Songs for this chapter:
• Jealous - Nick Jonas
Chapter One:
Lexi's POV
They don't notice me at first.
I slowly enter the apartment, carefully closing the door after myself.
The sound of the door shutting catches their attention, and I watch as the girl and Bryce turn to me, a mask of terror on Bryce's face.
I now get a better look at the girl perched in his lap.
She has dark, catlike eyes. Her hair is black as night, perfectly straight as it falls just past her shoulders. Her lips are painted a bright red colour, and it draws my attention directly to the diamond piercing right above her top lip, in her Cupid's bow.
Oh my God . . . it's the girl from the photos.
Seeing as she really is wearing nothing more but that red lace lingerie set, I get a clear view of her body; she's in perfect shape.
The part that really gets to me though is the fact that she obviously doesn't have any awful red self harm marks on the side of her abdomen.
Now glancing over to Bryce, I see nothing but regret on his face.
Bryce's POV
"Carly. Get off. Now," I hiss, trying to shove her off of my lap.
I was already fucking pissed at her for both stripping nearly naked as soon as she got here and sitting on my lap when she knows damn well that I have a girlfriend, but I'm fucking enraged that my girl just walked in and had to see this.
"You're no fun," she pouts in response, and she innocently bats her eyelashes at me before slowly sliding off of my lap, instead taking a seat beside me.
I feel her long fingernails brush against my arm, and I bat her hand away without a second thought before glancing back towards Blossom.
She's just standing there, her hands in her pockets. Her eyes won't stop darting towards the psycho beside me, and I can't help but to notice that she hasn't even looked up at Blossom yet.
Sure, she's looking in that general direction, but I know that she doesn't even give a shit about my girl judging by the way that she's now examining her manicured nails rather than looking at Blossom.
I'm certainly looking at Blossom, though, and all I see is pain on her face.
Her bottom lip is trembling, and a stray tear rolls down her cheek. She doesn't let the tear stay there for more than a second before she wipes it away, though, giving me a solemn nod before whimpering, "I was just here to pick up my things. I'll go pack up."
I watch as she immediately looks away from me, stepping into the spare bedroom.
She didn't even stick around to let me explain.
I didn't even get a fucking chance to promise her that I'm definitely not cheating on her before she fled the situation.
Can I blame her? No. I suppose not. But I just wish she could give me a minute to tell her everything.
I would never cheat on her. She's all I've ever wanted and all I'll ever need. She's my dream, and I would never do that to her.
She slams the bedroom door behind her as if to prove a point, and as soon as that door is closed, the screen door leading to the balcony comes sliding open.
"I'm hungry," Anders says as he enters the room from where he was outside smoking, shutting the door behind himself before heading towards the living room.
I watch with my lips pursed together as he slumps back in one of the chairs. His eyebrows raise when he sees the distressed expression on my face, and he instantly asks, "What's up your ass today?"
I scowl at him.
"First of all, you two assholes just showed up here without even giving me a warning. Not to mention that now you're both begging for a place to stay; go to a fucking hotel or something. Plus, my fucking girlfriend showed up, and I really didn't want to have to introduce her to you," I grumble.
Anders' eyebrows raise up as he asks, "Your girlfriend is here? Where is she?"
"In the spare room. Apparently she's just here to pick up her shit. Didn't you see her bags in there when you two dropped yours off?" I ask, and Anders contemplates this for a moment before nodding.
Turning to the girl seated beside me, Anders now asks her, "Did you see the chick, Carly? What does she look like? Is she hot?"
Grabbing the nearest pillow, I hurl it right at Anders' annoying fucking face.
"She's mine, you fucker. If you even think about touching her, I'll fucking castrate you," I spit, and Anders bursts out laughing.
I feel a hand on my forearm once more, and I look down to have a twinkling set of eyes meet mine.
She bites her lip before turning to Anders to answer his question, saying, "I didn't really look at her. I was distracted by what she was wearing. You never let girls wear your clothes, Bryce."
I shove her hand away yet again, this time also moving as far down on the couch as possible in hopes of getting away from her touch.
I glance down at my arm, my eyes scanning the words from Persuasion that I got tattooed just because they remind me of me Blossom.
I suddenly feel sick upon realising that another girl was just touching that same arm.
"She's my girl. She wears my clothes most of the time," I retort, and the pair in front of me chuckle together.
"So, Bryce . . ." Anders begins to say, as if he's getting ready to change the topic.
I narrow my eyes at him, scowling once again. I had hoped this reaction would force him to shut up, but this doesn't happen as he then asks, "Is she hot? Or do you just have to lie to her face and say that she's good-looking because she's your girlfriend?"
I almost tell him that she's the sexiest and most beautiful girl that I've ever laid eyes on, but I don't want to give them the satisfaction.
I instead lie, saying, "She's nothing special. Pretty average, actually."
As if on cue, the door to the spare bedroom slowly creaks open.
All three of us snap around to look at Blossom as she enters the room, and I'm momentarily stunned.
She's changed out of the jeans and sweatshirt that she had been wearing earlier.
Instead, she's barely wearing anything.
Her camisole is white and sheer. You can see the pink lace bra that she is wearing underneath through the thin material, and the bra is the same colour as her extremely short satin shorts.
She's also pulled her hair out from the ponytail that it had been in. It now falls in soft waves down her back, tucked behind her ears to showcase the amount of ear piercings that she has.
Her cherry blossom necklace is on full display, and I don't miss the way that she raises her left hand to play with the pendant, leaving her ring for all to see as well.
She has a small, satisfied smile on her face, as if she's well aware that everyone is staring at her in awe.
"But you just said . . . Never mind. You were clearly joking," Anders eventually mumbles.
He scans Blossom's body up and down once more before continuing to mutter, asking me, "You and your girl up for a threesome tonight?"
I doubt Blossom was able to hear his comment, but even if she did, she completed ignored it as she strolled into the living room, taking a seat down on the chair beside Anders.
Without even glancing towards me, she looks Anders directly in the eye as in a sultry voice, she says, "Hi. My name is Lexi. Who are you?"
Oh, fuck no. Not today. This is not fucking happening.
I know this tactic; she's used it on me many times before. She doesn't want to confront me but she still wants the problem resolved, and so instead, she's attempting to make me jealous so that I'm the one to confront her.
Once again, she's acting like a sneaky little girl.
Meanwhile, Anders looks over-the-fucking-moon about receiving all of this attention from
Blossom.
With a giddy smile on his face, he responds to her, "Hi, Lexi. It's a pleasure to finally meet you as I've heard so many great things about you. I'm Anders."
Blossom gives him a small smile. "It's lovely to
meet you as well, Anders."
I watch as Anders holds out his hand for Blossom to shake, and she takes it willingly.
Their touch ends up lingering for far longer than I'd like, and they're lucky that they broke apart when they did as I was a mere second away from beating Anders to the fucking ground.
Blossom now looks over in my direction, but she isn't interested in me.
Instead, she's staring at the girl beside me who is still not wearing any clothing.
"I already know who you are," Blossom says, drumming her fingertips against the top of her thighs.
She's picking up on some of my mannerisms, and it's fucking adorable.
"You're Scarlett, aren't you?" she continues.
As if the red colour of her lips and lingerie wasn't enough of a dead giveaway, Scarlett still looks surprised upon knowing that Blossom already knows her name.
"Yeah. I am," she answers hesitantly, and Blossom just continues to smile.
It's nowhere near the same kind of smile that she gets whenever I'm making her happy.
It barely reaches her eyes, for starters. Their usual twinkle is nowhere to be seen, and if anything, I actually see a glimmer of hurt.
Nonetheless, Blossom skips right over me, turning back to face Anders so that she can spark up another conversation with him.
Seeing Blossom with Knox fucking hurt, don't get me wrong, but watching her speak like this to someone that I considered a friend once upon a time miraculously stings even more.
"How old are you, Anders?" Blossom asks innocently, cocking her head to the side as she stares at him, doe-eyed as she awaits a response.
"I'm twenty. How old are you, love?" Anders replies.
"I just turned eighteen earlier this month," Blossom beams, and Scarlett seems to think that now is an appropriate time to cut in.
"You're seriously eighteen? You look so much younger," she comments, and Blossom's whole body tenses.
Not wanting to witness a fight between the two of them, I interject, telling Scarlett, "Fuck off, Carly. You're literally a child."
Scarlett rolls her eyes at me. "So what? It's not my fault that I'm a year younger than you. I was just too fucking smart, clearly, and so they moved me up a grade."
"They tried to move me up a couple grade levels too, but my parents said no. Don't get too confident," I grunt, and she laughs loudly.
"So you're seventeen, then?" Blossom asks Scarlett, still not even daring to look towards me.
Scarlett answers by nodding her head, and slyly, Blossom asks, "So you have a piercing through your damn lip at seventeen? Your parents didn't bother stopping you?"
I watch as Scarlett's eyes go freakishly wide, her jaw dropping open slightly before, in a snarky tone, she replies, "Am I blind, or do I see piercings in your ears, Lexi?"
Blossom doesn't reply, choosing to ignore Scarlett as she asks Anders yet another question.
It's as if she wants to see me lose my shit and burn this whole place down.
"Considering you three seem to be acquaintances and Bryce has his tattoos while Scarlett has that, do you have any tattoos or piercings?" Blossom asks Anders sweetly.
"Nah. I'm not a punk like those two dorks " Anders responds to her, and she let's out a small giggle.
God, I love that sound so much. She's a beautiful singer, fucking obviously, but her laugh is so damn sweet and uplifting.
Scarlett leans over to whisper something in my ear in Mandarin, and since it's been awhile since I've spoken the language, it takes me a moment to understand what she's just said.
"We should head out of here, Bryce. Those two seem to be getting along well, and so maybe we should give them some time alone," she had suggested in her own language.
"No!" I immediately hiss, watching as she jumps back a little in her seat.
"Why can't you guys just speak English? You could've tried to teach me whatever language that is too, Carly," Anders chimes in, and Scarlett snaps around to glare at him.
"I didn't bother teaching you because your last two brain cells are each devoted to sex or drugs!" she spits, and Anders bursts out cackling.
Whatever conversation that has been happening between him and Blossom seems to thankfully come to a halt, but my peace of mind doesn't last long as Blossom bends forward in her seat.
Her cleavage is on full display now, and I'm well aware that, Anders, Scarlett, and I are all suddenly distracted by this.
Blossom is still pretending to be completely oblivious to the situation, and we all watch as she sensually runs her fingertips up one of her legs.
Jesus fucking Christ.
I have to adjust my pants.
"Fuck. Make that threesome a foursome, please. I'd love a taste of that," Scarlett mutters, and I choose to pretend as though I didn't hear her.
"What do you three have planned for the night?" Blossom then purrs, and I feel the need to slap myself in the face.
Anders is totally falling for her act. His eyes are wide as they greedily rake up and down her body, his tongue darting out to lick his lips.
"I was hoping we could go out and grab a bite to eat soon," Anders answers her, and she tilts her head to the side.
"I would love to tag along, if that's all right with everyone," she whispers innocently, and Anders gets a ridiculous smile on his face.
"I think that that's a great idea. I would love it if you came with us, love," he responds, trying to make his voice sound seductive but failing miserably.
"No. Not happening," I interject, and Blossom finally turns to glare at me.
Her lips are pursed together as she stares right into my eyes, her gaze unwavering.
"Why not? You're not my father. You don't get to control what I do," she states blankly, and I narrow my eyes at her.
Standing up from my seat, I cross the room to plant myself directly in front of Blossom, who is still sitting in the chair.
She arches her eyebrows up at me, and I tell her, "I know. But I have plans for us, and so you can't go run off with Anders."
Her eyes widen in surprise, and she asks me, "What exactly do you have planned, Bryce?"
Fuck. Now I've got to make some shit up so that she doesn't go fucking elope with Anders or something.
"Come with me and you'll find out," I say, seeing as I really don't have a single clue where we could possibly go right now.
I just need for us to go somewhere to talk, in private without these two shitheads tagging along.
When I hold out my hand for her, to my surprise, she links her fingers through mine, allowing me to help her up out of her seat.
She keeps a firm grip on my hand as we walk through the apartment, all the way into the foyer. She slips her feet into her shoes, her white Converse, and so I put on my Converse as well.
"You guys go find somewhere to eat. We'll be back later. Don't burn the place down, please," I call out to Scarlett and Anders, turning around to find Scarlett finally pulling a shirt back over her head.
"You're not being very friendly to your guests," Anders pouts, and I ignore him as I open up the front door for Blossom and I.
A/N: The first chapter of the last book, guys!!! Eeeeeek! I'm so excited for everything that's going to happen.
Who did you guys think the girl sitting on Bryce's lap was? Did anyone guess it was Scarlett?
Thank you all so much for the support on this series. It means the world <3