Sorry I'm late again. I honestly struggled this week coming up with ideas, but I'm so happy with the responses I'm getting for this story. I don't think this is one of my better chapters, but I'm going to be making up for it, I promise.
Please vote and comment if you enjoy it!
--VIVKELLER23
--------------------
Teagan
Monday mornings were the devil.
He hadn't even had a drop of alcohol the night before, yet the Energizer bunny was preparing for a freaking rock concert in his head. That made sense though, seeing as he hadn't had much sleep due to last night's argument.
His father's mean streak had been in full force when Teagan walked through the front door at ten o'clock at night. A normal father would probably have asked his son how his day at work went, or at least have wished his son a good night before heading to bed. Not his old man. As soon as Teagan shut the door behind him, his father's slurred words flowed out to taunt him.
"Look at the nightwalker sneaking in during the hour of shame," the old drunk slurred with a nasty grin.
There was no reason to try to defend himself. His mind was made up.
With an equally cruel smile on his face, Teagan met his father's glazed eyes. "At the very least, I'm free to do so. That's more than you could say after the way you lived, isn't it, Pops?"
Teagan had felt an unexplainable surge of anger at his father's instant jab. His father always assumed the worst. While Teagan could admit he'd done some stuff he probably shouldn't have in his high school years, he'd mellowed out for the most part since starting college. Mainly to prove to his father he wasn't as worthless as the man who'd helped create him.
But he should have saved his breath. His father would never accept anything Teagan did so long as he lived. It seemed his life's mission now that his own life had gone off the rails was to make every moment of Teagan's a living nightmare.
So far he'd been absolutely successful.
He wouldn't wish his bleak existence on anyone, not even on the Bowtie Guy from the party weeks ago. That had to be saying something, right?
And the funny thing was that no one knew it. His name was well known on campus. He had all the girls after him, literally throwing themselves on him, but none of them knew who the real Teagan Miller was.
Heck, it wasn't much of a mystery anyway. He was simply a clown who tried to forget his problems with games and women rather than with liquor. To him, the true mystery was the woman underneath the Ice Queen's cool exterior.
Now there was a puzzle you could get lost in.
Teagan had exchanged a few angry words with his father before giving up and going to bed. Only he hadn't fallen asleep. He'd spent most of the night staring up at the ceiling, listening to his father's grumbling and crashing about. The house had finally grown quiet some time after two in the morning after Jameson Miller stomped out the front door. Even so, Teagan stayed awake until five in the morning, his mind thinking about stuff he couldn't even remember now in the light of day.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. He remembered some of his late night thoughts, though he was ashamed to admit them.
The one niggling thought he hadn't been able to shake though? How he could see a deep sadness in the loveliest purple eyes he'd ever known that all but matched the sadness of his own life. Wasn't that just a big, fat joke? That the Ice Queen and the Playboy from the wrong side of the tracks could feel the same thing despite showing the world a side of themselves that felt absolutely nothing?
Freaking hilarious.
Teagan shook his head in an attempt to clear his throbbing mind as he pulled into the college parking lot. With any luck, he'd be able to catch the end of Tilden's lecture without wanting to strangle the crazy man. It was a strange combination, to have a professor lecturing about prison reform and how to beat the system while all you could contemplate was wrapping your fingers around his neck with every intention of ending up in a cell.
Teagan leaped out of the old pick up truck and pasted his easy going smirk on his face as the door squeaked shut behind him. Enter Playboy Miller.
He walked quickly towards the farside of campus, his legs covering the distance as if he was actually excited of getting to class. Maybe he was, but that excitement had nothing to do with the course and everything to do with the violet-eyed girl who'd flirted with him yesterday. He heard his name a few times as he walked, but he barely slowed to glance at the owners of the voices.
In his mind, he was picturing the Ice Queen with a bored expression on her face. He could just imagine the cold look that would come over that pretty face when he stepped in and took his seat beside her. The fun thing would be trying to decipher if she was angry at him for being late to class when he was her partner for the project or whether the anger was directed at herself for caring at all.
He was hoping for the latter.
Finally reaching the steps that led to the Horse Dung class, Teagan took the stairs two at a time. He took a deep breath, unable to hide the wide smile his thoughts had brought on, and pushed the heavy doors open.
Tilden's obnoxiously loud voice greeted him. "Well, good morning, Miller. Glad to see you could make it, though your tardiness seems to have rubbed off on one of my most faithful pupils."
Teagan was prepared to shrug those words off. He hardly ever understood anything out of the man's mouth as it was, but the last of what he'd said struck him with crystal clarity.
Glancing at the back of the classroom to his normal seat beside Rain, Teagan felt acute disappointment. Seemed the Ice Queen hadn't been waiting for him after all,
xXx
Teagan
Throughout Tilden's class, Teagan paid less attention than normal. By the time the remaining hour had passed, Teagan had learned nothing new.
When Tilden finally ended his stupid lecture with his usual: "Goodbye, my loyal revolutionaries," Teagan bolted out of his seat and hurried out.
Where was she?
Teagan felt an unwanted wave of unease. He hadn't known her long on a personal level, but he was sure that if Tilden had enough sense to notice her absence, it was a pretty big deal that she hadn't been in class today.
Dang it, had his text last night messed her up that much?
Cocky much?
Alright, so maybe his text wasn't the reason for her absence. But then what had been so important that it had thrown off years of perfect attendance? He knew he should have followed his gut and found a way to step inside her home like he'd wanted to. It was enough that he'd tailed her car last night, making sure she got home safely. Instead he'd watched her climb out of her car, walk up the few porch steps to the front door, and step inside.
As if following her hadn't been the definition of stalker already, he'd texted her!
The fact that she'd ignored his message hadn't stopped him either. He'd spent a good part of the night sending her stupid lines from songs and books. She hadn't responded to a single one, of course, but she'd read them.
Just like she'd read the messages he'd been sending her every two minutes today.
Tee: Where are you?
Nothing. No response. Not even a good morning, I'm alive, thank you very much.
Why he walked to the library when she hadn't been in class, he didn't know. Maybe it was a force of habit now that he'd been meeting her there for weeks. Whatever the reason, he found himself climbing up the intricate library steps towards the back of the library where she usually reserved her seat with a pile of books beside her.
Rounding the corner of the third floor where most of the classics were located, Teagan glanced down at his phone screen once more.
Tee: I'm at the library right now. Tilden's gonna kill you.
And just like that, three little dots appeared in a conversation bubble at the bottom of the screen.
My Queen: If he's managed to keep from murdering you after the number of times you've come in late or completely disrupted class, I think I'm safe.
Was it pathetic that he could hear her voice just from reading a text? That he appreciated her use of commas despite never having cared for punctuation or grammar before?
Nope. You became pathetic when you started reading and actually liking it.
The five-year-old voice in his head was starting to sound like Gavin recently. The sarcastic replies were every bit stuff the Minion would say.
It was because the voice was Gavin and everything Gavin did just seemed to egg him on. That's what he told himself anyway. That was the only reason he allowed for as he replied to her text with a huge smile on his face.
Tee: Run away with me and you'll never have to know for sure.
The voice in his head found this hilarious. Well, look who finally decided to play Romeo?
But both the voice and Teagan's own thoughts went scrambling every which way when the three bubbles on the screen gave away Rain's response to his teasing.
My Queen: Where did you have in mind?
And for the first time since any girl had ever accepted his invitation, Teagan's mind did not automatically think of going to the bedroom. Because this time it wasn't just any girl. This time he actually cared about what she wanted, what she obviously needed to get her mind off whatever had made her stay home.
This time the girl wasn't just a girl but a Queen.
And by gosh, he meant to make sure she never regretted saying yes to him.
xXx
Rain
She glared at her phone screen as if doing so could bring back the message she'd sent over twenty minutes ago. But she knew there was no going back.
It had been completely impulsive, something so unlike her, she hadn't been able to stop herself before it was too late. Apparently flirting with a notorious ladies' man was detrimental to one's sanity. But when you needed to escape the reality you lived in, insanity could appear like the only course of action to keep you grounded.
She'd stayed locked in her room today to avoid having to look at the face of her father when he walked out to meet the man who'd assaulted her. Rain knew she needed to keep control of her emotions, but she also knew she wasn't the same cruel, unfeeling animal her father had become since that night. She would have shattered and begged her father not to meet that man, and that would have been worse for her.
The only reason her father had allowed her to attend Gray's with the trust fund her mother had left was because he was convinced she was over the hysterics. Because that was how he saw her pain. Nothing more than a female's raging hysterics.
Her life was the epitome of comedic tragedy. William Shakespeare would have had a field day with the crap she went through.
Now, here she was, standing in a parking lot with Teagan, hoping to get her mind off of just how much she hated being alive.
It wasn't a date. She'd made that clear.
Teagan's idea of a relaxing day out was complete chaos. He chose a trampoline park of all places to take her. And he thought she could relax when strangers were flying every which way while she walked?!
The park was literally called Defying Gravity, and it lived up to the name.
It was a huge building adorned in flashy lights and trampolines located everywhere. There were large foam pits and ropes hanging from the ceiling for folks who wanted to be Tarzan for the day.
Parts of the place, towards the back corners, were closed off with nets, and as Teagan lead her along on his makeshift tour, she saw why. Inside the enclosure, a full blown war was taking place. Never mind that Teagan said it was just a fun game of dodgeball, the balls looked more like missiles as they flew back and forth between the two teams. The defensive stances and animal like growls the players displayed looked like they were ready for combat.
There was also an intricate obstacle course complete with swinging bars, a net you had to climb, a tightrope that moved with the slightest weight, and a curved wall you had to get over. Something straight out of Ninja Warrior.
But Teagan walked past all of that. He didn't even stop at the Wipeout foam pit with the moving bars. No, Mr. Hot Tee wasn't interested in what everyone else was doing.
He dragged her all the way to the back to stop in front of a swinging ball. She shook her head. No, Rain, she corrected herself with an impending sense of doom. That thing could only be described as a wrecking ball.
There was a foam square set at the very edge where the ball swung from a sturdy rope. But as she looked over the edge to the ground below she saw that if you missed the seat on the ball, the fall would be a painful one. All that waited at the bottom was a black mat that didn't look as comfy as the foam pits she'd seen everywhere else.
Her gaze flew to his, swallowing at the smirk she saw on his face. "Oh, no. I am not getting on that."
"Come on, your Royal Iciness," he drawled, wiggling his eyebrows at her. "It'll be fun."
"Falling flat on your face is not fun."
"You won't fall," he said.
Did he not know her at all? She was the Queen of Clumsy and he thought she wouldn't fall from the one place designed to make you fall?
Her disbelief must have shown on her face because he laughed. "Ok, I'll go first," he offered. "Show you how it's done." He was tall enough to reach the ball without needing the foam block. He handed her the excess rope that hung at the side. "Hold onto this while I jump onto the ball, then let go immediately."
Rain nodded, biting the inside of her lip to keep from smiling at the way he emphasized the last bit. She grabbed the rope with both hands and watched Teagan grab the ball, holding it steady while he prepared to hop on.
He turned to look at her. "Ready?" At her nod, he smiled. "One, two, three!" He hopped on at "three" and the ball lurched forward while he broke off into an off-key rendition of Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball.
She was too distracted listening to the terrible performance to remember the one thing he'd told her to do. To let go. She still held the rope tightly in her hands. And as she watched, the ball jerked to a sharp stop not even two feet from where he'd jumped off.
Teagan's song trailed off into what could only be described as an involuntary girly scream. The force of the stop was too much for him as he fell off the ball and onto his gorgeous face.
With a gasp, Rain released the rope and watched the ball continue its descent across.
That proved to be her second mistake in less than a minute.
Teagan was just sitting up on the hard mat when the ball swung back towards the taking off point, and smacked him atop the head. His yelp was all it took.
Laughing, Rain fell back onto the foam block that served as added leverage for those who were on the shorter side. She could hear his grumbling down below and couldn't help the hiccups that took over. "I'm so sorry!" she cried, wiping at the tears sliding out of the corners of her eyes. It hurt to be laughing so hard, but it hurt good!
"Yeah, I can see just how sorry you are," was his dry response.
"Your solo-" hiccup- "was so perfectly timed though!" Rain struggled to open her eyes as she heard him stomping back up the steps to her.
His hands closed on her upper arms and lifted her to a sitting position. His lips were in a straight line, but she saw them twitch as he looked over her flushed face. Besides that, his grey-and-green speckled eyes didn't look mad. They looked amused.
"I think you did that on purpose," he accused, his hands rubbing up and down gently on her arms.
Rain shook her head, still laughing, but at least she could breathe now. "No, I was so into your song choice that I forgot to let go."
"Uh huh." He didn't sound convinced. "I don't think I believe you."
"Whether or not you believe me, you just proved my point." Rain nodded towards the still swinging ball. "You fell flat on your face, and even you couldn't make that look fun." She glanced back at him with a smile. "But it was definitely funny."
His answering smile was genuine and sent her heart into a derby race. "You owe me now."
"I'm not swinging off of-"
"Kiss me, Rain."
--