"I don't like the way she's looking at you." Matt said and I glanced in the direction of Candice who was glaring daggers at me. "I don't get it, she took your guy. What else does the bi—female want?"
I ignored his almost slip up as I wasn't in the mood to lecture him on why he shouldn't call women the b-word once again.
He had been pretty pissed after I had narrated the story of Derrek's accident and the events that followed after it. He thought it was complete bull that I had to sit back and watch my fiancé flex around town with a fake on his arm. I thought it was bull too cause I didn't like Candice. Why did he like her anyway? She was a horrible person and I couldn't believe anyone could love her or maybe it was just my jealousy talking and she wasn't that bad.
"I don't know for her oh." I turned away from Derrek's fiancée. Derrek was nowhere to be seen and she was seated on one of the lounge chairs all by herself. She was obviously so bored that she had to occupy herself by glaring at me. "I cover myself with the blood of Jesus sha. Whatever evil plan she's cooking up will not work."
"Amen." Matt answered and wrapped his arm around me. "Let's go somewhere else. She's ruined the entire atmosphere."
"We can't leave the VIP lounge. It's yours. The entire club is yours." I pointed out and he nodded in agreement.
"It's fifty percent mine if we're counting but you're right. I should just kick her out instead. Let me get the bouncers." He unwrapped his arm from around me and headed in the direction of the stairs where the bouncers were stationed.
"No! What the hell?" I pulled him back. "Derrek's your friend. You can't kick out his fiancée."
"Fake fiancée and yes, I can." He corrected and I frowned, knowing I was the fake fiancée, not Candice.
"No, you won't. Let's just go somewhere else instead."
"Let's go to the bar then." He suggested and I shook my head. "You're really hellbent on not drinking, aren't you?"
"Yes, so, no alcohol!"
"Fine. You can just watch me drink then. Let's go." He placed his arm around my shoulders and led me towards the stairs.
"Matthew!" I heard a very familiar deep voice and I froze. Matthew glanced down at me and I shook my head, pleading for us to ignore him. The music in the VIP area wasn't that loud and we couldn't pretend we didn't hear him but I didn't care how it made us look. I just wanted to be far away from Derrek. It was too late though because Derrek caught up to us.
"Derrek, bro!" Matt greeted as Derrek walked in front of us. No big surprise, Candice was leeching onto his arm as always.
"I was wondering where you went off to." Derrek said. His eyes flickered to me and they widened for a split second. "Tiara." I felt a weird flip in my stomach as he called my name but I ignored it, clearing my throat before I spoke.
"This party is off the charts, Matthew! I'm having an amazing time!" Candice cut me off before I could respond and I took in a deep breath to stop myself from pulling her hair out.
"You know Tiara?" Matt said, ignoring Candice and I bit my inner cheek to stop myself from laughing at her annoyed expression.
"Oh, yeah. We've met quite a few times." Derrek answered, glancing at me with a smile. "We seem to have a lot of mutual friends."
"Is that so?" Matt sounded sarcastic but Derrek didn't seem to notice as he nodded in response.
"How do you know Tiara?" Derrek went on to ask and Matt pulled me closer to his side and glanced down at me with a mischievous smile playing on his lips. Much like Naborhi, I could tell when he was about to do something very stupid.
"Tiara's my girlfriend." He blurted out before I could stop him.
"Girlfriend?" Derrek and Candice chorused and Matt nodded, ignoring my glare. I pinched his back and he let out a yelp, masking it with a laugh. Derrek's eyes were on me once again. It almost seemed like he was silently asking me to confirm or deny what Matt had said.
"Yes, girlfriend." Matt answered instead and Derrek glanced back at him.
"You two make an amazing couple. Just picture perfect." Candice said with excitement on her face. She was obviously overjoyed by the news. I hated Matt so much.
"I would say the same about you and Derrek but not really." Matt said snarkily and I gasped. That idiot had no filter.
"Very funny, Matthew." I slapped his back and he let out a louder yelp. I forced a laugh. "Sorry about this one. He has an awful sense of humor." I pinched him once again, signaling with my eyes for him to apologize.
"I'm sorry. That wasn't funny." He finally apologized and I let go of him. I glanced at Derrek and noticed he had a frown on his face. I was pretty sure he was upset. I could still remember how he got so defensive when Alex talked bad about Candice. He obviously wasn't pleased with Matt's attempt at a joke.
"Do you guys want to get a drink? I'm rather parched." Derrek said after a moment of awkward silence.
"Yes, yes! Let's do that!" I agreed, wanting to get out of this awkward situation as fast as I could.
We all proceeded to the private bar Matt had set up in the VIP area and took a seat at one of the many tables. Matt signaled to the waiter who rushed right over to take our orders.
"You guys wanna do shots and get wasted?" Matt asked and everyone nodded but me.
"Are you pregnant or something? You don't wanna do shots?" Candice didn't pass up the opportunity to annoy me.
"I'm a horrible drunk actually, so, I'm saving you all from my drunken self." I gave her a fake smile.
"That's a lame excuse." She rolled her eyes.
"Not an excuse. I have a habit of attempting to murder annoying bitches when I'm drunk." I retorted, still showing my fakest smile.
"Yeah. She's got a habit of strangling gingers, so, I wouldn't encourage her." Matt added, gesturing to her now ginger hair and she gasped, turning to Derrek to say something but he was typing away on his phone and hadn't been paying any attention to us. His eyebrows were pulled together and he had a frown on his face. I couldn't help but wonder what was going on.
"Derrek, what are you doing? Put your phone down." Candice said in frustration and Derrek looked up at her with a frown still on his face.
"I need to make an important call. You guys can start off without me." He said, getting up to his feet and my eyes followed him as he walked away from us. A part of me wanted to go after him and ask what was wrong but then I remembered that it was none of my business like he'd always enjoyed telling me. I scowled at his retreating figure as I remembered all the times we'd argued because of his secrecy and suddenly, I remembered that it was a relief that our fake engagement charade was over.
"Here we are." Matt said as the waiter returned with shot glasses and a bottle of tequila on a tray. "Are you sure you don't want to join us, Tee?" He asked and I noticed Candice gave me a daring look. She reminded me so much of Chioma and it pissed me off. Same evil, different skin.
"Know what? I'll join you guys." I sat forward and grabbed a glass.
"Now, it's a party!" Matt cheered and I rolled my eyes at him.
"Are you sure, Tee Tee? You might try to kill me." Candice snickered and I laughed, leaning towards her.
"You should be very scared, Gertrude." I said brushing my index finger over her ginger hair. "I might just turn your hair into a new wig to add to my human hair collection." I gave her the creepiest smirk I could muster up and I saw fear in her eyes. She turned around searching for Derrek but he was nowhere in view.
"You're crazy." She flicked my hand away and switched chairs with Derrek so he was sitting closer to me instead of her.
"You have no idea." I laughed in response. "Hit me with the first shot." I tipped my glass to Matt who was obviously entertained by the drama building up at our table.
"I missed you, Tiara. Don't leave me ever again." Matt reached over to me and wrapped his arms around me from the side. Most people were happy that I had turned a new leaf after all these years but not Matt and Naborhi. They enjoyed seeing me make trouble. It was like real life entertainment for them.
Speaking of Naborhi, I hadn't seen her since we got here. I made a mental note to call her a while later.
I was about to push Matt off me when Derrek got back to the table. His eyes instantly fell on us and I noticed a frown form on his lips as he sat down next to me.
He wasted no time in reaching for the bottle and poured himself a shot. He knocked it back into his throat and grimaced a little as he did so.
Matt gave me one of his mischievous smiles as he looked away from Derrek and I shook my head, grabbing his shirt as he attempted to move away from me.
"Don't." I warned and he winked at me before speaking.
"You want to get out of here and give me that birthday present we talked about?" Matt bit his lower lip suggestively as he stared down at me intently. I felt very uncomfortable.
"Stop!" I slapped his arm and shoved him backwards, causing him to laugh.
"She's so shy." He said, glancing in Derrek's direction but I couldn't bring myself to glance at Derrek when I could feel his gaze on me.
"Are we doing shots or not?" I reached for the bottle in an attempt to change the topic.
"I'll do it." Matt said, taking the bottle from me. He arranged all the glasses in a line and poured some tequila into them before setting down the bottle. "Bottoms up!"
We all grabbed our glasses and knocked back the burning liquid. I let out a little cough, blinking rapidly as I felt it burn all the way down. I was already regretting my decision to drink.
"Do you guys wanna play a drinking game?" Matt suggested as he filled up the glasses once again and I gave a sigh, knowing it was going to be a long night.
*
"What? Why are you staring at me?" I asked, realizing Derrek was going to keep staring at me all night.
"I've got a million reasons why." Derrek shrugged and I blinked several times, not exactly knowing how to respond to that. I was really drunk and my brain was really slow at the moment.
Matt had gone off to talk to some of his friends that had practically pulled him away from us and Candice had excused herself to the rest room, leaving just me and Derrek at the table like I'd wanted all night.
"A million reasons why." I repeated. "Sounds like the name of a rom-com." I said, resting my head on my arm which was rested on the table.
"Are you tired?" He asked and I shook my head.
"I'm sleepy not tired. There's a difference." I slurred as my eyes drooped closed and I heard Derrek laugh. I opened my eyes to look at him and I smiled as I did. He was laughing a lot and he looked even more perfect than I could remember. He was obviously drunk though cause I wasn't that funny.
"Why are you staring at me?" He repeated my earlier question, his words slurring a little and I sat up, shrugging like he had before.
"I've got a million and two reasons why." I showed my index and middle finger to gesture the number two. Derrek laughed once again.
"We should get you home before you do something crazy like attempted murder." He said and I gasped in surprise.
"You heard that?" I slapped my hand over my mouth and he nodded.
"I've never seen anyone intimidate Candice before but you scared the living daylights out of her." He laughed a lot and I pouted.
"Aren't you supposed to be mad that I threatened your fiancée?" I tilted my head sideways as I asked and he scoffed.
"Fiancée, right." He let out a breath of air. "Sometimes I forget I'm with her. Sometimes I want to run far away and hide in some cave where she can never find me but I can't."
"Why not?"
"I was unfair to her. I did something I should never have with someone I shouldn't have and she should have left me but she forgave me and stuck by my side." Derrek sighed and I pulled my eyebrows together as I tried to understand what he was talking about." Does Matt make you happy?" He asked after a few moments of silence and I began to laugh.
"Matt is a pretty fun guy. He's an idiot most of the time but he makes me laugh."
"How long have you two been dating?"
"Wait! Are we doing an interview? Where are the cameras?" I glanced around looking for the camera crew that should have been recording our interview session.
"What cameras?"
"They're not here yet." I gave a sigh, resting my head back on the table. As I glanced up, I noticed Derek's eyes were on me and I couldn't ignore the butterflies that had let loose in my stomach.
I stared into his eyes, remembering how beautiful they looked up close. His entire facial features became more defined when he was at a closer range. He was very handsome.
"Derrek?" I called after a few moments of staring.
"Yes, Tiara?" He answered, leaning closer to me. His face was perfectly in view now and I felt the urge to brush my finger over his jawline but my eyes had started to get heavy and my body felt extremely heavy as well. I didn't think I could move a muscle if I tried.
"Can things go back to the way they used to be?" I asked as my eyes started to droop closed. "We could use a time machine."
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Here's another update guys! What do you guys think?
What's your favorite scene in this chapter?