disarray as the girls clung to his arms. The entire situation screamed something was wrong. Alex would never have acted like this. She pushed through the crowd, yelling out his name as she was jostled left and right by students.

“Alex, look at me!” She almost regretted it afterward. A pair of ice cold eyes narrowed in on her, the music seeming to almost stop completely as he watched her approach. This wasn’t the Alex she knew. Those cold eyes were foreign to her.

“What do you want?” He deadpanned, shoving his empty cup into one of the girls hands. She ran off with it, giggling.

She braced herself, taking a deep breath as she met his eyes, hands on her hips. Piper. She was Piper. She could do this. “I want my friend back!” Two more steps and she had closed the gap between them, her finger poking into his chest as she emphasized her point. “You won’t talk to me, won’t look at me, won’t even acknowledge that I exist. What the hell is wrong with you? What have you done with the Alex I know?”

“The Alex you knew? You never knew me,” he growled, seeming to bristle as his arms crossed over his chest, standing taller, shoulders straight as he looked down at her as if she were a child. “You were too busy spending time with that Connor of yours. He’s got you wrapped around his finger, doesn’t he? Why don’t you run along back to your lover, little bird, we don’t need to hear your pathetic song here.”

“Connor was just trying to help me, so I could help us!” She screamed back at him, hands clenched into fists. “He was there to help me when Piper went missing, and he was there for me when you started to avoid me! Who else was I to turn to? None of this is real, Alex. I need to fix that! I need to fix all of us.”

“Fix us? You were the one that started all of this, Grace.” He took one large step toward her, towering over her as he pushed her back into the crowd. “You were the one that decided to jump. You were the one who killed us all. This is your fault.”

A murmur began in the crowd as the blonde haired woman snuck up from behind Alex, her arm slipping around him as she pressed a kiss against his cheek before she turned her dark-eyed gaze on her. “Run along, Grace. Don’t you know you aren’t wanted here?”

Grace stumbled back, eyes flickering left and right, only to be met by a thousand pairs of eyes staring at her as the whispering surrounded her.

“She’s so worthless.”

“Look at that freak, did she actually think she could come in here?”

“Stupid bitch.”

“Ugly.”

“Fat.”

Freak.

“Haven’t you taken a look in the mirror lately, dear?” The woman whispered in her ear, standing beside her as the room spun like a top, faster and faster as she fell forward, running through the crowd that reached forward to grab her arm, her shirt, her hair, clawing at her as the woman cackled. “Run, little bird. Run.”

The monitor beeped at regular intervals as the girl’s chest rose and fell from where she lay on the bed, cords and tubes lay on the sheets, connected to various machines in the room. A man held his wife’s hands in his as the doctor spoke, gesturing to the prone girl. The woman broke out into tears as a nurse handed them a clip board while a boy watched from the door way, unable or unwilling to intrude on the couple who cried over their daughter’s fate.