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Chapter 17
"That Rex kid is waiting outside for you." Luce's disgruntled voice announced as her head popped into the open door of my room, her dark, silky hair pulled up into her usual messy bun, blue eyes flashing in the light streaming through the window.
"Really?" I couldn't keep that gigantic smile off my face as I sat on the floor tying my shoes. I had tried not to get my hopes up the entire night, even though Rex did say he would be here in the morning to get me. Yesterday just seemed too good to be true. I mean, he said he liked me—a lot. And he actually kissed my temple!
My heart beat faster at the mere thought of him, his hands shoved into his pockets and his sunglasses placed perfectly over his chestnut eyes. My stomach grew warm at the thought.
"Yes really, and he's getting pretty impatient. It's annoying." I hid a laugh as my big sister rolled her eyes and turned back down the hall. I half expected her to demand I stop hanging out with him again, but I wasn't surprised she didn't.
Dad liked him, and he didn't say that about people freely.
I jumped off the floor and threw my backpack over my shoulder. It was hard trying not to be appear to enthusiastically happy as I bounced door the stairs. The front door was propped open and Rex stood leaning against the door jamb, dark sunglasses covering his beautiful eyes as his large hands rested casually in his jacket pockets—just like I thought they would be. Still my heart gave an unsteady 'thump' at the sight of him, at the memory of his warm fingers wrapped around mine.
"Hurry up, we're going to be late." He grumbled as I reached the bottom of the stairs. I didn't even care that he didn't say good morning. He was here, that was all that my brain bothered registering.
"I'm hurrying, I'm sorry."
He grunted before pushing his sunglasses to the top of his head and ran that heavy hand down his handsome face. I tore my gaze from his and started fumbling with the jacket around my shoulders. It wasn't as good as the one I had regretfully given back to him, but it was better than nothing. My fingers pulled at the metal zipper, but clumsy me got it jammed half way up.
Dumb zipper.
Before I had a chance to try and fix the jam, Rex let out an impatient sigh, one that sounded almost like a growl, before pushing my hands away from the darn jacket and unjamming the zipper like a professional. I stood frozen in place, my heart beating erratically in my chest.
He was zipping up the jacket for me...
"I fucking swear, Rosalyn. How do you even get dressed in the mornings?" He snarled in an unpleasant, gruff kind of way, but his hands were gentle as they smoothed the jacket over my shoulders. The gentle touch had shivers racing down my spine, the good kind.
I pushed the shock and funny feeling in my tummy away before giving him a hundred-watt smile. "I put one pant leg on at a time." He raised an eyebrow at that, and I couldn't help the blush that rose to my cheeks. Those dark eyes of his just did funny things to my insides.
Then he rolled them before tossing his keys into the air. "Let's just fucking get going." He sighed before turning out the front door and heading straight for that sleek car of his.
"Bye Luce!" I called over my shoulder before hurrying after that always-grumpy T-Rex.
"Be careful, Rose..." I heard her call back from the kitchen, but I didn't bother saying anything else as I closed the door.
"Hey, look," Rex started hesitantly after we were both buckled into his convertible and he was easing us out of my driveway, that grumpy tone of his absent for the moment. "Are you free after school today? Like, do I need to take you home right away or something?"
I tried to choke down the sudden rush of excitement that filled my chest and clogged my throat. Was he trying to ask me to hang out with him again? "I don't think so." I tried not to let that ecstatic happiness surging through me show in my voice, and I sat on my hands to keep them from clapping together like an excited kid.
"Trey is obsessed with carving fucking pumpkins for Halloween, so we're going to some stupid patch today, and they want me to bring you." He practically growled as those dark chestnut eyes of his rolled.
My heart dropped to my stomach, and that excitement slowly faded away. I mean, don't get me wrong, I would love to hang out with them all, especially to go pumpkin picking! But Rex didn't sound excited about it—at all—and the others invited me to go, not him.
I bit my lip and forced my eyes away from the sight of his perfectly sculpted jaw line. "I don't want to ruin anyones fun or anything." I murmured softly as that hand of his ran roughly through is dark hair.
He let out a scoff as I wiggled my hands out from under me to clasp them tightly together in my lap. "You're not going to ruin anyone's 'fun'—if you can even fucking call it that." The word was a sneer as it left his gorgeous lips before he pulled the car onto the main road of town.
I let out a soft sigh. Friends, we were friends. I hoped that wasn't a lie anymore, I wasn't sure I could pretend again. He had walked me to every class yesterday and was picking me up for school. We were friends.
Breathe Rose, get out of your head.
"I'm going to be stuck with those idiots all night, come and keep me sane?"
I instantly froze when that large hand of his let go of the steering to squeeze the back of my neck gently, his thumb slowly rubbing down the side of my throat. My breath was ice as it tried to enter my lungs, my eyes wide as a fainting goat's, even though his remained glued to the road in front of us.
"I-I..." I couldn't think of any coherent words, his palm was cupping the back of my neck, and each time his calloused thumb swept slowly over my skin, my stomach fluttered with a million butterflies. I had to force myself not to close my eyes and moan at the touch.
"I want you to go, Roza. Please?"
All I could hear was his voice surrounding us in the car, all I could feel was that soft touch against my skin, and then I was nodding like a dying fish. I tried not to gape up at him as that small smirk pulled on his lips and his hand retreated back to the steering wheel. The sudden cold on the back of my neck was more than unwelcomed.
That had felt good—really, really good.
"Good, 'cause they want you to go to Trey's and carve the pumpkins after too. Fucking pansies." He grumbled the last part, though the look on his face was far from unpleasant.
My mind was still reeling from that intimate touch even after he pulled into the school's parking lot and held the door open me—or at least I thought it was pretty darn intimate.
Is it sad that I thought about that little moment in the car the entire day? Even in third period when Rex gave me one of his rare, genuine, smiles and draped his arm across the back of my seat, his thumb brushing softly against my arm. It made my head swim.
"I hear Rex convinced you to come pumpkin picking with us, Princess!" Trey exclaimed happily at lunch, and those giant arms of his opened to crush me in, what I'm sure would have been a death grip of a bear hug, if Rex hadn't stepped between us last second.
"Come on, Rex." Trey sighed, a pout on his lips as his arms fell to his sides. "We talked about this already. I'm not going to hurt her-" His words trailed off, the pout on his lips disappearing to a frown. I couldn't see Rex's face, but I was sure by Trey's reaction that he was not smiling.
"Sheesh," Then that look was gone, and Trey was teasingly rolling his eyes. "It's just a hug, you overgrown prick." The mountain of a man/boy smirked before tossing me a quick wink. I couldn't help the smile that pulled at my lips.
"Just don't." Rex grumbled, that tension in his shoulders fading as Trey sat back down in his seat—and the large pizza box sitting between them practically screamed at me. Was it really Tuesday already?
"I've missed you, Buttercup!" Denton was waving dramatically across the table at me, and I'm guessing the large hand his twin had placed on his shoulder was preventing him from standing. I smiled at the overgrown child. I'm totally not the kid between the two of us, no matter what Brett says.
"Hi Den." I gave him a little wave as Rex sat down and nudged the seat beside him away from the table. I tried to hide the burning heat that was my face as I slowly sat beside him. He wanted me to sit next to him at lunch now, too? Maybe this wasn't real.
Denton's mouth dropped open, his bright blue eyes nearly shined with the light from the cafeteria. I raised an eyebrow at the awestruck look on his face. "Brett... Brett." He gasped breathlessly, and I could have sworn his gaze grew starry-eyed as he started tugging viciously on his brother's arm.
"The fuck you want, Denton?" Brett snapped and shoved his twin off him with a glare plastered across his handsome face.
"Did you hear that?! Rose called me Den!" His voice grew to a dramatic cry, one that had a bubble of laughter bursting from my lips as Rex let out an annoyed scoffed. "Buttercup gave me a nickname!"
"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Rex grumbled under his breath as Denton practically swooned in his seat.
"Everyone calls you that, idiot." Brett snapped and shoved his palm into Denton's face until his head was turned in the completely opposite direction.
"I know, but its Rose calling me it so its ten-times better-"
"Shut the fuck up, Denton." Rex snapped beside me, but Denton only stuck his tongue out at him and pushed Brett's hand off his face. Trey was laughing at the whole scene. I didn't realize how funny they all could be, even Rex when he played into Denton's taunting's—though I didn't think that glare in his eyes was fake right then.
"See Rosie? See what you leave me to all by myself when you're away? My days are just unbearable without you in them." The Dimajio let out a dramatic sigh before slumping in his seat, and even though I knew he was teasing I felt a small blush heat my cheeks. Rex had grown silent beside me, his shoulders stiff with tension once again.
Uh oh... What did I do now?
"Let up, moron." Brett grumbled and rolled his own pair of blue eyes. They looked so similar it was sort of eerie. "Your pick-up lines suck."
My attention was pulled away from Rex's tense behavior as Trey slapped a piece of pepperoni pizza down a paper plate and slid it across the table towards me. I smiled up at him and mouthed a quick 'thank-you'. I had been worried about how it would be around us after everything that happened, but he was acting like he always had, and I was more than grateful.
"What are you talking about?" Denton argued, his own pizza forgotten in front of him as he crossed his arms over his large chest. "My pick-up lines are the best."
An angry Rex nearly forgotten, I went back to watching the Dimajios and playing with the pizza in front of me. They should have their own sitcom. I could watch them argue and bicker at each other all day.
"The kid's too pretty for you. Your atrocious face would only scare her away." Brett added dirt to Denton's injured look and had his twin sulking down further in his seat.
"We have the same face!"
"Mine's prettier."
Rex had leaned back in his seat, and my eyes drew to his face as his head tilted towards the ceiling and his thumb and forefinger pinched the bridge of his nose. Dark eyes closed, he let out a long, aggravated sigh. I knew I should have been concerned, but the annoyed actions only made the situation ten times funnier.
Then that all went down the hole.
"I do not have an atrocious face." Denton grumbled before sitting up to grab his, now-cold, pizza. "And FYI, Buttercup, we would make beautiful babies together."
"I said shut the fuck up!" Rex's voice was a near deafening roar as he practically launched forward and slammed his fist against the top of the table, the entire surface trembling at the blow.
The entire cafeteria nearly went dead silent, and all the wide-eyed, jaw dropping, students surrounding us were staring at the leader of the Big Four like he just shot someone. My heart hammered in my chest, my own eyes wide in disbelief as Rex stood to his feet, grabbed his bag off the floor and stormed out of the lunchroom. Everyone in the room watched him leave, even the teachers on duty.
I followed his retreating back until the doors closed behind him, my face drained of all color as I turned back towards the others. Denton looked worse than I felt. His face was whiter than ghost, and those blue eyes looked like shell-shocked fear.
"W-Why do I have a feeling I'm going to be in the hospital by then end of the day?" His voice was a horror-stricken whisper, and those bright eyes turned to his twin who just gave him a sheepish shrug.
"I've told you a thousand times not to talk about the kid around him. You never listen."
This was my fault? Figures, I always screwed it up somehow. But why couldn't Denton talk about me to him? Everything was supposed to be okay now.
"Princess." I tore my eyes away from the forgotten pizza and they locked onto that rather sad green gaze of Trey's. "You should go after him."
"No, nuh uh, I know better than to do that when he's angry now." I shook my head viciously. I only made things worse, and I'm sure the last person he wanted to see when he was this angry was me.
"You might be able to calm him down-"
"I only make things worse, Trey. I'm the last person he wants to see when he's angry."
He was silent as those green eyes studied me for one long, awkward moment, then he sat back and ran a hand through his hair. "You really believe that, don't you?" But he didn't let me answer as he let out a quiet sigh and leaned forward on the table.
"Just go talk to him. I really don't think he's going to yell at you again—and I'm worried he might hurt the next guy that crosses his path he doesn't know." The last part had me nodding almost instantly. I wasn't going to let anyone get hurt because Rex's temper was way past boiling.
I stood slowly to my feet, all three of them watching me as I grabbed my bag and turned towards the cafeteria's doors. The rest of the lunchroom had gone back to their own conversations, even though more than a few of them glanced up as I walked by.
As soon as the doors closed behind me and the long hallway stood at my feet, I sucked in a deep, calming breath to clear that ever-tragic swirl of thoughts and emotions running through my head. It's okay, everything was going to be okay.
Even if he did yell and shout at me, even blame me, I could take it. I could handle it. I could... I really wished I hadn't left my medicine home that morning.
Rex was leaning against a row of lockers three halls away from the cafeteria, his forehead pressed to the cold metal and his palms flat against their surface. I squeezed my hands tight around the straps of my backpack and walked slowly up to him. There was no one else in the hall, no other sounds beside my footsteps against the tiled floor.
"Rex..." I started softly when I finally reached his side, though I made sure to keep a good foot-or-so between us. "Are you okay?"
He let out a hard sigh, one that did nothing to ease the tension in his shoulders, and kept those dark eyes closed. "You shouldn't be here." His voice was nearly as tight as the muscles straining in his arms, though he didn't turn away.
"I just—wanted to check on you." I tried to keep my voice as soothing as possible as I took a small half step towards him. He scoffed, then pulled away from the lockers to turn completely from me.
"Yeah, well, I'm just fucking dandy."
"Rex-"
"I don't need you to check on me!" His voice was as sharp as a blade as it snapped through the air and sliced at my skin, his strong fist connecting with the locker beside him. I took a quick step back. I told Trey. I knew this was a bad idea. I only make Rex angrier, why didn't he just believe me?
Then Rex let out another sigh, one that barely eased the tension in his shoulders, as he ran a hard hand through his dark hair, his strong back facing me. "I need to be alone for a while." His voice had softened somewhat, it was no longer that sharp blade, but it didn't exactly bring happy sunshine either.
"Don't follow me."
I watched as he reached down and grabbed his bag, those chestnut eyes completely avoiding mine. "Please Rose." He added like he knew I was planning on following him anyway. "I don't want to hurt you."
And because his words were so shockingly genuine, I stood stock-still and watched as he stalked away. His backpack thrown over one shoulder and those large hands shoved into his jacket's pockets, the very one I had worn only days before.
Well, that could have gone a lot worse.
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