We climb under the covers together, snuggling into my pillow while she gives me the hugs I so desperately need. “So, you might not be ready for this, but if you are, please describe every last detail of that kiss,” she says. “I can imagine it was hot.”
A wide grin spreads across my face. “You better believe it was hot. It was amazing,” I say, launching into the details of the most memorable kiss that I’ve ever had. I tell her all about the way he held me, the way my hands roamed over his naked chest, the feel of his lips against mine. And I know for sure that no man will ever be able to give me another kiss that even comes close to the way he made me feel.
----------
I wake in the morning and check the time. 7:03 am. Great. I’m late. Rylan is going to kill me. Oh well, I throw on my workout clothes and rush out the door, tying my hair up as I go. I push through the gym doors and come to a standstill when I find Ben, the casual Instructor, waiting for me.
“Um, hi,” I say, confused. “Where’s Rylan?”
“Ah, not sure really. He asked me to fill in. He said he had some things to do,” he says, indicating for me to sit down and get started on my stretching.
“He had some things to do at seven in the morning?” I scoff, knowing exactly why he isn’t here. Anger runs through me as I at least had the balls to show up.
Ben ignores my comment and launches straight into what he wants me to do. An hour later, my body is aching and I’m impressed with Ben’s abilities for one-on-one mentoring, though nothing compares to Rylan’s.
I make my way back to my dorm to prepare myself for the school day, wondering just how long Rylan thinks he can avoid me. Though, it can’t be that long as we have combat training this afternoon.
That should be interesting.
Chapter 31
It has been the longest two weeks of my life. It’s been two weeks since the navigation test and two weeks since he has spoken to me or even looked at me for that matter, and I swear, going into training every day and seeing him there, acting as though nothing happened and not being able to talk to him, to even touch him, feels like I’m slowly dying inside.
I sit in the cafeteria during our lunch break, pushing my food around my plate with a fork. “Alright, I’ve had enough of this,” Jacinta declares. “You’ve been sulking around ever since that test. I’m putting us on the list for whatever outing is going on this weekend and I’m getting you out of here.”
“Fine,” I mutter, eyes still trained on my lunch when she leaves no room for argument.
“Oh, sounds exciting,” Trey mocks from across the table.
“You shut it,” she demands. “I’m putting both your names down as well.”
“What? No way,” Daniel screeches. “How’d I get roped into this?”
“Because you’re Bianca’s friend and what she needs right now is her friends to give her a good day out.”
“Fine,” he huffs. “But just saying, if she just dated me as I had planned, none of this would be happening.”
I scowl at him from across the table and he throws me a wicked grin in return, managing to get me to crack a smile. “You would have liked that wouldn’t you?” I fire back. “But you have Nora to keep you warm at night now.”
“You know it,” he winks.
“Oh, my God,” Jacinta says. “The two of you shut up. You’re like children.”
“Come on, babe,” Trey says with a smirk on his face. “You know you love it when they’re like this.”
“Whatever,” she scoffs, as we get up at the sound of the bell. “I’ll head over after class and write our names down.”
Trey, Daniel and I head into our last combat session for the week, and as usual, my eyes instantly search him out, only this time, he actually looks up and I find myself stopping in my tracks. The hard eyes that I’ve become used to over the past two weeks suddenly soften and make him look as though some sort of weight has been lifted off his shoulders.
“You’re late,” Rylan scolds from across the room, apparently reverting back to being our jackass instructor as his eyes leave mine and take my heart with it. We move deeper into the room as Rylan begins the session while avoiding me at all costs. I catch Trey and Daniel’s eyes on me every now and then, checking how I’m holding up, but it’s pointless, they know I’ll never show any signs of weakness during this class, even if it kills me.
The bell indicating the end of class finally rings and I head over to the stairs to grab my bag, going as fast as possible, certain he’ll call out for me to explain, but nothing comes. Though I shouldn’t be surprised, he doesn’t owe me an explanation. I’m not his girlfriend and clearly never will be, just a student who crossed the line. After all, he’s had two weeks to explain and a million chances to do it. If it’s not happening now, it probably never will.
I head for the door and grab the handle when the door is opened from the other side. Miss Layton walks out in front of me. “Oh, Bianca,” she says with her hand on her heart. “You frightened me.”
“Sorry,” I mutter, trying to step around her.
“Bianca, before you run off,” she says, reaching out and putting a hand on my shoulder to stop my hasty escape. “I wanted to apologize for what you saw the other week. It was extremely unprofessional of me.”
“No need to apologize,” I say, wishing she would drop dead so I could get out of here.
“Sorry, Love. I just can’t seem to help myself around him,” she says as if we’re best friends gossiping about the sexiest guy in class. My eyes involuntarily flick toward him to see his gaze trained on us with curiosity and suspicion written all over him. I turn more towards the door and she finally gets the hint and gives my shoulder a squeeze before sending me on my way.
A permanent scowl fixes to my face as I turn to step out the door, hearing her voice behind me calling in delight. “Rylan, what do you say about a late lunch?” I cut off his response as the door slams shut behind me.
I walk into Daniel on the other side of the door. “Are you okay?” he asks in a hushed tone. “That was a bit rough.”
“Tell me about it. But yes, I’ll be fine,” I say, giving him a fake smile.
“You’re such a liar,” he laughs, looping his arm through mine. “Come on, apparently Jacinta and Trey have date night in my room and I need a break from Nora, so it looks like it’s just you and me for tonight.” He drags me off towards my dorm where he leaves me with a promise to be back once date night starts with a selection of scary movies to keep my mind off Rylan.
Later that night, I send Daniel out the window with his collection of all the ‘Paranormal Activity’ movies which we laughed at the whole way through. Jacinta comes barging in through the door with two minutes left before the Friday night curfew kicks in with a dreamy smile on her face.
“I take it date night went well?” I ask as she flops down on her bed.
Her head snaps up at my question, lost in her own thoughts. “Huh? Oh, yeah, date night was great,” she sighs. I take a closer look noticing the swelling of her lips.
“Spill,” I demand. “I want to know all the details.”
She looks up at me with a blush creeping over her cheeks and a wide smile spreading over her face. “We had sex,” she blurts out, instantly covering her mouth, shocked she said anything.
“WHAT?” I yell. “I had no idea you were even thinking about that.”
“Yeah, neither did we,” she says. “It just kind of happened.”
“Wow,” I say, pleasantly surprised. “Give me all the details. Was it perfect? Did it hurt? Was he good? Oh, God. Tell me he was gentle with you? Because if he wasn’t, I’ll kick his ass.”
“Yes,” she laughs. “To all of that. It was perfect. Well…it was kind of awkward, but once we figured it out, it was amazing. You know after it stopped hurting.”
“Wow,” I repeat. “I kind of thought I’d be first.”
“Yeah, I kind of thought that too,” she grunts. “Actually, I thought you would have
done it years ago.”
“Hey,” I yell, hitting her across the head with my pillow.
“It’s true,” she defends, still laughing hard as she wipes a stray tear from her eye until she can recover. She lets out a sigh and lays back into her bed with a dreamy smile plastered on her face.
I lay in bed, watching as she basks in the memories of her perfect night. Jealousy courses through me, knowing that a reality like that with Rylan is getting further and further away as he’s probably doing the exact same thing with Ms. Perfect Layton right now.
I fall into a dreamless sleep, clutching at my bullet chain and holding onto the only piece of Rylan I feel I have left.
----------
It’s Saturday morning when Jacinta and I get up and put a little extra effort into ourselves. We head down to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast and to meet the boys. We sit around chatting until it’s time for us to get on the bus to head for our day out, which apparently is to the mall.
We gather around the bus waiting for whichever teacher will be in charge when Rylan and Miss Layton join the group of teachers that have gathered around.
“Perfect. Just what I need,” I mutter.
Jacinta turns at my mumbling. “What was that?” she asks.
I nod my head discreetly in Rylan’s direction showing her the new addition to the chaperones. She spots him immediately and an angry scowl comes to her otherwise pretty face. “Damn it,” she fumes. “This was supposed to be a nice day out for you.”
“Don’t stress,” I say, trying to lighten her mood. “We can work out where he’ll be, which I’m sure is anywhere near her and avoid them like the plague.”
“You sure? We can go next week if you’d like?”
“No, really, it’s okay,” I say. “Besides, if I leave now, it’s pretty damn obvious to him why and I refuse to let a male have that kind of power over me.”
“Dramatic much?” she laughs as we begin to pile onto the bus.
“Shut it, whore bag,” I say, dropping into the seat beside Daniel who automatically brings his arm up and around my shoulder, pulling me in close as Miss Layton gets onto the bus followed by Rylan.
She walks down the aisle with Rylan trailing behind and stops by my side as she eyes me and Daniel. “Are you guys dating now?” she gushes. “How cute.”
“Oh, no, no, no,” Daniel says correcting her with a smile in his voice, one that after a lifetime of friendship, I recognize as mischief. “I’m dating Nora, but Bianca here, she’s just a little fun on the side,” he smiles. “You know what I mean,” he adds with a wink then pulls me in closer, grabs my face and draws me into a hot and heavy kiss.
I slam my hand down onto his chest and push off him. “Get off me, you grot,” I groan, scrunching my face up as I wipe his kiss from my mouth. Secretly wanting to hate on him as it just makes me realize that the only lips that I want on mine are from the very silent and brooding man, standing in the aisle who’s fuming at Daniel.
I look over at Jacinta who’s holding a hand over her mouth trying desperately to keep her laughter in while Trey smirks over at us with that same mischievous gleam in his eyes.
“Bianca,” Miss Layton reprimands with disapproval dripping from her voice as she looks down at me. “You shouldn’t let a man treat you like this. It’s not healthy, especially for a young woman. You must have more respect for yourself than that.”
My eyes swivel to meet hers in fury. I mean, who is she to preach on showing respect for yourself? She’s the one going around campus flaunting her feelings for Rylan. I go to open my mouth, but Rylan’s eyes snap to mine with a clear warning not to make the comment that he knows I’m seconds from letting fly.
“Don’t worry about her, she loves it when men treat her like shit. It’s her thing,” Daniel says with a wicked smirk, cutting me off. “Besides,” he adds as his eyes flick to Rylan with a hidden warning. “You know us guys, always messing around on the ones that matter.”
Rylan shoots Daniel a murderous glare as he smirks back at him. At that, a snort comes flying from Jacinta as she clamps her hand harder over her mouth with tears streaming down her face as her body shakes in silent laughter. Seeing Jacinta like this, I can no longer control my emotions, a wide, wicked smile breaks across my face and I join in with her laughter.
“Isn’t that the truth,” Miss Layton says finally picking up on the fact that Daniel is messing with her. She rolls her eyes at him and makes her way down the bus. Rylan passes lowering his regretful eyes down at me and I know he never intended to hurt me.
“Ugh, I can’t believe you kissed me,” I say to Daniel. “But you know you’ll have hell to pay on Monday for that one?”
“It was worth it,” he winks as he pulls his arm tighter around me, giving me the comfort he must know that I crave as the bus pulls out.
After a short bus trip, Mr. Garcia, our designated trip leader stands before us, dishing out all the usual rules. “The time is now 10 am,” he starts. “We will meet back here at 3 pm. All students under the age of eighteen are permitted to stay within the building,” he says indicating to the shopping mall behind him. “As for the rest of you, feel free to explore the area. Keep in mind there have been Vampire sightings in this area,” he adds, causing Rylan’s eyes to flash in my direction. “Though, I doubt anything will occur in the middle of the day, do remain cautious. Now, I have your chaperone’s contact details in case of an emergency. Once you have taken them down, you can get lost.”
I opt for not taking down Rylan’s contact details, I imagine having his number stored in my phone would never be a good thing, though Jacinta clearly doesn’t hold the same reservations as she adds all the chaperones contact details into her phone, like the good little girl she is.
The four of us head off into the mall. Jacinta and I browse through as many stores as possible and I successfully get my mind off Rylan for the first time in weeks. Trey and Daniel stand out the front of each store, moaning about how long we’re taking and holding as many bags as our saving accounts can possibly manage.
We take a break and get lunch while we figure out what we’ll do to occupy the rest of the day. Jacinta sucks in a breath and I stare at her in confusion as her eyes brim with excitement. “What?” I say, grumbling around a mouthful of food.
Her sparkling eyes meet mine over the table. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
I glance to the boys for a little help but they look just as lost as I feel. “Umm…clearly not.”
“Over there,” she says, pointing across the food court to the hair salon. “What better way to mend your achy breaky heart than to get your hair done?”
I scrunch up my face and shake my head. ‘I’m so not feeling a hair appointment today,” I tell her, taking another bite of my lunch.
Trey lets out a relieved sigh and mumbles a “thank God,” under his breath.
Jacinta falls back into her seat with a groan. “You’re such a party pooper,” she scowls, picking up her apple juice and sucking through the ridiculous paper straw until we hear the familiar sound of the empty bottle.
I shrug my shoulders. “Sorry,” I murmur as I catch sight of the reason my heart is hurting in the first place. Rylan stands in front of a salad bar, paying for whatever healthy goodness he’ll be gobbling down later, but it’s not the sight of him that has me flying to my feet and grabbing Jacinta’s hand, it’s Ms. Layton who stands beside him, looking as happy as a pig in mud as she prepares to have a lunch date with my man.
“I change my mind,” I tell Jacinta, storming towards the hair salon. “We’re getting my hair done. I’m thinking purple.”
“Purple?” she shrieks as the boys scramble to catch up with us. “That’s a bit much, don’t you think? I thought maybe a few highlights to help brighten you up.”
“I don’t need brightening,” I grumble. “I’m as bright as the damn sun. Now, are we doing this?”
Jacinta grins and roll her eyes. “By all means,” she says, fightin
g a laugh. “Let’s turn you purple.”
----------
I look in the mirror, staring at my new hair. Jacinta was right, I needed this more than I knew. I should have done it ages ago. I feel like a whole new me. The purple is edgy and fun, a complete contrast to how I’ve been feeling for the last little while. It starts as my natural brunette, strong and fierce then morphs into a royal, vibrant purple at the tips; a perfect match for my personality.
It was definitely worth it, especially watching as the boys sat outside the salon, whining about their boredom while Jacinta shot them death glares.
I flick my hair back over my shoulder and smile wide. Fuck, that feels weird on my face. I haven’t done that for a while.
A whole new confidence comes over me and I strut out of the salon feeling like a boss bitch. Jacinta and I find the boys sitting on a bench and the second they lay their eyes upon my new do; they both start their exaggerated fawning.
Daniel wolf whistles, gaining the attention of the whole food court. “Baby, where have you been all my life?” he murmurs low as Trey begins to fan himself.
“Shut up,” I laugh, knocking Daniel on the shoulder as they get to their feet. “What are we doing now? We still have an hour before we have to go to the bus.”
Jacinta shrugs and looks around our group and as none of us can really come up with a plan, we come to a vote, deciding on taking a walk and exploring the area, not caring about breaking the underage exploring rules.
We walk and talk for ages, getting lost in each other’s company when a blood-curdling scream comes from the alley beside the building.
“What the hell?” Trey asks as our training kicks in. Dropping all our shopping bags, Trey, Daniel, and I take off towards the sound. Another agonized scream comes tearing up the alley, followed by a hollow, monstrous laugh that has my blood running cold.
Soul and Disaster: Slayer Academy (Book 1) Page 23
