My phone rang in the silence of the car and I angled the phone screen away from Mari since I didn’t want her asking me who Mr. Flynn was.
“It’s him isn’t it?” Mari had a knowing look in her eye as we turned into the lane leading up to her house and she slowed down.
“Who?” I tried to look innocent.
“Oh c’mon, its Damien Alexander right?”
I looked away from her and out the window of the car as she parked it and then got out.
She came around to the other side and opening the door, she stood with her arms crossed and looking impatient as hell.
“Why aren’t you picking up his call?”
I looked down at the phone in my hands which had thankfully stopped ringing now. I would remember to change his name to something else or better yet, I would block him completely. I didn’t want any part of him in my life to remind me of what had happened between us.
What h
I hid my head underneath the pillows stacked on top of Mari’s bed. I couldn’t face her or my idiotic self at the moment.“Of all the things you could have left at his place Seline..you leave the one thing you need the most,” Mari was right, as always.“I can’t go back for it,” I mumbled from under the pillows, “What if I just leave it there?”“I sure hope that’s a joke babe, because the new professor is not joking with his assignments. You haven’t attended even one of his lectures; you know you can’t afford to fail that course.”For once I did not need any sensible advice. Ever since I had met Damien, my life had turned upside down.From being a responsible student who followed the rules, didn’t skip classes and was focused as hell on her goals, I’d turned into this girl that I didn’t recognize. I would never have believed anyone if they had told m
I was seething with fury as I thought of the witch with the long red nails in Damien’s penthouse. He didn’t have any trouble replacing you, did he? My mind taunted at me as I stepped into the lift to take me back down to the lobby.I wish I had gone with Mari to help out Baron and not came back here. I should’ve listened to my gut and not come here in the first place.What had I expected? Baron ready to receive me with hearts and flowers. No, I thought but I had expected Baron, alone at the very least. I hadn’t expected her.I felt betrayed even though we hadn’t even had a relationship.Get over it Seline, it was just one kiss.It was probably just a stupid kiss for him too, maybe he kissed dozens of women every day.It probably didn’t mean anything to him, kissing me like that.But it had meant a lot to my fragile heart. I suddenly felt very replaceable.But Rosanna had not only
She hadn’t called me, I punched him as hard as I could.She still hadn’t called me, I gave him a good forceful kick.Sweat ran down my face as I gave another punch causing the punching bag to fly. If it had been that faceless bastard who I was imagining, he would be history right now.Disgusted I put my hands on my knees and took some much needed breaths. I felt another wave of anger engulf me as I remembered the penthouse.WHY? WHY? WHY? I slicked back my sweaty hair and stood up.Why was she living with that stranger when she could have been living here? Why hadn’t she called me?Hadn’t I done enough? Hadn’t I shown her in as many ways as I could how important she was to me? Hadn’t I done everything for her? And she didn’t see it.She didn’t see me standing in front of her. I always took care of her, I watched out for her. I took her home, I went to pick her up. I always
I’d missed him.As Damien strapped me in and pulled the seatbelt across, I was embarrassed by my behavior.But the only excuse I could come up with was that I had missed him, that’s why I had let him just pick me up and take me away.As he rounded the hood and came inside the car, I could feel the electric sparks in the air between us. I shivered and my eyes traced his profile as if I hadn’t seen him in a year rather than a day.What was this strange connection between us? It scared me.His hands gripped the wheel tightly for a minute, and then he stared at me as if seeing me again had affected him just as deeply.He clenched his jaw and started the car.He executed a sharp turnaround from where we were that had me clutching my seat with both hands even though I had the seatbelt on.Then he started speeding the other way.“Are you trying to kill us?” My voice barely came out as a squeak.
As Damien started the car once again, I could still feel his lips on my lips and I relived the kiss in my head again and again. It had been our second kiss but it had felt more like our first one. It felt like I had been a different girl when Damien had kissed me last time.And now.. now It felt like we had started all over again.I looked over at him and he was concentrating on the road. I suddenly realized that I didn’t know where we were heading.“Where are we going?” I asked him.He gave me a wicked look, “I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty hungry.”Oh, I thought and licked my upper lip.“I’m hungry too,” I said slowly, not sure if he was even talking about food.“What would you like to eat?” He looked at his watch, “I think we could get takeaway at this hour and eat it in the car.”I nodded, why hadn’t he suggested going back to h
“Don’t worry, just call her now,” Damien tried to calm me down when he saw the panic on my face.I took a deep breath and called Mari.She picked up on the second ring, “Where are you Seline?” I could hear the panic in her voice.“I am so so sorry, things happened and I had my phone on silent. Are you okay? Is Baron okay?”“Yes, yes I’m okay, he says he’s okay but Seline, it’s bad. They did a number on him.” Her voice is pained.“Oh God, I’m so sorry Mari, did you take him to the hospital? Did you call the police?”“He refused to go to both, he says his parents shouldn’t find out or there’ll be hell to pay.” Mari said, “We’re at my place right now and together we’ve dealt with the worse of it.”“It sounds really bad; I can’t believe something like this could happen to him.”
“Both of you are staying over,” Mari announced as Baron came out of the bathroom, partly because she just liked to announce things overdramatically but mostly because she wanted to cover the awkward silence. Baron already didn’t like Damien, if he found out anymore; he would go berserk I was sure. But I wasn’t sure I liked this overbearing behavior but I put up with it because Baron really cared about me. He had once told me about his rough childhood even though he had grown up super rich. His father had been very abusive with him. He said that he had hardly made any close friends all his life, which was why he was so protective of both of us.“I am so tired of both of you getting into some kind of trouble on the streets, I mean your foot had barely healed from being almost crushed by a car when he goes and gets himself robbed and beaten up.” Mari complained. I rolled my eyes, Mari was nothing if not a drama queen and she was in her element
I woke up to Mari’s leg across my stomach and a sense of disorientation. I threw her leg off of me and realized I’d had one of the most restless nights of my life. This was the first time in my entire life that I’d had a bad night at Mari’s place.Oh I sat up in bed with a start as I remembered what had happened last night. I shivered as I thought about the dream which I was so sure had been a reality. But that was impossible right? No one could get into the mansion let alone Mari’s bedroom. Security and guards littered the whole place.Maybe it had been the day; maybe I was more affected by what had happened to Baron than I had thought.I stretched stiff muscles as I got out of bed and went to the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and remembered what Damien had said about today and suddenly I was super excited about the day.Mari had woken up when I came out but I didn’t talk to her and just waved as I went down to brea