Augustine

Chapter 20

I look up towards Ian and cup the side of his face to inspect the cuts. Most of them were superficial cuts, but the one right above his eyebrow went a little deeper.

God, I hope he doesn't need stitches.

"You are so fucking stupid."

He grins, despite the fact that his blood was painting the inside of his mouth. "I've been called worse."

"I don't doubt it."

I turn my head to look behind me only to see Emily finally attending to Aiden. He looked equally as beat up if not maybe worse. She wipes the side of his mouth with a napkin she found, but Aiden just looked irritated. 

And I don't even know where Aliyah went.

Ian moves my face to meet his gaze and again I see an unknown emotion hiding behind. "We should probably go now, I heard someone was calling the police."

"Yeah, I think that would be a good idea."

Connor, our splendid host, walks up to us clearly not happy about the coffee table they managed to break in the middle of their scuffle. "You guys need to leave, now."

"On our way out." Ian grabs my hand and pulls me ahead of him.

The crowd parts to make room for us to take our leave. The all too familiar whispers follow us, already creating the stories that will roam the school hallways as soon as Monday morning.

We quickly make our exit and breathe a sigh of relief when we make it inside the car.

"You did not have to do that." I look over to him, taking a slower examination of his face. "You could have seriously gotten hurt."

"Yes I did. He's a douchebag." He puts his keys into the ignition, letting his car become part of the living. "He had it coming. This was just the tip of the iceberg."

He winces as he puts his seatbelt on, the adrenaline that he had inside slowly wearing off.

"You're still insane." I reach across to help him with the seatbelt, but he still ends up doing most of the work. "Does it hurt?" I ask reaching towards his face.

He hisses when my fingers make contact to the section above his eyebrow. "Only when you touch it."

I roll my eyes at his exaggerations. "I didn't even touch it, don't be such a baby." 

I look around his car for something to help him clean up a bit, but to my surprise his car is as spotless in the back seat as it is in the front.

"There should be some wipes behind your seat," he says, reading my mind.

I grab them and notice the scented label on the front. "This is for cars."

"It's better than nothing." He reaches for them but I hold them at arms length making it so he can't take them away from me.

"I'll be careful."

He shrugs he shoulders, but I could tell he didn't completely believe me. I open the package and let the lemon scent take over the enclosed area. I twist my body to try to get a good angle but all my options would either flash him or showcase my underwear. I was about to give up and just hand him the wipes, but he grabs my waist instead.

I let out a yelp as pulls me onto his lap and shifts the seat of the car back to make more room. 

This definitely gave me a better view of his face but it felt a lot more intimate than when I sat on his lap inside the party. My legs drape over the center console and my back was pressed against the driver side door. It's still a tight fit but I think I can manage to clean up his face at least from the dried up blood.

"There," he grins, "now you can't say you poked my eye out because you were too far."

I smile back at him and try to focus on the task at hand. "And how would that fix my aim?"

His chuckles quickly morph into a scowl as I focus on the area with the deepest cut. When I notice most of the blood is out of the way I move to the cut on his upper lip. I feel the heat of his breath fan my face, but I try to place my sole attention to cleaning him up. 

I can't say that it's working, but at least that's my intention.

His gaze hangs on to every single one of my motions, his eyes fluttering between my lips and my eyes.

"You smell good," he blurts out in the middle of the silence. He takes a couple strands of my hair and twirls them around in his finger. "I didn't notice before."

"And you smell like a bag of lemons," I say, trying to hide the nervous butterflies that wreck havoc inside my stomach.

I give one last sweep of his face, happy with my nursing abilities and ready to discharge him. "Done."

He helps me over to my side of the car, his hand lingering on the small of my back.

I put my seat belt on, ready to put the show on the road, but he doesn't make any move to shift the car to drive. Instead he examines his own face in the visor mirror.

"Did you break your record?"

I look over to him confused only to get a grin in return. "What record?"

He laughs, the dimples on his cheeks showing. "I think we were in there less than an hour before you got us kicked out."

"I did not get us kicked out!" I say, defending myself. "You were the one who couldn't keep his hands to himself."

He waves me off, finally putting the car in reverse to back out of the parking spot. "He grabbed you first, so I was not the one who started it. I finished it."

"I'm pretty sure I'm the one who finished it. You were about to get another punch to the face." I laugh at his expense.

He shakes his head, not ready to admit defeat in this argument. "Tomayto Tomahto."

We're about to leave when I get a glimpse of Aiden making his own exit with Emily trailing right behind him. He's obviously enraged and Emily is doing what she can to make him see reason.

The sight almost makes me feel bad for her.

The scene also catches Ian's attention, removing his previous smile. "I don't know what she sees in him." His eyes drill holes in their direction until they get into their own car and drive away.

"Haven't you heard, love makes you blind."

"She follows him around like a lost puppy, she deserves better."

"Aiden isn't a bad person." I say, feeling the need to defend him, even after tonight. "He makes a lot of bad decisions, but that only makes him human. I know I have my share of bad decisions I wish I could take back."

"You defending him right now, even after everything he's said and done to you," he pauses, biting the inside of his mouth. "Does this mean you're blind too?"