Resurfacing

Chapter 1:

"What are you doing here?"

Ezra's body was pressed tightly against mine while he breathed me in. My body trembled from his touch and my heart stopped, refusing to beat. This wasn't happening. There was no way he was standing behind me right now.  Ezra disappeared months ago. There was absolutely no reason for him to come back to find me.  I turned to look over my shoulder and saw him staring down at me.

"It's good to see you too." He pulled his lips up in his signature, wicked half-smile.

The arrogance on his face caused my blood to boil. I wanted to punch him in the nose just to see him bleed. My fingernails dug into the skin on his arms and I pushed at him until he finally let go of me. He stepped back from me as I turned to face him. My body was tense. I had to swallow the urge to go after him.

My eyes searched his familiar face, not believing what I was seeing. It felt as though some ghost from my past had found me. It was Ezra. It was really him. He had gotten a lip ring since I saw him last. He was playing with it. The biting and twisting reminded me of how good his mouth felt on mine. I had to shake the thought away. Ezra hurt me. I couldn't forget that. Trying to close that chapter of my life was the most difficult thing I had ever done and I was not going to go down that road again.

His light eyes were clouded and bloodshot. He looked as if he had stayed up for days partying. I didn't care what he did anymore. He chose to leave me when I needed him the most, and I had spent months trying to pick up the wreckage that was my life.  He didn't get to come back now and pretend none of this happened.  I had given this boy everything I had and there was nothing left he could take from me.

"You didn't miss me at all?" He asked, pushing his hair back off his face. It was a little longer than it was the last time I saw him. It reminded me of how much time had passed since he walked away from me.

"Ezra, it's been nine months!" I screamed at him, flailing my hands around like a lunatic. My mind played the images of how different our lives could have been if it weren't for the car accident. We could be sitting at home with our new little baby in my arms. Ezra would have been playing his guitar and singing the sweetest lullabies. We could have been happy. We could have been a family. Instead, I was standing in the dark alleyway with the boy who shattered me. I had nothing left inside except the emptiness that would never go away.

"I had to leave for a while to think. I just got back and I needed to see you." He moved quickly to grab my hand and I pulled away from him when his skin grazed mine. "I thought you would be happy to see me." He said with his eyebrow raised. The two rings still sat perfectly above his eye and they shined brightly against his dark hair.

"You thought I would be happy to see you?" Laughter escaped my lips. I quickly covered my mouth with my hand to hide the disbelief on my face. This had to be a sick joke. He couldn't think I would want to see him again after what he did to me.

"You left me in the hospital, Ezra. I lost a baby and was by myself. You really think you being here is ok?" I crossed my arms in a hard stance and watched as his shoulders fell like a disappointed puppy.

"I know I messed up. Give me another chance." He said as he stepped closer to me. He reached his hand out to try to pull me back into his body.

"I can't..." I raised my arms defensively to protect myself.  The armor I had been building over the last few months was still fragile and would break if I let him near me again. I had cried and cried over this dark-haired boy and he didn't even understand what he had done to me.

"Let's go somewhere." He whispered to me softly.

"I'm working right now,"  I said, waving back at the building.  "I can't just leave."

"When do you get off of work?" He kept inching closer to me with every breath he took. "We can go back to my place tonight."

Before I could even comprehend what was happening, he was standing in front of me with almost no space between us. His long, lean body towered over mine. My senses were overwhelmed by him. I had to escape. The instinct to protect myself from him was fighting to break free.

"Not going to happen." I swallowed hard, looking into his clouded blue eyes. Why did they look so different than before? He looked like a corrupted version of himself.  He was still the angry boy, but it felt like I was looking at him from the wrong side.

"Heard that one before. It didn't stop me the last time." He bent down close to my lips. I was paralyzed in place by his breath on me. His scent swirled around me and seeped into my skin.  For just one small moment, all my defenses began shutting down and everything else around us began to fall away. Ezra slowly began to lean into me and I closed my eyes to surrender to him. My heart was racing inside my chest as his warmth began to overtake me.

"Riley!" Rachel, the other server working tonight, called to me from the employee entrance.

"I'm coming! Be there in a second!" I yelled back to her. 

Rachel's interruption had broken the trance Ezra had placed me under. I would have let him kiss me, which would go against everything I had worked for in the last nine months. He was nothing to me anymore, and I could never let him back in.

My friends and family had finally begun to trust me again. I was even working on repairing my relationship with JD. He had been able to forgive me for lying to him about my involvement with Ezra.  My love life had not recovered yet, but Ezra didn't need to know that part. It had been a long time since anyone touched me and I wasn't sure if I would ever let anyone in again after what he did to me. I had loved Ezra in a damaged and twisted way and he repaid my love by ruining me.

"Don't go beautiful, stay here with me." He begged, trying to pull me back to his body. He wrapped his long fingers around my wrist to keep me from leaving him.

"We are done." I had to take a hard stance with him so he would get the message, even if seeing him again confused every part of me. 

"I will never move on from you." He said, pushing his hair off his head again and his hand tightened over my wrist. "I will be with you again."

"Is that a threat?" I asked him. My free hand flew to my phone in my pocket.  My fingers were ready to call the cops on him.

He moved dangerously close to me, bent down, and leaned into my mouth like he was going to try to kiss me. My breath was caught in my throat when he nipped at my bottom lip. I froze when his teeth grazed against me. He laughed softly when he saw what he was doing to me. Ezra was so close to me it hurt.

"Tell me you don't want me."

"Ezra, I don't." My voice broke, betraying me.

He leaned into my ear and my body shivered for him even when my brain was screaming to get away.

"You're always such a good girl for me." He purred into my ear.

"Stop. Please stop." I begged him.

"Riley!" Rachel whined from the door again.

I pushed Ezra away from me and started walking towards Rachel, who was still standing in the doorway holding the heavy metal door open.

"This isn't over. You don't get to walk away from me." Ezra growled from behind me.

"What, like you did? You walked first, Ezra. You messed this up. Don't forget that." I looked back at him and his face fell like I had knocked the wind out of him. The hardness in my voice surprised me, but it was the only way he would get this through his head.  There was no chance in hell that I would ever forgive him for what he did to me. What happened between us was over and he would never touch me again.

I turned back around and jogged up to the employee entrance, where Rachel was standing against the door in shock. She looked at my face and then back to where Ezra was standing behind me.

I glanced back in his direction for the last time. He was still staring at me like he was lost.  Good.

Screw you, Ezra Miller.  I will never forgive you.