Bitter Heart √

Forty Three

"And I don't care about names, Anderson." He said. The look in his eyes was slowly making me feel a little too hot. "Looks like you gave him the wrong impression."

"About what?" I asked, and my heart skipped a beat when I felt him caress my palm.

"He looked so much into you." A smile twitched on his lips. Slow and dangerous. This was so dangerous. It felt a bit too hard to breathe and I knew I should've looked away, but it wasn't that easy. It was never easy when it came to him.

I managed to frown somehow, trying to control my erratic heartbeat. "He's just a new guy trying to make some friends."

His eyes were breathtaking. Like every other time, I found myself getting lost in them. Green and gold and so promising. It wasn't fair.

This wasn't fair to my heart.

"If he's really so desperate," He said. "I can name a thousand other people."

I rolled my eyes and gripped his hand. Perhaps I was the desperate one here. "It'd be nice making new friends, Caden," I said. "It gets lonely here sometimes. There's no Alex. It's kind of a no-talk zone between Hanna and me. You're not there either."

As if him being here would make a difference.

"You can make friends with one of those nerds."

I had this sudden urge to laugh and I failed to stifle it when a small chuckle left my lips. "What? Why?"

The small bulb above us flickered until it burned out entirely and everything went dark. Under different circumstances, I would've been scared shitless. But knowing that Caden was here right in front of me, that made it a little less scary.

"That way, your social life might not rise so fast." He answered.

Since I couldn't exactly see him now, I was glad of the little amount of warmth of his hand. "You sound jealous."

Wasn't it weird? I thought. When was the last time Caden Miller held hands with someone?

I felt him lean closer and it was a matter of seconds for every part of me to become hyper-aware. Of his presence. Of Caden. I froze.

"Or maybe." He was too close. My heart nearly crawled up my throat when I felt his warm breath across my cheek. "I just don't want you to blindly trust people."

An involuntary shiver ran down my spine when the tip of his nose grazed along my cheekbone. I wanted to lean closer. I wanted more.

"I'm...not that bad with trust." It was beyond hard forming words. My brain felt like mush, and my insides felt like mush, and it was just too difficult to comprehend what the hell was even happening.

His other hand, which wasn't holding onto my own, found my waist, slowly and surely hitching up and pulling me closer. I couldn't breathe.

What was he doing?

"Really?" His voice was a quiet whisper. "I thought you were bad at everything."

I wanted to take offence to that, I really wanted to, but his lips were so close and the soft trail of them against my jawline had me grabbing his shoulder. It made me weak in the knees.

"T-That's...rude of you." I breathed out.

"Very much." He was smiling. I felt it against my skin. And when he placed a soft kiss below my ear, his hand fisting into the back of my shirt, my breath hitched into a gasp. I was left confused and lost and wanting more.