Chapter 4: Faded Memory

I pride myself on my inability to be distracted by anything, and I mean anything.

Yet here I was, completely and utterly distracted by the 6'5" Greek god who had been following me around for the last four hours.

And yes, we had our own gods based around the supernatural creatures that roamed the Earth, but the human interpretations of their gods were breathtaking.

So here I was, cataloging his entire physical appearance through three separate classes.

English had me wanting to run my fingers through his chocolate-brown, curly hair. His sharp jawline was highlighted by the length of it, while his face shape matched a heart perfectly, complete with high cheekbones. His eyebrows were perfect enough to make any woman jealous.

The teacher droned on about how our language had adapted to create the basic incantations witches used to cast spells.

During our lab class, we'd been partnered up, giving me the perfect excuse to look at his eyes.

I gasped, which caused him to look directly into my eyes and give me a full view of the beautiful green they held.

In the center, surrounding his pupils, was an olive green that faded into a dark forest green before reaching the whites of his eyes.

The color wasn't what shocked me.

No, it was the fact that they were the exact opposite of my own.

He smirked at me like he'd already reached the same conclusion I had.

Our physical education class was more like a sparring gym mixed with self-defense. When you had vampires, wolves, and witches running around, some worse than others, you wanted to know your enemies' weaknesses.

For the most part, we got along well, but there were those who hid in the deepest, darkest corners of the world, attempting to take over.

Hence the sparring and self-defense we'd been learning since we were old enough to know better.

So here I was, lost in the beautiful man that was Mateo.

The boys were up first, and some asshole from the vampire class challenged him.

Irritated didn't even begin to describe what I felt when Vance—yeah, stupid name—smirked and looked back at his friends, who laughed quietly among themselves, sharing some dumb inside joke no doubt.

My irritation quickly disappeared when Mateo stepped onto the mat in front of Vance, towering over him by a couple of inches.

The best and worst part?

Mateo was shirtless, wearing only a pair of gym shorts that caused all of my anger to disappear and left only one thing in its wake:

Want.

Or need.

Probably both, to be honest.

“Oh, look. The pretty boy decided not to wear a shirt, as if that's some kind of advantage!”

Vance thought the jab was hilarious, and so did his friends, but no one else laughed. If anything, they looked more embarrassed than amused.

Vance rambled on for another couple of minutes, earning groans from those around me, but my attention was entirely on Mateo and his lack of clothing.

His shoulders were broad, with well-defined muscles rippling across them as he stretched his arms. The defined lines of his abs and chest had my jaw practically on the floor, along with my eyes.

The tree trunks he called thighs were probably both of mine put together, meaning he'd obviously never skipped leg day.

The caramel color of his skin had a slight sheen of sweat from the warm-up exercises.

Gods, he looked delicious enough to eat.

My skin was already on fire and had decided to go straight to the inferno stage when he looked my way, as if he could sense me staring at him, and winked.

Everything in the room disappeared as if it had never existed in the first place.

It was just him and me, standing alone.

Then a flash of something came and went in my mind.

And then again.

And again, but slower this time.

Weird.

It looked almost like a memory.

The edges were blurred, but the center showed flashes of a boy and a girl.

The next flash lasted longer, at least fifteen seconds, showing the girl running and laughing while the boy chased after her, doing the same.

My eyes went wide.

Because that wasn't a random little girl.

She was me.

I had to be at least ten years old, and we weren't in this town. Probably not even on this continent.

The background was blurry, but my red tulle dress flowed around my legs as my long, dark hair whipped behind me.

I'd always kept my hair long, down to my waist, until I was twelve and decided it was time to cut it all off for some odd reason, even against my parents' pleading.

Now, it was always mostly short or a little longer, depending on the season.

The envy I felt toward my younger self was immediate.

I seemed happier.

No.

I seemed like I was at my happiest while I was being chased.

Nothing compared to now.

There had always been something missing. A massive hole inside me that I could never quite explain.

The memory appeared one last time.

She looked back at a little boy who looked exactly like a young Mateo.

In fact, I was ninety-nine percent sure it was him.

The smile on young me's face grew wider, and a small giggle erupted from her throat.

“Hurry, Teo! Run faster!”

The boy laughed and sped up just a tiny bit, gaining on her.

“Amor, you're too fast! Slow down, cheater!”

He was laughing as he said it, earning another giggle from her.

And just as quickly as the memory disappeared, the noise of the gym rushed back in, nearly knocking me off my feet.

Liz looked at me with a deep frown on her face.

“Are you okay?”

I didn't know how to answer that.

Was I okay?

Maybe.

Hurt?

No.

Confused?

Oh, absolutely.

I knew that was me in the memory, but he called me Amor, not Amara.

I snapped my attention back to Mateo, who looked completely unfazed by what had just happened and was still staring at me.

The trance we'd fallen into must have lasted a while, yet no time seemed to have passed in the room. It was as if the entire world had paused around us.

Unfortunately, Vance had caught the interaction and decided to comment on it.

Out loud.

In front of the entirety of the class gathered in the gym.

“I see now. Trying to show off for the school slut?”

He shook his head in disbelief before continuing.

“Trust me, you don't have to try hard with that one. Just tell her how pretty she is, and she'll open her legs wide for you.”

By this time, everyone had turned their heads in my direction and was openly staring.

I knew from the way my face felt that I'd become the color of a tomato.

Beside me, Liz opened her mouth to say something, but she was cut off by the crunch of bone.

I became a faded memory like the one I'd just seen, because all of the attention I once had was now on the scene unfolding before us.

Vance was on the ground, groaning, blood gushing from his now-broken nose.

Mateo stood over him, breathing heavily, a look of pure rage on his face and a split knuckle from how hard he'd hit him.

“Apologize.”

Uh.

What?

My eyes were the size of the moon, as were everyone else's around me.

The smell in the air was a mix of excitement, shock, fear, and anger.

Mateo turned to look at me and held my gaze.

“Apologize to her now before I decide to break something else.”

Murmurs began to spread through the gym, but I couldn't hear them.

I couldn't hear anything.

They were there, but they weren't.

It was just me.

And Mateo.

Without looking away from me, he stomped his foot down on Vance's chest, holding him in place. I could see his chest rising and falling rapidly as he tried to gather enough oxygen.

Then he turned his head slowly, almost menacingly, toward Vance, forcing him to say the words I knew he couldn’t.

“I’m sorry.”

Two words.

Two words I never thought I'd hear from him.

I looked down at Vance, squashed beneath Mateo like a bug, then back up at the man doing the squashing.

He stood like a statue, his eyes glued to my face.

Without thinking, I nodded.

The moment I did, he removed his foot from Vance's chest.

Vance sucked in a deep breath of air before scrambling off the mat and into the locker room, his friends following close behind.

“That was the hottest thing I have seen in my life.” Of course Sora would think that. Although, he wasn't wrong.

That genuinely was the sexiest thing I'd ever seen a man do for me—or anyone else.

I nodded in agreement, Liz doing the same before turning to me and looking me up and down. I knew there were a couple of things she could ask, some worse than others. Her personal favorite was the worst.

“Why the hell did he only let go as soon as you nodded?”

She looked me up and down once more.

“Do you know him? Because he sure as hell is acting like he knows you.” There it was. The worst possible question she could ask.

Mostly because I didn't know the answer.

And honestly, I was scared of the answer.

What I saw wasn't one of my memories. It had to have been his. But it seemed so real that I actually felt like I was there.

And if it was real, that left one remaining question.

Why the hell don't I remember it?

I finally looked at Liz and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to replay what I'd seen. “No. Yes. Maybe? I don't know.” I opened my eyes again.

“Listen, I know this is going to sound super fucking weird, but when I was looking at Mat—”

The words died in my throat.

“What happened when you were looking at me?”

He'd walked up and stopped right next to me.

I opened my mouth to reply before quickly closing it.

Apparently, I'd developed this thing where I couldn't speak correctly whenever he was close to me.

All I could do was stare at him.

He wore that perfect smirk that seemed to be reserved only for me and no one else.

“Jesus Christ, Amara. Can you stop eye-fucking him?”

Yes, we used the same slang as humans.

It sounded better. I rolled my eyes and finally swallowed, taking a small, deep breath.

“I was just saying how you winked at me before Vance opened his mouth.” I smiled softly at him and accidentally looked from his eyes to his lips and back again.

He noticed.

Then he did the same thing.

“Thank you for, uh, doing that back there.” I really needed to stop staring before this got creepy really fast.

“It's about time someone shut him up,” Sora laughed before turning to look at Mateo. “Especially since it didn't work the last time.”

I elbowed him in the ribs hard enough to earn a reaction.

His head snapped toward me with a glare, but I shook my head, silently telling him no.

If Mateo noticed, he didn't show it.

Instead, he gave me a small smile before turning around and walking away with everyone else, heading toward the lockers and showers.

I watched his retreating form until his head disappeared through the doorway leading to the locker rooms.

As soon as he was out of sight, I turned my attention back to Sora and Liz.

“Talk. Now.” Liz gently grabbed my arm, making sure my attention was entirely on her.

“Because that was the most interesting thing to happen to this place in years.”