Meant For You

nine.

"We have to take some pictures later, Nola. There should be a photo wall around here somewhere," Frankie says, looking around as she sips her drink. "Frankie!" An unfamiliar voice shouts. My cousin turns looking for the voice and when she finally spots it, her smile grows. She sets her drink down, standing up and meeting the girl halfway. "Long time no see, friend!" The blonde girl says, cupping my cousin's face gently.

"Lana! This is my cousin, Nola Scott. Nola this is Lana, we both model for IMG." Frankie introduces me to the gorgeous model. "Hi, it's nice to meet you! Wow, you're beautiful!" Lana says, touching my hair. I notice a thick accent, probably Russian, escape her lips. My eyes widen slightly and I put a hand on my chest. "Oh my, thank you. You're stunning as well," I return the compliment.

"We should get you on the runway, what do you think, Fran?" Lana says, looking at my cousin. "Oh, no. I could never. I'm too short," I chuckle. Frankie smiles. "That is so stupid, heels will make you taller, girl! You should give it a try." Frankie puts a hand on Lana's shoulder. "Excuse her, Nola. She's always trying to get more girls on our team so they'll stop focusing on her."

"Please. That's not the reason. I love attention." Lana shrugs. I chuckle, sipping on my drink. "Oh, Frankie! There are some girls here from Elite that I have to introduce you to, it's why I came to pull you. It'll only take a minute," Lana adds. Frankie turns to look at me and I can tell she doesn't want to leave me behind. "I'm good! Go ahead, I'll see you in a bit," I assure her. "You sure? I don't want to just leave you," Frankie whispers.

I shake my head. "Frankie, you're not sticking by my side all night. Go! I'll be fine for a while." She looks at me for a long moment, contemplating it. "Okay, don't move. I'm coming back in five," she tells me. I give her a nod before Lana drags her in another direction. It's not long before I lose sight of my cousin completely.

Even though I'm only a plus one, I decide to look around the event. Maybe I'll run into a celebrity? I haven't seen any so far. Grabbing my drink from the bar, I start walking around, feeling slightly intimidated by all the models here. I'm only slightly taller with the heels I'm wearing and they all tower over me. They're also extremely beautiful.

I stop abruptly when I notice someone familiar from afar. My jaw drops. In all her glory, Bella Walker, a famous singer, stands at the end of the room talking to other famous singers. "Holy shit," I whisper when I manage to pick my jaw up from the floor. Besides the people in my family, I've never met a celebrity. I feel like a little girl right now. Staring at her like she's candy in a candy shop, I force myself to look away after feeling like a total creep.

When I go to turn back around and return to the bar where Frankie told me to stay, my body collides with a hard chest. I hold onto my drink, making sure not to spill it and embarrass myself and my cousin. "I'm so sorry!" I say, stumbling back slightly. "That's my bad," a deep voice says. Looking up from my feet when I stable myself, familiar gray eyes meet mine.

Oh, God.
Miles.

"Shit," he says under his breath but I still catch it. The usual anger that flares up inside of me when I see him doesn't come. My mind reverts back to that conversation I had with my dad not long ago. Don't be a bitch again, Nola. Just be cordial. "How did we go from running into each other into literally running into each other?" I question. Miles looks at me suspiciously. He was expecting a snarkier remark, I suppose.

"Yeah," is all he says. Shaking his head, he chuckles lightly and starts walking past me. "Excuse me," he says, squeezing his large body as much as possible to walk in the other direction. My body tells me to let him go but my stupid brain tells me to stop him. Listen to your body, Nola! "Miles, wait!" I say, internally beating myself up.

Miles turns, looking around before setting his light eyes back on me. He walks closer toward me, raising his brows. What the hell did I call him back for? I don't even know what to say. I nervously look at him for a long time without uttering a word. "Miles, come on!" A familiar voice cuts the silence between us and a couple of seconds later, a blonde boy appears at Miles' side. JT. Ember's classmate.

JT notices me and his eyes widen. He looks at Miles and then back at me. "Nola! Right? How are you? And what are you doing here?" I thank him in my brain for interrupting because I had no idea what to say to Miles. "Yeah. I'm fine and my cousin brought me. I'm her plus one, I guess." If I knew hockey players, specifically LA Kings, were going to be here, I would've declined Frankie's offer. Too late.

"Oh, who's your cousin?" JT asks. Both guys focus on me making me shy. Frankie is the shy one, not you. "Uh, Frankie Adler. She's a model and stuff," I reply, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear nervously. "Right, you've got like madddd famous people in your fam. I remember that." JT grins. I return a weak smile wanting to run as far away as possible. Miles turns to JT, who turns back to him before looking at me and then back at Miles.

"Uh! I'm going to the bathroom. Nola, it was nice seeing you again! Tell Ember I said hey, will ya? See you in a minute, man," JT rambles before disappearing quickly. Miles fails to hold back a laugh, shaking his head and rubbing his mouth. "Sorry about the kid. He's a strange one." Yeah, he is. But what was that exchange they had? I didn't want to be left alone with this man!

I find it unsettling how calm he's being after our last interaction. I was so sure he finally hated me after it but maybe dad was right. He doesn't think twice about me or our exchanges. This is why, once and for all, I'm going to end this. Even though I couldn't care less what he thinks about me, I just need to get this weird relationship off my back so that I can feel some relief.

For some strange reason, it's been weighing on me. If I'm going to try and better myself, I need to fix whatever is happening here.

"Miles, I-" I cut myself off, figuring out what exactly I want to say. Apologizing to people isn't really my strong suit. I also don't know if I want to apologize to him since he was the one who was a dick to me from the start. "About Renaissance-" This time, it's Miles who cuts me off. "It's fine, Nola. Don't even worry about it."

How did he know what I was going to say? I eye him wearily. "It's what we do. We bicker, we see each other again and I try to act like nothing happened, and then you start it over again." He shrugs. I furrow my brows, trying my best not to glare at him. "I'm not going to start it again is what I was gonna say before you cut me off earlier," I say. He raises his brows shortly, his face saying more than he is.

He doesn't believe me.

I try to hide the annoyance I'm feeling. "Enough is enough," I shrug, "we don't even know each other enough to be this cruel to one another. And even though I've said this multiple times, and it still hasn't happened, I'm sure we won't cross paths again so this is me putting an end to whatever...this was." I force myself to smile a bit.

Miles looks amused. His face showing it all. Ugh, he still kind of annoys me. He half smirks but it leaves his face as quickly as it came. "Cool. Apology accepted," he says. I chuckle, "I never apologized." I correct. And I never will. "Of course not. My bad. I'll accept whatever end this is." Miles nods once, bumping his bottle of Budweiser with my drink, looking deeply into my eyes.

For a second, I see something different pass through those gray eyes. Those stupidly pretty gray eyes.

"I'll see you, Scott," Miles says as he backs up slowly. "No, you won't!" I reply. I hear him chuckle and shake his head.

Please let that be the last interaction I have with that man.