♡ Alaiya's POV: ♡
I walk alongside Ivy and the tall guys walk in front of us. It stays quiet for the first few seconds on our way to the library, but Ivy ends that.
"I love your hair," she compliments me as I'm watching the floor.
"Thank you," I say gratefully, making a smile come out of her as well. "I love yours too," I compliment back and she brushes me off sarcastically with a "stop it."
We enter the library and take a seat at the square-shaped table. Everyone begins to speak and I continue to pick at my nails as I hear them speak about football and some other random things.
"Where are y'all's manners?" a guy with brown hair that stands up on its own, a pretty sharp jawline, very light and fair skin, and gray eyes says towards everyone. His voice is very sweet sounding, and his smile is probably the most welcoming one I think I've ever seen. He has a short sleeve shirt on which shows off his tattoo sleeve on both his arms which suits him very well. "I'm Axel," he introduces himself as he holds his chest with both his hands. "But I go by Rider," he adds.
"I'm Kai," another guy says after him, and I turn my head to the right of Rider to see him. Unlike everyone else here who has dark hair, he has blonde, curly hair that falls onto the front of his forehead. His skin is as clear as daylight, his eyes are a beautiful blue color, and he just looks like an all-around happy and kind person. "I go by Eldon."
"This is Brandon and he goes by Legend," Rider pats the guy sitting next to him's shoulder. Legend has darker skin, shortly cut hair which has curls that can be seen, and dark brown eyes, though they're so bright that they don't even look brown. They have so much more depth in them unlike most brown eyes which are kind of basic. Well, at least mine are. His whole demeanor also looks to be upset, but he kind of smiles at me as a way to say hi.
"He just got cheated on," Rider whispers behind his hand and I oh sadly.
That explains why he looks so upset.
"And this is Roman," Rider bends forward in his seat and I turn my head to follow Rider's eyes to the guy sitting at the end of the table.
Holy crap!
In my eyes, is shown the most attractive man I've ever seen. And I mean ever.
I look at his bright green eyes and super clear skin as his hands are set on the table. His leg bounces lightly from underneath the table which I can sort of feel, and his hair looks to be naturally pushed back, though some strands fall onto his forehead effortlessly. His lips are in a perfect natural pink heart shape, and he seems to be pretty tall because of his height while sitting down. His jawline is so sharp that it could probably cut me in half. He doesn't have any facial hair, and I think even if he did, it wouldn't be possible for him to look worse. I don't think there's anything anyone could do that could make him look worse. His broad shoulders aren't too enormous like many guys I've noticed make their arms in college, but are still held up in confidence and are pretty muscular. His muscular chest is the same, which I can sort of see by the black, not too tight shirt he's wearing thats sleeves reach to his elbows, showing off his veins on his arms and hands.
It takes me one or two glances at him to just notice those noticeable things, and his eyes do the same thing to me when he hears his name get called. He looks up from the floor and meets my eyes directly, looking at me with such a fierce glare that it almost runs a shiver up my spine. His eyes then look over my face, and next over my body which is half-shown because of the desk sitting in front of me, and that only makes more heat come onto my body.
Even though the moment lasts for a quick second though it feels much longer, I don't think I could stop looking at him if people weren't around us.
Stop thinking that Alaiya.
That's basically like cheating.
If Carson even saw me looking at any of these guys, he'd kill me. Especially by the blush I'm carrying everywhere on my body by just looking at Roman and him glancing back at me. I would one hundred percent be dead.
Right as that reminder pops into my head, my common sense of Carson walking in and even seeing me looking at another guy kicks in and scares the crap out of me. I shoot my attention away and thankfully, right on time too.
"And I'm Ivy," the girl sitting next to me introduces herself right as I look away, making me feel relieved.
She has gorgeous light skin, her eyeliner and the rest of her makeup are done to absolute perfection, and her smile is so infectious, it brightens up the entire room. Her body is something I wish to have as it's curvy and all the right spots, and her skin is literally glowing in the white tank top with straps as sleeves tucked into her light washed blue jeans she's wearing. She has beautiful black hair that's wavy and reaches up to her stomach, making me envy looking like her even more which I didn't think was possible.
"I'm Alaiya," I smile at everyone.
"Alaiya," Eldon nods. "Are you single?" he gets straight to the point.
I shake my head no and Eldon oh's while Rider snaps, making a small laugh with a smile come out of me.
"Is it Carson?" Ivy inquires a little urgently and I nod. "Told you he wasn't her brother," she says towards Roman, but I try not to look at him so I won't blush again since the first one just went away.
I blush with almost everyone, it's not that big of a deal. Plus, it's easy to get rid of this with a simple solution.
Just hate him.
Wait. He thought I was Carson's sister?
"Carson has a girlfriend!" Eldon says shocked.
"You're not Carson's sister?" Legend questions again a little stunned.
Why would they think I'm Carson's sister? We don't even look anything alike. Carson is much lighter than me, and his blonde hair matches not even close to my dark brown curls. Nothing about us even looks a little bit similar.
I notice Roman give Ivy an 'I'm not the only one that thought that' nod, and I also see her roll her eyes in response.
"How long have you been together?"Ivy asks with her arms crossed on the table.
"Five years," I answer, and all their mouths and eyes open wide instantly.
What? It would've been earlier if we listened to my mom sooner, but it ended up being when we were sixteen. My mom was happy either way, as long as we got together at one point.
"You've been with polo-shirt wearing Carson for five years!" Rider exclaims, and I try and bite back my laugh at his description of Carson.
I thought they would know since they're on the same team and play football with each other every day. Maybe Carson forgot to tell them or it slipped his mind. I've never actually met any of them except Rider which didn't turn out that great, which is why usually, my eyes are plastered on the floor.
"He must have some good dick," Ivy points out, and my eyes widen a little at her as I turn my head around, unsure of how to respond to that.
I don't like talking about sexual stuff because it always makes me feel uncomfortable and uneasy. I lost my virginity when I was seventeen, and whenever Carson and I have done it or have been in the middle of doing it, I never feel the best during or after so I hate not being able to relate to people when they talk about their own experiences. Guilt and other feelings usually take over my mind after he finishes, and I hate the way it makes me feel so sick. Carson always criticizes how I'm such a prude and don't have any confidence, but I just can't muster it up for some reason.
Maybe there's something wrong with me?
Should I see a doctor?
"Oh, you know that girl I went with last night?" Ivy completely changes the subject and asks everyone in a matter of seconds.
"You mean the second lesbian to reject Legend?" Rider smirks at Legend and Legend mumbles an "I swear to fuck" threateningly under his breath.
"Yeah," Ivy agrees, and Legend diverts his deathly glare towards her. "...so she invited this guy-," she continues to tell her story, but suddenly, all the guys' voices cut her off.
"What guy?" they all say protectively in unison.
She rolls her eyes at them in annoyance.
"This really big and tall bulky guy," Ivy responds, though I think she's being sarcastic by the way her voice sounds exaggerated. "He had such big muscles that he looked like the letter T," she nods surprised, and Eldon, Rider, and Legend all look over at each other.
They look afraid of the guy so they look over at Roman and pat his shoulder. "You got this," they encourage, and Roman's the one to roll his eyes this time as he's sitting back in his seat, cool as a cucumber.
He even makes sitting look effortless.
That's because it is!
What is going on with me?
"Kidding," Ivy says in a 'duh' manner and they oh at the realization. "He was just her friend and he joined us," she shrugs, and the guys go right back to protective mode as their eyes widen.
"What was his name?" Eldon asks.
"I think he said Car-," she starts, but something changes in her as her eyes widen. "...-den," she completes as she looks over at me.
What just happened?
"Carrrdenn," Rider repeats after her, and I see Ivy force a smile and nod a strict yes.
When I turn my head over at the guys, I see all their moods have now changed when they glance at me. They then all look over at each other, talking with their eyes and I just sit here obliviously as to what just occurred right now. I don't know if I should ask what happened because it could be private, but I also want to know why they're looking at me so worriedly.
"Let's do our project on women's suffrage," Ivy blurts out to end the silence out of nowhere. "You guys google a museum, and Alaiya and I will go check out books," she tells everyone their tasks before pulling me up behind her.
I don't know what to do so I just let her pull me to wherever she's going. Maybe she knows where the correct information is found.
We walk up the stairs of the library and in the far corner, which is the science section. I may be dumb sometimes, but I know information about the women's suffrage movement is not found here unless she's thinking about making a clone of a woman.
"I know we don't know each other very well and you'll probably want to beat my ass after I tell you this, but I don't want to see you get hurt because you seem like a nice person," she rambles as she lets go of my arm and stands in front of me.
I scrunch my eyebrows at her as she lets out a breath because she didn't exhale through that entire sentence.
"That guy was Carson," she admits, and my eyes widen, but not in surprise. More at the fact that he did it with the one person who just happens to be in my group. "I'm not trying to create doubts in your relationship." She holds her hands out in defense. "But now I remember clearly that it was him and I just thought you should know. If you want me to beat his ass, I have a taser."
I shake my head at that offer and the guilt she feels, but I don't know how to explain this to her correctly.
"Carson and I...we have an open relationship," I try my best to explain, and she stops for a second and rears herself back in.
"You do?" she confirms and I nod.
It's more open-ended on his side because he has needs and I don't want to stand in the way of that. I don't do it because not only does Carson not want me to, but I would never do it if I had the choice. It'd be like I'm betraying him, and it's not like my needs are bursting out of me. I enjoy the good side of Carson and everything we have and I feel like if I did something with someone else, that would change.
Do I like that he's with other girls? No, but I'm usually the one who makes him go to them because of my lack of beauty, so I can't blame him. I don't have the body or confidence that matches his type, so I get it.
"Thank goodness," she holds her heart in relief. "So you don't hate me?" she verifies, and I shake my head no.
Ivy pulls me back to the guys and sits me down in my chair. The guys look at me with the same worried eyes, but Ivy helps me out and changes the subject. We decide on the places we can go to to learn more about the movement, so we decide on a museum not too far from here.
Professor Wright is giving us until Monday to explore our topics which is why we decide that we'll go tomorrow since we're almost out of time for today. We all also don't have any classes tomorrow, and the guys don't have practice so everyone is set to go.
My schedule is pretty spaced out so I don't overwhelm myself. Dance, English, and business keep me pretty busy, but I enjoy having things to do.
Everyone stands up, and I look at my phone and see I have dance next. My makeup has covered my red and scratched-up cheeks, and my ribs are still a little bruised so I won't be able to wear a sports bra today.
We all walk out of the library together and Ivy walks beside me.
"What class do you have?" she asks.
"Dance," I answer, and she's taken back by a little shock.
"You dance?" she asks with her mouth dropped.
I laugh a little at her expression. "Yeah," I nod, and she wow's a little.
"Roman, I'm going to the dance room," she informs him as he's walking in front of us which I don't mind at all. I've never had anyone come and watch me dance besides my mom and dad and a couple of times Carson, but it's been a while.
"You?" Roman asks humorously and the others laugh along as well. "You can't even do a push-up," he points out.
"Not for me you dick," she replies with a joking attitude and they all realize that she's talking about me.
Roman turns back around when he meets his eyes with mine, and I do the exact same thing. The guys I think go to practice and Ivy and I walk into the dance room right on time. I tell her I'm gonna go get changed and she okay's and takes a seat on the bleachers. I walk into the locker room and get dressed into my black, sleeveless tank-top, along with my dark gray leggings. The tank-top covers up the bruise perfectly, and I don't think anyone can see it. The girls enter in behind me and all smile as they get changed. I make sure to spray waterproof makeup spray just in case before walking back out to the gymnasium and seeing Ivy excitedly waiting for us to begin.
It's nice having someone here.
♥ ★ ❦ ✱ ♥
A/N: I don't know if the descriptions were that good of the characters, but I tried. Also, I don't know if I'm writing too long chapters, so I'm sorry if they're lengthy.
Please tell me if there are any grammar errors.
Word count: 2742