“I think we should go,” I said, panicking. Oh my GOD. Kyle and Carter. This can’t be happening. We had to get the hell out of here…we had to leave! I can’t let Max…
I was practically hyperventilating. What was I meant to do?! I grabbed onto his hand, and pulled him towards the door. Kyle and Carter were both still lingering outside, talking about…something.
“Wait,” Max said, smiling a little worriedly. “Where are we going?”
“Let’s go…out.”
Max came along with me, grabbing his water bottle. I opened the door, trying to hide my face from Kyle and Carter. I can’t have them telling Max. My heart thudded, and I tried to look natural, but I could feel my palms sweating. I really, really hoped Max wouldn’t notice.
“Alexis,” Kyle said, as I brushed against him. “I didn’t know you came to this school!”
I looked up at him, trying to work out what he was doing. His face was completely unreadable. He just looked…smug.
“Kyle,” I said, smiling at him. I let go of Max’s hand, and pulled Kyle into a hug.
“Whatever you’re trying, it won’t work,” I whispered into his ear.
“Who says I’m trying anything?” he muttered back.
I pulled away, and beamed at him again.
“It’s been great. We should catch up, yeah? But first, I have to go somewhere with Max.”
Kyle raised his eyebrows, and I knew what he was thinking – this is Max?
I bit my tongue. Damn it. I can’t believe I just…
“But you’re not a senior…” Carter mumbled, “you can’t just leave…the free period’s only for us seniors.”
I glared at him, but softened my gaze when Max turned to me.
“Don’t worry about it, man,” Max said, slinging an arm over my shoulders. “Alexis is a rebel. Am I right?”
I smiled up at him, my heart fluttering.
“Right.”
“I had no idea!” Kyle exclaimed. I turned back to him, narrowing my eyes. He was definitely up to something. “What would your Dad say if he heard about this?”
Was it me, or was his voice…ever so slightly threatening?
“He won’t hear about this,” I replied, smiling sweetly. “Would he?”
The air was suddenly tense.
“Of course not!” Max said, laughing in a kind of awkward way. “Um, I think we better go.”
So Max had realized the situation. Maybe he wasn’t so dense, then.
“Bye, Kyle,” I called, over my shoulder, my heart thudding as hard as hell. What the hell was I meant to do? Max can’t know about what I’ve done…he can’t ever know.
I looked back at Kyle, who was smirking slightly.
If he’s planning something…well, I better start planning something myself.
***
“Alexis.”
I was walking fast, dragging Max with me.
“Alexis!”
My fingers were digging into his hand, hard, but I didn’t stop.
“Alexis, slow down!”
I stopped, and Max banged into my back. We were at the car park, in front of my motorcycle.
“What’s up with you?” he asked, rubbing his bare shoulder and wincing. He didn’t have a jacket on. “Why have you been all…?”
“Nothing,” I said, looking away. “It was just…Kyle.” His name came from my lips before I could stop it.
“Kyle?” Max repeated, sounding surprised. “He seemed like an alright guy. What did he do to you?”
“I just…Nothing.”
“Tell me, Alexis. You can trust me.”
I looked into his green, lucid eyes, and for a second, I felt optimistic. Well, less cynical. I kind of felt…like I could trust him. After everything Kyle had done to me, and the terrible things I’d done to other guys…I felt…
“Kyle was my first boyfriend,” I said, looking at him, watching his reaction. “He was my first love. I went out with him for a couple months or so, and I thought he was first. I thought we were perfect.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. I couldn’t quite meet Max’s eyes. I’d told no one about this, not even my best friends – though they heard Kyle’s version of it. By then, no one could ever believe me. After all, I was the crazy bitch who stole the Principal’s car, and slept with Kyle’s brother.
“Then, suddenly, he got distant. You know how guys are,” I said, cracking a smile that was probably totally unconvincing. “And then, when I confronted him…he was angry. Said I was suffocating him or something. I found out, after a while…he was messing around with my friend.”
I looked up at Max, waiting for him to react. For him to say something to make me feel better. Just a word would’ve been nice. Maybe even the clichéd “I’m sorry”, even when it wasn’t really his fault. That would’ve been great. Comforting, at least.
Yeah, right.
He turned his opened water bottle, and dumped it over my head. Cold mineral water splashed onto my hair, drenching me. I was totally shocked. How…Why…?
Somehow, when I’d been talking, he’s opened up the bottle, to dump on my head.
“Why did you just do that?!” I yelled, wiping my forehead. Water dripped from my hair, through my coat, right down to my Chanel shirt. “What the hell was that? Every time I tell you something personal, why do you always drench me with water?!”
He slammed me against a wall, and suddenly our faces were about an inch apart. My breathing was hard, and I knew I was close to tears. A spasm of pain flitted through my back, and my arm grated against the brick. He gripped my arm too hard – way too hard, almost violently.
But his green eyes were so damn gentle.
He leaned in closer, and our faces were just an inch apart. How could I have been drunk last time? It’d been a total waste…because, when sober, you could see every single detail of his face. The long eyelashes, which in this angle, left a long shadow across his cheek. His perfectly shaped lips, creased down the middle. He smiled, and I was momentarily blinded by his beautifully straight white teeth. Too perfect. Maybe he’d had braces?
I smirked a little, at the thought of him with braces.
Max matched my smirk perfectly, but he made it look so much better. My breath caught in my throat.
Why did he always make me…act like this?
Our lips were about to touch now, and my heart was full on racing, beating a rhythm hard against my chest, and I –
“Hey! What you up to?” a voice from behind me said.
Max drew back, and I sighed, muttering, “And why do you always…almost kiss me?”
I pushed him away, and turned to death-glare at Tom.
“What?!” I hissed.
“Oh…” he said, glancing between me and Max, looking uncomfortable. “Where you…?”
“Don’t worry about it, man,” Max said, patting Tom on the back, and grinning at him. I watched him. He was really a nice guy. I’d completely misjudged him when I first met him. He was genuinely kind. “Me and Alexis were just going somewhere.”
“Oh. I was kind of hoping we could hang out…” Tom said, looking at me, worriedly. I glared at him, uninvitingly, sending him a mental message of: Piss OFF!
“Okay, um, why don’t we get a bite to eat, first?”
Max was really way too nice. It kind of annoyed me.
***
I bit into the hot dog, as the “guys” went on, and on about football. I chewed slowly, before suddenly remembering that hot dog wasn’t part of my twenty eight day de-tox diet. Ah well. Too late now. I’ll start again next year.
There was a lot of attention on our table. On Max, particularly. I grit my teeth, gnashing the hot dog, as I fought back the urge to jump on him, and shelter his sexiness from the rest of the world.
“What are you doing for Christmas?” Tom asked, suddenly turning to me. I swallowed, and shifted uncomfortably in the red faux leather chairs that stuck to your thighs.
“Nothing, much. I don’t really celebrate Christmas.”
Correction: Not any more. Not after we got “rich”.
“You don’t celebrate Christmas?” Max asked, sounding shocked. I looked down at my empty plate (crap. So many calories), and tried to keep a normal face.
“My parents don’t really…see the need for it.” Basically, they don’t have enough time to come back. After all, Christmas is the busiest time for Rise Enterprises – we have major shares in the gaming industry, and winter is when people really start buying the games. Not to mention our toys, cosmetics and clothes. “They say it’s all commercialized crap.”
Totally true. They were the ones who commercialized it for the whole country.
“Hey, that’s not true!” Tom said, his eyes very wide, looking like a little boy. “Christmas is totally important! Come on, there’s a lot of fun stuff!”
“Like what?” I asked, smirking at the two of them. They were both staring at me, frowning, looking crestfallen, apparently because I didn’t have any “Christmas spirit”. It was kind of cute.
“Snow,” Max said.
“When does it ever snow here?
“Presents.” It was Tom this time.
“Tacky, cheap bath crap? Yay.”
“Santa!”
I glared at Max. He was definitely kidding now.
“Right. Santa.”
“Come on,” he said, sipping a little more of his Coke. “You have to believe in Santa.”
He was kidding, right? Oh god, please tell me he was kidding.
“Tiffany’s having a Christmas party this year, just like she always does,” Tom said, staring at me. Unconsciously, I brushed my hand over my hair, just to make sure it was okay. It was something I always did when someone stared at me hard. But my hair seemed okay. So why was Tom staring at me. “I’m pretty sure she’s going to invite you guys. She invites the whole year.”
“She’s not going to invite me. She hates me.”
“She’s definitely going to invite you. You’re too popular. Half the football team won’t turn up if you don’t.”
I raised my eyebrows. Wow. I was popular? Huh. I haven’t been popular since, well, ever. I guess it’s mainly because in my last schools, by now, I’d broken at least a dozen hearts.
“Uh, thanks. But even if she invites me, I’m not coming.”
“Why not?”
I glanced at Max.
“I don’t think…she likes me.”
Max smirked at me, and I could tell he was thinking, “Ha! Understatement”.
“But everyone’s going to be coming! It will suck it you don’t. It’s going to be great, okay? She’s inviting to the whole year, so she’s going to be busy at the party. You probably won’t even have to see her.”
I bit my lip, scraping my lip-gloss.
“I don’t know…I’ll think about it.”
After he finished his sandwich, Tom went to the restroom, leaving just me and Max sitting at the table. I ordered a coffee, and drank it in silence.
“You’ve got commitment issues,” Max said, timing his little statement perfectly. Just as he said it, I’d been taking a gulp of my coffee, and now I was spluttering like hell.
“Sorry, what?”
“You’ve got commitment issues. After Kyle. It’s perfectly normal.”
I glared at him. “I so do not have commitment issues.”
“You do.”
“I don’t.”
“You so do.”
“Yeah, but totally not.”
“But you totally do.”
“I don’t have commitment issues!” I yelled, standing up, and earning about a billion stares from the tables around us.
“Then tell me, how long is your longest relationship?”
“Three months,” I said, defiant.
“Apart from Kyle.”
I bit my lip, wondering if I should lie. I didn’t, in the end.
“A week.”
“Well, there you go.”
I glared at him. “That doesn’t prove I have commitment issues. It just means I…don’t have a history of good relationships.”
“Look, Alexis, you don’t have to get all defensive. I get it. Kyle hurt you. He cheated on you. I’ve been cheated on too, and I know it doesn’t feel good.”
My eyes widened. Max’d been cheated on? Who?!
“You need to heal, and I think the first step to recovery, is to, basically –”
“I don’t want to know, okay?! I don’t have commitment phobia!”
I stalked out, running outside of the comfortable, cosy, lighted café, and into the cold dark street outside. I hailed a taxi (my motorbike was still at school). I refused to let Max be all condescending and stupid to me. I did not have commitment phobia!
***
I shoved my key into the keyhole, and swung the door open.
The phone was ringing, the annoyingly shrill sounds breaking the normal tranquillity of the big house. Who was calling me?
I looked around. Where the hell was Kyle? My Rolex told me it was seven PM. He should be back by now, right? Suddenly, the house seemed entirely too big. A shiver ran up my spine, and I tried to ignore my thoughts. I was being stupid. A big man with an axe is not going to come in here. Big men with axes did not exist outside the realm of horror movies.
I walked towards the phone, and more to shut it up than anything, I picked up.
“Hello?”
No reply. There was just static on the other side.
“Hello…?”
Nothing.
The whole house seemed so much creepier, without the phone ringing. It was…almost too quiet, somehow. Cold blood pulsed through my veins, and I bit my lip. I shivered, but not out of cold. I was imagining this, right? This was all in my mind. It can’t be…
Suddenly, there was a hot, moist on the back on my neck.
I opened my mouth and screamed.
***
Author's Note: Slightly longer upload this time :P
Just telling you guys, I've started a new book, if you didn't already know. It's called "Billion Dollar Girl", and it seemd to be doing alright, mainly because of you guys' continued support :) I loved you all XxX
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