💦VERY IMPORTANT💦
Okay, so, a lot of you guys have already forgotten Stanley. Well if you check chapter 55 of TGGBS, you'll get an explanation. But just to paraphrase it, Stanley is the guy who used to bully Hailey in the absence of her older brother and Hailey hates him. He also "helped" with the whole 'stop Luther' team mission, but he betrayed them in the end and Tristan was beating him up before Hailey was shot saving Tristan.
Hope that sums everything up.
Anyway, back to the chapter!
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Chapter 23:
Kill Me Now
"Sam told me that you go to Caltech," I break the dreadful silence pervading in the car as we drive to fetch my car.
I recall the day Sam told me that Tristan is a Caltech student-I was astounded. I know that he is highly intelligent and I understand how he got into Caltech, not to mention that he comes from a wealthy family, so the school had to accept him. I just wish he would have told me about his application to that school. I would have loved to be next to him when he received his acceptance letter, to embrace him tightly in congratulation and to kiss him out of happiness.
But life happened.
"Yep," he nods without offering me a glance.
"What are you studying?" I prod further to fight the palpable tension in the car.
I never asked Sam about what Tristan is studying but I was, and still am, interested. I was just confused at his choice of university because I remember him telling me that his father wants him to major in business so that soon he could take over the company and continue the Wilder legacy.
"Structural Engineering."
"Not business?" I scrunch my eyebrow to show my bewilderment. "I thought your dad wanted you to go into the business field."
"He did," only now he looks at me after stopping at a red traffic light. "But I told him that if he doesn't allow me to study what I want, then he'll have to wait for Evan to reach 18 so he could take over the company."
At the mention of his little brother, I suddenly feel nostalgic. I miss my family, without the secrecy, and I miss being at the Wilder's mansion. I miss the twins and how we'd stay up late watching animation movies. I even miss Lizzy scolding Evan and Emily for staying up late with us.
"So he agreed to that?" I ask Tristan, who nods in response.
"He had no choice," he casually shrugs. "He has to retire soon because of his medical condition -"
"Medical condition?" I gasp with worry. "Is he okay?"
Even though I wasn't that close with Mr Wilder, I still care about him because he ended up becoming family as well.
"He's okay," he laughs at my worried state. "He just has a minor heart problem. The doctor said that he's condition's going to worsen as the years go by and that he has to withdraw from stress. So he has to pass down the company soon."
"That's sad," I say with a sad pout.
Tristan laughs at my reaction, immediately making me forget about the worrying topic and making me concentrate on his laughter. The sound makes me nostalgic, taking me back to the days we'd hang out and joke around all day long.
"C'mon, Angel," he pulls me out of my head, and his use of my old nickname takes me aback. "We here." He climbs out of the car, giving me a few seconds to catch a breath.
After a brief self recollection, I hop out of the car and follow Tristan into the airport and memories of the last day I'd been here resurface. Tristan leads the way to the information desk, which took about six minutes to find in this massive airport, and after a few more minutes of processing the pick up details, we are finally led to where they keep the cars.
"I finally get to drive myself again," I grin as we follow the guy assisting us to get my car.
"Finally getting your freedom back," Tristan, walking next to me, curtly nods.
We can both feel the tension circling around us but we choose to ignore it. I've realized that it's still a sensitive topic to discuss especially with Colton and Sam being in our lives. Although, he doesn't know that nothing's going on between Colton and I. But Sam is practically in love with Tristan and if he reciprocates her feelings, then who am I to stand in their way.
"Here's the car," the guy we'd been following says and I stare at the car he is gesturing towards. "Enjoy the rest of your evening." And he walks away, leaving me with a dumbfounded expression.
"Tristan, I think the guy led us to the wrong car, this can't be-" I twist my head to look at a smirking Tristan watching me with folded arms and an amused face.
"No, I believe it's your car," he says, his smirk not faltering for a second.
How in the world is this my car?
I stare at the shimmering red beauty polished to perfection. It's rims are black, causing the colour to stand out against the deep red body. I scan the car more than I can count, my eyes falling, quite a number of times, on the silver horse acting as the symbol of the car.
"But it's a Mustang, Tristan," I point out the obvious to him. I rotate my body so that I am fully facing his direction. "Tell me this is a joke," I cover my lips and nose with both my palms to restraint myself from shouting with excitement.
This has to be some dream.
"It's not, Angel," he lets out a small chuckle, finding amusement at my excited self.
"Ah!" I squeal with and jump with joy before throwing my arms over Tristan's shoulders and embracing so tightly that he actually gasped for air. "But how?!"
"I convinced your mom last year, before... the fall," I wince as he refers to our break up. "- to buy you this car since you wanted it so badly. So then we decided that it'd be better if you got when going to college."
I remember how Mom never listened to me when I was gushing on about buying me this car. She claimed it to not be fitting for a young teenage girl and instead bought me the Mercedes. So the fact that he somehow convinced my mom to consider my interests, makes the surprise even more special.
"Thank you so much!" I leap with happiness, and I allow myself to be consumed too much by this happiness that I end up jumping onto Tristan, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck.
Taken by surprise, Tristan stiffens but responds quickly by returning the embrace, making me for once feel at home. "You're too heavy, dude," he chuckles, but I hear the nervousness in his voice.
"Sorry," I blush and unwrap my legs from his waist. "I just got too excited," I look at my shoes feeling too embarrassed to stare at him in the eye.
"Kill me now," I hear Tristan groan in front of me and before I know it, he lifts my chin up and smashes his lips against mine.
Reality doesn't kick in until after two seconds and I respond immediately to his lips. His lips are as soft as I remember them to be and as hungry as mine for the taste of the other's. His pace against my lips is steady but meaningful and I go along with it even though I want to quicken it. I thread my fingers into his soft locks and pull him closer to deepen the kiss. Noticing my eagerness, he smiles against my lips and lets out a deep groan before grabbing my hips with his hands to pull me closer to him.
The kiss is mind blowing and passionate. It is filled with the anger of our separation, the frustration of not seeing each other for a long time and the hunger of being close again. In this moment, I wish to never let go. I wish to never go back to the depressing reality we're living in.
"Hailey I-" Tristan breaks off the kiss, leaving my lips to fall cold at the lack of contact. "I'm sorry, I can't," he says breathlessly and takes a step back as if he regrets what he did.
"I get it," I nod dejectedly and bite my burning lips. "It's my fault anyway for all of this. I pushed you away, so I understand perfectly. It's only fair." I turn on my heels before he can notice a tear slide down my cheek, and walk until I stand at the driver's side of my new ride. "Bye, Tristan. Thanks for the suprise."
"Hailey, wait-"
I don't wait to listen to what he has to say, feeling too emotional to deal with what just happened, and hop into my car. The new car smell filling this ride doesn't even help with my raging emotions-nothing actually can at this point. I start the car and rev the engine before driving off.
I'm such a fool!
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"Hey, Squirt!" Conner greets me on the other end of the line. "How's the new life?"
"It's cool, I guess," I shrug even though he cannot see me do so. "Living alone is nice too," I reply with a dampened spirit due to earlier.
After driving off in my new car, I came straight to the apartment and began digging into the cookies and cream ice cream I'd recently bought. As much as I loved the surprise, the scene succeeding it sucked all the joy out of the moment and I partly blame myself for that. I should have not responded to the kiss, I should have initially shoved him away, but I was too entranced in the moment to think of the repercussions.
Not to mention I'd kissed Colton earlier today.
This has been an eventful day.
"Squirt? Are you there?" Conner's voice reminds me that I'm still on a phone call.
"Yeah," I heave out a sigh. "I'm here, just a little tired. That's all."
"I'm not even going to ask what's wrong because I know you won't tell," I hear him let out a sigh of his own and I can imagine him running a hand through his mop of hair.
"Thanks for understanding," I let out a soft chuckle, grateful that he has decided to let the matter go. "So what has been happening at home?" I change the subject.
"Nothing much," he says and I hear some shuffling in the background, probably him lying down on his bed or something. "But I do have something to tell you and please don't be mad."
I raise a curious eyebrow. "Be mad for what?" I pause the episode of Suits which I've been watching all along.
"So... I've been in a relationship for about," he clears his throat. "Two months now?" He tells me hesitantly which makes his statement sound like a question instead.
So my bro has a girlfriend and I did not even know about it. Why would I be mad?
"So you hid this from me for two months," I rephrase his words so that they can sink in further.
"That's about it."
"Okay."
"Are you mad?"
"Mad? No, why would I be mad?"
I'm mad.
At him. At Tristan. And at me.
"You're mad, aren't you?"
"Nope," I answer briskly. "Anyway, uh, I have to sleep. I have an early lesson tomorrow morning," I make up a false excuse to just end the call.
"Night." Conner sighs dejectedly.
"Night, bro." And the line cuts.
Why does my life have to be so complicated?
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So I had no idea what to write but I just had to update and I feel like this chapter was a bit too much... But whatever!
At least they kissed and this time, you did not have to wait 38 chapters for it to happen 😂😂😂
Hope you enjoyed it!
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-Bye🌈🔥