Chapter 5| Mansions, bitches, and a Motorcycle
"I still don't like you." I tell Rese as we sit right outside the coffee shop. I could feel Celia looking at us through the window, glaring at me. She didn't want me to get in trouble.
"Oh, you don't have to like me, you're stuck with me." He says grinning roguishly, and I scoff, shoving him a little as I can't help but grin back at him.
"Is that so?" I ask and he nods, confidence oozing from him as he kept up that annoying grin on his face. I slapped his arm, "I'm not stuck with you, You're stuck with me. You should be lucky, I don't like a lot of people." I say and he hums, throwing an arm around my shoulder. I see Celia looking at us like she just saw a flying cow going over the moon.
"I've noticed, Line." He hums, "Now come on, I have to show you something." He says, pulling me up from my chair. I look back at Celia, shrugging. She blinks as if she was offended by me running off with her semi-enemy.
"Please don't tell me you're dragging me to an abandoned alley so you can kill me." I tell him and he looks back at me as if I was absolutely crazy. Then he laughs a little, and he stops me in front of an intersection. So he was going to push me into oncoming traffic then...
"Silly girl, I'm giving you a ride home. Look." He says, tilting my head down for me. I immediately back up as I see the monster looking bike sitting by the curb of the sidewalk. I shake my head as Rese looks at me, grinning lightly.
"No. No way, Rese. I'm not getting on that." I tell him, crossing my arms. He picks a small helmet off the back of the bike and he walks towards me. I jump back even further, and he groans a little as I dodge him when he tried to grab me.
"Caline, it won't kill you. Just–can you stop, please? Can you stand still?" He asks, and I continue to shake my head and I dodge him. People look at us curiously as I squeal when he tries to grab me. His grin falls and frustration coats his face after a minute. "Caline, seriously, stand still. Caline!" He says, his voice rising in volume. As I jump back away from him once again he growls. My eyes widen in a sudden rush of fear as he yells at me loudly, his eyes clouding over.
I stop moving around and he stays in his spot, looking at me; waiting for me to become sensible.
"Caline," He says in a quieter tone, noticing that I hadn't moved an inch. It was my natural instinct to freeze when someone yelled at me. "I'm sorry, can you please just come here. The bike won't hurt you, ok? I'll go slow." He adds, holding his right hand out towards me. When I don't move again, he walks forwards, bending down as he settles the helmet on my head. As he clips it on securely, his hands hover, ghosting down my jaw and my neck, settling on my shoulders. The buzzing warmth of his giant hands makes me unfreeze. "I'm sorry I yelled at you, Line." He says in a guilty tone. I shake my head, putting my hands on his chest lightly. God, when did he become a freaking mountain?
"It's fine, It's fine, Rese. What–What happened to your car?" I ask him, changing the subject. He smiles a little, snaking his hands from my shoulders down to my wrists. He pulls me towards the bike, and I can't help but squeal and laugh as he picks me up by my waist, setting me down on the bike. I sit there, waiting for him to tell me why we couldn't just drive–the safe option.
"Oh, My car? It's at home, Line." He says, pulling his helmet on–making it look so sexy as he does it. I look down at his bike, and I notice something about it that made me look up at Rese.
"Um, where are you going to sit? I'm not a motorcycle person, but this is obviously one seat, Rese." I tell him, and as he grins at me wolfishly, I have to urge to jump off the big and run home. I scoot as forward as I could as he swung onto the bike behind me–because I was apparently small enough for him to operate the bike from behind me. Now he was just playing with me.
"Don't worry, Sugar, I'm sure you don't mind sharing." He purrs from behind me, and I wiggle forwards again, only making it worse for myself and for Rese. He snatches me by my waist, pulling me back into his chest and holding me still. God–I could feel everything. "Sugar, stop it." He says, his voice rough and low. I stay still, my face flushing crimson in embarrassment.
We're both silently as he starts up the bike, and I jump at the loud roar of the engine. Rese leans forwards, putting his hands on the handlebars, and he pops the kickstand up. My heart beats wildly as the bike moves by itself and Rese takes off.
I kept my eyes closed for a long time, feeling the wind howling past my face, but then I opened then as Rese started to point out things we passed, and that's when I started to grin, actually liking the wind in my face. I liked it so much I didn't even care to notice where we were going.
"We have arrived, Sugar. Welcome to the Alvaro Household." He says and my heart drops down into my gut. I look around, almost hitting Rese's chin as I sit up straight, looking around with an alert expression on my face.
"What? Rese, why would you bring me to your house? You know how friendships work right?" I ask him, and he chuckles, pulling up to the front of the huge mansion–palace–whatever it was, it was a giant place, and it looked royally elegant.
"I know how friendships work, Line. I told you I was going to show you something, didn't I? I'm going to show you my parents," He says and my face goes pale, "Don't look like that, they'll love you. There's nothing that they can't like about you, Caline, you're perfect." He says, and he seems to know how to calm someone down because I felt my heart stop thundering against my ribcage. Perfect, he thought I was perfect. Maybe–maybe it was just to calm me down.
"You're a terrible person, kidnapping a poor girl and taking her to meet your parents," I tell him, pointing at him as I climbed off his monstrous bike, "That's not what you're supposed to do. Just think about what my father will think when I tell him." I say, and he freezes from getting his helmet off. He turns to me, his eyes narrowed, and I stop smirking as he smirked knowingly. I squeal, attracting instant attention as he lunges, lifting me off the ground. I giggle as he teases my neck, blowing cold air up against my skin.
"Stop! Rese, Stop it you barbarian! I won't–I won't tell him!" I say, laughing as I try and wiggle away from him. He chuckles, setting me down on the ground again, but he didn't let go.
"Be a good girl and keep a secret from your daddy, Sugar. Promise?" He asks quietly, his lips pressed up against my ear. I take a deep breath before I can answer.
"Ok, Ok, Promise. Don't do that ever again, you know people can die from laughing too much. You could kill me Rese, and I would haunt you as a ghost." I tell him, and he lets go of me with another chuckle, shaking his head as he pulled his helmet off. as he set it on the bike, he turned back to me, seeing that I was struggling like a complete idiot to get my own helmet off.
He takes a step closer, pulling it right off. I stick my tongue out at his cocky smirk as he turns around to set it next to the other helmet.
"I can do things by myself you know." I tell him, and I see him grin.
"Oh I know," He says turning around, "But then again, you can rarely get a door open." He says I glare at him sharply, my ego thoroughly wounded by his words.
"I can open a freaking door, Rese," I growl and he continues to grin as he loops his arm in mine and he starts to drag me to the door, "It was one time." I add, and he smirks at me with a knowing look.
"Was it one time, Line? I see you a lot more often than you think I do, Sugar." He says and I give him a slightly confused look. Was he stalking me?
"You're a grade A stalker, Rese, you know that right? You're not really supposed to tell the girl you're stalking her because that usually deters her." I say, biting my lip as I grinned up at him when he looked down at me with an amused look.
"You should open a shop, Sugar," He says and I raise an eyebrow, "Becuase you seem to love giving a lot of life advice to people." He says, smirking. I scoff, whacking him on the shoulder instantly, giving him a flat an unamused look.
"Well you need it, trust me. Not everyone I come across has such a bad case of stupidity." I snap back, and he starts to laugh, much to my annoyance and dismay. I tune his laughter out as I look around at the lavish mansion. People at school weren't joking when they said that Rese Alvaro was living on a pile of gold. It was a gorgeous mansion, I had to admit, but I would take my small, cozy house over this giant any day.
"Caline." I hear Rese say and I snap out of my daze, looking over at him questioningly. He motions to the open door and I flush in embarrassment, slowly walking through the grand front doors. I looked up and around, gawking at how beautiful it was on the inside.
"So you never told me, in all the years you spent stalking me, that you had such a beautiful house. I would have totally gotten on that monstrous bike had you told me." I tell Rese while looking at all the intricate details on the walls and ceiling, my voice echoing against the marble flooring.
"My bad," Rese drawls, shoving his hands into his pockets as he sauntered after me while I started to investigate the place. "You never talked to me." He added and I chuffed at him, looking at the cute family photos that framed the wall. They had so many family members...
"I'm positive it was the other way around, Resie." I say, running my hand down the smooth table lining a hallway. I feel Rese looking at me, but he doesn't snap back at the nickname I gave him, nor does he say something else. We walk around in silence until I hear a female voice, and then a lot of other voices.
"Rese? Is that you?" The woman says, and I stop myself from gawking as a flawless woman with blonde hair comes out from a corner in the hallway. Her smile was flawless, her hair was just–Ugh–and her clothes were stunning. Goddamn, this woman was perfect.
"Hey, Mom," He says, stepping up beside me, "I hope you don't mind, I brought a friend over. I'm going to drop her off at her house in the car because she's stated very clearly that she dislikes my bike. I'm sure both you will find something in common." He adds, and I smile, ramming my elbow into Rese's side as his mother stops in front of us. Jackass.
"No! No, this is perfect, we were just talking about you. Hello dear, you must be Caline, it's wonderful to finally meet you. Rese has told me a lot about you, and I'm so glad you can agree on my son's monstrous motorcycle." She says, her eyes sparkling as she looked at me. I kind of reeled back, and I gave Rese a glance, at which he shrugs, not hiding the fact that he talked about me often.
"It's lovely to meet you as well, Mrs. Alvaro." I tell her smoothly gathering my manners and straightening my back. I could be formal when I wanted to be. Rese looked at me with a blank expression for a split second, before he smiled at his mother, looping his arm in mine again.
Mrs. Alvaro waved her hand, grinning at me excitedly, "Oh please, call me Alina, Mrs. Alvaro makes me sound too old." She laughs a little and I smile shyly, debating between stomping on Rese's foot or ramming my elbow into his gut again because this was torture. I hated talking to people's parents because it made me hyper-aware of every tiny movement I made.
"Is father here?" Rese asks, breaking the unbearable silence in the hallway.
"Yes, he is. Please, excuse my manners, darling. Would you like to stay for dinner? Oh, if that's okay with Rese and your parents of course." Alina asks, and I bite my bottom lip, rolling it out. Rese's grip around my arm tightens ever so slightly, but I ignore him tensing up.
"I'd have to ask my dad. Um–he likes to know where I go, but I don't believe we're doing anything tonight." I say, pulling my phone out of my back pocket. Rese looks down at my phone as I see the long list of text messages. I unlock my phone and I got to my father's contact seeing he had sent me a text.
'Hey, Kiddo, Talia is staying over at her friend's house for the night. The boys are coming over for another dinner meeting. Karl's asking for you again; I think he wants another chance at cards against you. Where are you?'
I smile, knowing Karl still held that card game against me. I knew it. I texted him back quickly.
'Hey, Dad. I would love to beat Karl again if that's what you're asking me to do. I'm not picking the demon spawn up in the morning, btw. I'm going to have dinner at a friend's house.'
His reply came instantly; as if he was waiting for me to respond.
'Coward, Karl's holding it against you for not showing. The Demon spawn can walk herself home in the morning cause I know you'll still be asleep. It's a weekend. Have fun, and be safe. Remember, they always run away if you tell them your dad is the best cop in the city. Love you.'
I shake my head, smiling at his words. Karl was my dad's best friend and my second dad.
'Thanks. Love u too.'
It made me sick to text as if nothing had happened, but that's how it always went. I look up, swatting Rese away as I turn my phone off, ignoring the other texts. I smile at Alina.
"My dad said it was fine. He's having a few friends over anyway. Is it ok if I stay, Resie?" I ask, and she beams excitedly. I look up at Rese, raising my eyebrow questioningly.
"Are you sure you don't want to beat Karl at cards, Line?" He asks teasingly, a smirk curling his lips up. I flush once again, leaning back as he leans towards me a little.
"He's been waiting three years, he can wait a little longer." I tell him, staring him dead in his eyes, daring him to embarrass me even more. I feel his mother's intense gaze as she watches us have a stare-off. His dark eyes stare right into mine, and my piercing yellow-amber ones waver just a bit, reading the intensity coming from him in waves. The world around me turned into a haze and as the hair on my arms rose up, my lips parted just a little bit. I could hear my heartbeat slow down as I blew out a soft breath, my wavering stare turning to steel. Surprisingly, Rese looks away first, looking over at his mother who was grinning ear to ear with a knowing look in her eyes. She also looked a little surprised that Rese looked away first because Rese didn't seem like the person to give in first. The haze around me dispersed and I closed my mouth as my heartbeat fluttered a little. What the hell just happened?
"I'll go get the extra chair for Caline." He says, and his mother gives him a look as he passes by her, but then she looks back at me and she grins warmly. I feel the ache in my chest appear. Another reason I hated meeting people's parents was that they were almost always complete. There was a mother, father, and a kid, and I hated that I didn't have that anymore.
"What grade are you in again, Caline?" She asks, looping her arm around mine as she starts to stroll down the hallway towards the voices. I tried not to stutter out my answer.
"I'm a Junior." I tell her and she nods, still smiling at me.
"And what sports do you play? I think Rese mentioned something about the cross country, a runner perhaps?" She asks, and I smile a the mention of my favorite sport.
"Yes ma'am, I'm on the cross country team. I swim outside of school in the winter, and I run track during spring. I try and play at least one sport. My father says it looks good on a college transcript." I explain and she nods, listening attentively.
"Ah, College, it's so close it's crazy to think about. Do you know what you would like to do? Where you'd like to go?" She asks, and I bite my lip, shaking my head slowly.
"I haven't done a lot of looking–even though I probably should–and I haven't really thought about what I'd like to do. My father's a cop and my mother was a doctor, but I think I'd like to be an artist or photographer. I love to paint, I just haven't really had any time in a while...it's kind of silly anyway. I haven't really given much thought to college just yet." I explain and her smile wavers a little bit, her eyes filling with confusion.
"Rese has never mentioned that you're an artist." She says in confusion, and I shrug a little.
"It's kind of a more personal thing I do on occasion. My mother loved to paint and she and I would go out to a scenic location and we'd just paint. I don't really do it anymore." I tell her quietly, and I watch her frown, pity filling her eyes.
"I'd love to meet your mother one day." She says and I feel the ache in my chest knock the air from my lungs, leaving me breathless as my heart twisted painfully.
so would I.