A Dangerous Deal

Chapter 10

The ride was yet again a painfully silenced one as we both didn't know what to say to each other. It's almost sad how much we can't have a real conversation with each other without fighting. Alas this was the nature of our relationship and as the saying goes 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'. Although I knew well enough that this dynamic that we had going on was very broken but it got us this far so who was I to try and change it?

I checked the time after a while and saw we had been driving over an hour. Was he crazy? Why would he pick a house that was this far away from the school? The commute to school was already hard when I was five minutes away from the campus but now I'd be over an hour away.

After fifteen more minutes I was getting irritated and decided to speak up, "Um, not to be an ass, but where the hell is this house? You know we still have school to go to dipshit."

He huffs, "Because, Rhea, I need to make sure no one is following us before we can get to the house. The house is only a twenty minute drive from campus. But, with how crazy I know my ex is, I wouldn't be surprised if she sent one of her minions out to try and follow us. That would kind of defeat the whole purpose of buying a house in secret, wouldn't it?"

I roll my eyes, even though I know he can't see me. But he was right. She is absolutely insane and I hadn't even thought about how that one guy could still be following us right now. Just goes to show that leaving things to Rafael was a great idea. If it were up to me, I would have gone straight to the house without a second thought, possibly leading the enemy straight into us.

"I'm sorry, Rafael. You're right I wasn't even thinking about that possibility. I really appreciate how kind you've been through all of this and how helpful you've been as well. Honestly I feel more safe than I have in a long time, so I suppose there's you to thank for that as well. Don't let that give you a swollen head though." Giving him a playful poke in the arm. Wow, he had really solid arms. How much does he workout?

He glances at me for a second and smiles before turning his eyes back to the road, "Thank you, Rhea. You know, you're not so bad yourself. It's kind of cute when you're sweet to me like this. Makes me think that if we weren't rivals could we have been a real thing?" He sighs, "I know it's a crazy thought, but sometimes I wonder if we had been a little different towards each other, where we would be with each other right now. You and I may never have spoken to each other, or maybe we would have and become close. But we are rivals through and through, it's in our nature right?" He faintly smiles while his eyes are glued on the road. Almost looking sad.

It made me wonder as well. What if he and I had met in different circumstances? What if my parents had been a little more lenient in my life? All these what if's but the reality is this was how life ended up. All of those what if's would stay just as that. A faint fantasy of what could have been. It made me a little bummed to think about how much different my life could have been if I had been given the opportunity to have a life. Maybe Rafael and I could have had something real, without this jealousy and anger for him being in the way. But it was, I couldn't like him the way things were now. He topped me in everything I did and it pisses me off. Always one upping me and then bragging about it right to my face. Even if it may seem harmless to him, to me it was eating at me and consuming me with hatred. Deep down I knew my parents thought of me as nothing other than a failure. That's all I would be for the rest of my life no matter how hard I tried.

After Rafael was certain that no one was following us he finally took the road to get to the house. The road leading to the house was covered in trees. I'm sure driving through this during the day would even look like night, that is how many there were. It was beautiful though, it felt like one of those dreams where you could escape reality and be tempted to never return. It was peaceful, and the fact I would get to drive through this every day brought a smile onto my face. Rafael noticed me smiling and let out a little chuckle as well, which made my face turn bright red. It was too dark out to see my blushing thank God. But why was a part of me wishing he had seen me blush?