I had connected my carPlay with the stereo earlier, and crush by Sebastian Paul is softly playing through the speakers.
"I missed this."
I heard him, but I didn't respond. My eyes remained closed, my lips shifting into a tender smile as my fingers traced his constricted pack abs above the light fabric of his shirt.
It was the only communication we had ever since he pulled out of our driveway, with me clinging to him, having my heart erupts with euphoria.
Our phones had gone off several times, mostly his, but he had ignored it and squeezed our laced fingers until we stopped by taco bell for their drive-through service.
"I supposed you are hungry." He asked from above me, and I sat back in my seat and nodded my brows at him.
He smiled and winded the window beside me.
"What would you like?"
"Nacho fries," I answered, and he made an order for mine and a double-decker taco for himself.
As we wait for the attendant to prepare our order, I lean my back against the door, innocently facing Leigh.
"You cook at school?" I curiously asked the irrelevant question.
He takes my legs, stretches them from the fold position they were, over to his lap while he answers, seeming thoughtful himself, "Not really, we do have this Uhm... nutrition plans our coach is so strict about, but I think I've been in the kitchen a couple of times. At midnight mostly because my stomach tends to cry at those hours."
I giggled, and he smiled.
"What about laundry?" I asked, wanting to know how he has his routine planned. "Or do you get someone who does that for you too?"
"So, in case you're wondering, I miss a lot of benefits." He explained. His voice is as sweet as sugar.
"Does people miss any benefit when they go to Princeton?" I challenged with playfully accusing eyes.
His lips shrugged, his eyes thoughtfully heavenward, when be pointed, "Their girlfriend when she's not with them."
Smiling, I bite my bottom lip and look away from his charming smile that was proposing something I had thought of on a couple of occasions.
"Dad had talked of your grades, Ava. I am sure if you apply to Princeton, you will get in." He sounded serious and pleadingly.
He wants me to come with him!
"I can choose you for my roommate then and kick Charlie; he had been a very frustrating snorer."
I giggled and looked back at his hopeful eyes.
"Why not kick him out now then?"
"The housing system randomly paired us. Freshers don't get all the privileges like the upperclassmen."
"What? Don't tell me they do that shit in college."
"Oh, they do." He nodded with a firm expression on. "They perform this ritual every first day of resumption. Seniors and juniors will kidnap first-year students into the woods, strip them naked and make them swear to worship them until graduation. They will have it on video and make sure the victims don't talk about it. It's like a cult."
"Are you kidding me?" I exclaimed. Eyes popped out in fear and mainly in concern for Leigh and me. "They did that to you?"
"Mmm-hmm." He nodded with sealed lips, staring into the distance through the windscreen.
Was he bullied? How can someone like Leigh Boyce be bullied by anyone?
"I am going to tell Christain." I exhaled a frustrating laugh and started going through the call log, looking for his dad's phone number from the head unit of mom's Maserati, "I am not going to that school. That's for sure."
I am not joining a cult, nor will I succumb to another phase of bullying.
The call was about to connect when Leigh hung up and burst into laughter.
I stare back at him with perplexed eyes.
"I was just kidding, and you bought it." He laughs even hard. The sound was brimming with glee.
Asshole!
Embarrassed, I slap his arm and roll my eyes.
"Don't do that to me," I whined and kept a stern expression while his head fell back as he continued to laugh adorably from the driver's side.
I am glad he found it funny.
"You seem intense these days. Should I be worried? These small hands hitting me all the time." He said in between his laughter and grabbed my hands in his, but I jerked away and threatened to throw a punch to his rib.
His eyes instantly squeezed shut as though he was scared, but his lips were twitching, struggling to stifle a laugh.
"Oh yes, you better. I won't be gentle next time." I feigned an intimidating tone, and we both exploded into laughter when it registered in our heads as I threw a gentle jab around his ribs.
His hands took me by surprise and pulled me from my seat over to him until I was sitting astride on his thighs. I tried to escape, but he was stronger, and the steering wheel didn't offer too much space to pull back. He restrained my wrist behind my back and smirked, daring me to attack now.
I squirmed, wiggled, but he sat balanced, not at all fazed I might escape. I laugh and look away from his sharp emerald eyes dancing from the brightness of the night sky that aglow with colourful city lights.
"Does this mean all those hours in the gym didn't work out?" He taunted, his upper lip turned up. "Tsk Tsk. I expect more spice." He whispered seductively.
I will show him spice; it will be too spicy; he would need a cold shower.
Smirking, I inclined forward and grasped his plump lip between my teeth, not so hard, but enough to impress him. He grinned.
"Oh." His voice was barely above a whisper. "I still have the upper hand here, Ava."
"Are you sure about that?" I muttered and pulled away, rolling my tongue against the wall of my mouth while lowering down to his defined neck.
He tightened his firm hold when my protruded tongue started making flat strips along the budge veins on his neck.
"That's cheating." He gasped at the contact, and I chuckled wickedly.
I could hear his breathing increasing slowly and his skin warming up.
So I teasingly move along his feverish flesh and nibble his earlobe, sensing the shudders that vibrate through his body.
His grip was loosening, his chest was rapidly falling and rising, and his trousers swelling beneath me.
It mesmerises and excites me. At least his body is as affected to me as mine is with his.
"Ava." He moans and let go of my hand, grabbing a fistful of my hair; my head pulls back, jutting out my neck for him. I smirked at the flame in his unblinking eyes as he drew in a deep breath and latched his lips onto my neck.
It felt like being electrocuted in the most pleasurable means. Every cell in my blood snapped awake and rushed the flow of passion I've ever felt for him.
My hand slid under his shirt and moved obstructively along the smooth surface of his strained stomach.
"What are you doing to me?" He groaned in my ear and clashed his lips onto mine. I let go of a breath I didn't realise I'd been holding and melted in his deep, eagerly kisses that brought me bliss and euphoria while moaning in his mouth.
"Your order is ready." Says an intrusive voice from the half-open window.
Just great!
We quickly tilted and found the attendant suppressing a smile.
"Uhm..." "Thank you." Leigh and I mumbled at the same time.
After making the payment, We remained speechless and only smiled at each other before I switched back to my seat and snuggled next to him like early.
He pulls onto the main road, and I look up at him from his chest. A smile that radiates happiness is set on his face.
He must have sensed my stare because he tilted, and our eyes met. His were adorably inward and glowed from the light of the city. He broke the contact off and had his eyes back on the road that cuts off to hills high.
Acid roiled in my stomach as a punctuating feeling constructed in my chest.
"What are we doing here? I don't want to be around Lilith and her friends or anyone from school." My voice was quiet. I am trying to control my emotions.
"I don't want to be around anyone per se. I am not taking you there." He promised when all I was seeing was my school building ahead of us.
"Then what are we doing here, Leigh." I am not attending their event, and if this is his description of fun, then there is a big problem, for I am not going in there.
"I have some matter to clear. Then we can go have some fun, anywhere you want." He said and parked in the school car park that I've been away from since the last day of junior year.
When I stare through the windscreen without any word, he turns his body to me and promises, " It will take only a couple of minutes. You can come with me. I won't let anyone hurt you."
"I will stay here."
"You sure?"
"Yup," I smiled small, and he sceptically watched me before he finally agreed to leave alone, "Okay, keep the doors closed until I return." He suggested, and I nodded. Doing so immediately, he shuts the door after him.
There were a couple of vehicles aligned in the car park, but it was dark and quiet. I turned up the volume and embraced myself. Keeping a watchful eye on the stillness of the outside through the glasses.
One minute turn to five, I couldn't resist the chilling feeling of someone abducting me in this vast space.
It had overwhelmed me that I rather confront the fear of facing Lilith and some of the idiots that go to hills high, since according to the numbers of vehicles outside here, there are quite a lot.
So I push open the door and run down into the building.
There were distant clamours filled the hallways, coming from the assembly hall.
I practically race down to the door and shove it open.
There are familiar faces everywhere, all that were rejoicing at Kai's bloody figure struggling to stand before a prideful, now even bulkier than before, Tyron Bertram.
The asshole was smirking at the audience while circling the dumbest human being I've ever seen.
For fame, these kids would do anything, including casting their souls to hills high famous graduate students.
I roll my eyes and let them search for Leigh among the crowd, those who were hyping and drinking from bottles of beer.
Then suddenly my eyes fell on my best friend who decided to stop talking to me because I had been hiding things from her. Not that I blame since we had made a pact not to keep secrets from each other.
"Tori?" I called, hoping she will at least play the we-are-in-good-terms card before the eyes of our schoolmates, but her complexion hardens, and she tells Marc and the rest of the two boys Marc hangs with to come grab some more ice.
"Seriously?" I called in disbelief while they walked away from me.
Marc being the nicest waved at me and shot me an apologetic smile.
But still, I feel the urge to tell him Evie will hate him for this.
I stood glued to the floor, watching Tori change location and join Lisa along with the group of assholes that consist of Jackson and the rest of the school athletes.
"Here?" Someone nudges my arm. I turn to my side and find Quincy holding out a red plastic cup.
"Thanks." I smiled at him and collected the liquor.
"Isn't that foolish? Tyron is going to kill him." He scoffs and takes a gulp from his cup.
We both sigh and concentrate on the unfair fight.
"It's pure absurdity." I agreed. "Why not just go to the festival?" I ask and take a sip from the sour combination of liquors Quincy had offered me.
"You tell me. Your sister's boyfriend organized it all." There was venom in his tone as he spoke. If only he knew no one could impress Lilith, he did be pitying Clark, not feeling hatred towards him.
"Believe me. He is not her boyfriend." No one is.
"Oh then, she must really be good at playing people."
"She is just being..." I started, but he interjected, "A bitch."
The fuck!
I moved back and blinked at the angry man frowning at me. "I am sorry, what?"
"Look at her behavior. She's out of her mind, screwing every jerk that moves like a slut."
Instinctively, the urge to defend Lilith became prominent, and I didn't realise my knee was headed to his groin when I warned, "Do not talk about her like that." Until he stumbles and falls back on his knee, attracting the attention of everyone on us.
Oh shit!
My eyes wandered around the suddenly quiet hall; everyone was staring at me with amused eyes. When I avert my gaze to where Tyron has Kai on his knees, too, he seems not to care about the starlight I stole from him. He blows me a kiss and smirks mischievously.
Run!
It was my instinct, and that's what I went for. Ignore Quincy insults. I push open the door of the exit and escape the chaotic room.
The moment the door closes behind me, the noise continues. I lean against the wall of the hallway to breathe, but if I thought I could find solace here, then I was silly.
"I thought you weren't coming." Said a French accent that prompted my eyes to open.
Can I find peace for once in my life?
"She's a little hypocrite." Lilith slurred, her green eyes partly alive. She had a bottle of liquor in her hand.
Behind her were her two best friends, also drunk, two bored-looking Francios girls and two alerted boys, including Clark.
"I thought English people don't lie. Didn't she supposed to be a good girl?" Quinn asked her friends.
"Ah ah... She's an imposter. That's what she had ever been." Lilith accused. Bringing her fingers to squeeze my cheeks. I slap her hand from my face and shove her, but Clark and the other boy I've never seen were quick to trap me back against the wall.
I felt my phone buzzing from my coat's pocket, but I couldn't reach it; the boys had my hands pinned against the wall.
Breathing was impossible. I could barely see through my blurred eyes.
"Leave me alone." I choked on tears.
"Or what, little sister?" The corner of her mouth turns up.
She snickered maliciously and stepped closer, brazenly staring into my eyes; I flickered my gaze over her shoulders and gnawed on the walls of my cheeks to stop the tears from falling.
"You scared? Wanna go running back home like the baby you are?" She mocked in my face.
"I bet she will get lost again, and the cops had to go find her and bring back her ass." Someone said among the girls, but I was mentally shuffling between the confusion in my head; I couldn't recognise anyone's voice.
Lilith was threatening me.
She had men caging me for her amusement of vengeance over the hatred she had only shown me.
I haven't done anything to hurt her that cruelly for her to bestow this pain upon me.
"And Susan will smack this pretty little face, hard until it's all flush." She drawled, slapping my cheeks repeatedly with her cold fingers.
It stings. Everything stings. I could feel the scar etching permanently in my chest.
Words had stuck in my clogged throat. I only kept trying to free my wrists from the boys firm grip.
There was nothing I could do, not even shouting. It was useless. The blaring noise of the crowd from the assembly hall could swallow every sound I made.
Nothing was going to save me.
"I am going to tell your little obsession with me." I croaked, feeling the stab of her betrayal penetrating my heart to the wall of my back.
"Oh babe, you are mistaken. Although you're half right. I am obsessed with you." She laughs along with Quinn and Suri. "But in a blood vessel ripping kind." She firmly noted. "See, Ava, I hate you. I like playing with your brain, and what you think was love, baby, it was game." Those predatory eyes glare dagger at me as intense as a hungry wild animal.
"Oh, did she think she was precious? That you love her?" Suri scoffs and leans over to Quinn's conspiratorial whisper behind Lilith.
Allison and French Claire hadn't spoken or made any reaction, but they didn't try to stop it either. They only stood behind and watched my sister attack me.
"She likes to dream about Disney princesses, so she thought of a prince charming for herself," Lilith told Suri without taking her drilling glare off of me.
"How selfish." Quinn sarcastically disagreed.
"I am not gay, Ava. But I kiss girls I like." Lilith smirks and excitedly pulls Suri's neck, smacking their lips together for a deep kiss while the idiots restraining me chuckles at the entertainment. The two girls both giggles when they pull away and turn back to me. "You? I just wanted you to feel valued for a minute before I break you. And here, mission accomplished." She winks and proves another point through sultry, pulling Clark by his neck chain.
He let go of me, and like a dog, he tails her, excitedly pushing her against the wall, while she moans, "I like boys. I've always liked boys." And let him have her right there while the girls giggled at the disgusting scene that got me feeling nauseous.
I could pull out of the last hold. I could push them all and escape this hell. But my feet were welded to the floor.
In horror, I watched the girl I had her back some minutes ago get willingly groped in front of me until a voice broke the trance I was frozen in.
"What the hell?"
It was Tori. I've known her enough to recognise her voice.
She sounded angry and ready to fight my battle. But it was late; my heart was long broken.
I tilted my head over to where she was standing with a furious expression, and a knife dug inside a big red apple.
"You bitch." She has screamed, I guess, for I could only read her lips. I was losing my hearing and everything that made me human.
But at least I regain a slight amount of awareness and rip out of the clasp, then advance for the exit. Breathing hard and fast while I ran down the endless haunting hallways until that fresh wind slapped my face.
It was now I blindly sought for retribution. I will not be good. I will not be kind. Hell, I would inflict pain upon the people who deserve it. I will not be the one taking the beating all the time. I shouldn't restraint myself in a box and let everyone throw me around like a ball.
"Ava?" Tori called behind me, and I waited for her before I snatched the knife from her and raced down the car park.
Panicked, she kept following behind me, calling me to stop, but I was clouded with the pain I needed to share with others.
When I reached the shiny white range rover that was parked in its usual space, I crouched and stabbed the tyre. It cut through and rendered the flat tyre immediately.
I did the other and the other and other, blocking every pleading and caring advice from Tori.
"Ava, you are going to get yourself in trouble." She cried while I wandered aimlessly around looking for any weapon, and my eyes landed on some set of bricks, sitting by the bike bollards of the school.
I grabbed two and furiously walked back to the car, breathing heavily.
"Ava, pleas-Oh my God." She exclaimed when I shot the solid brick against the windscreen. It cracked the huge glass into a mess and somehow mended a tiny part of my wounded heart.
If Lilith was going to make me cry, then she should be ready for her apocalypse because Christian wouldn't be only angry, she left home when she shouldn't; no, she drove her car when she was grounded and got it crashed at an illegal fireworks display in the school premises.
I bet she won't dare show her face at home today without presenting this trash called car. And then, I will sit back and watch her get disowned.
"Ava?" Shouted a voice that induced my body immobile. "What happened? What are you doing?" Leigh cluelessly asked, panting as though he had been running for hours.
"What is she doing." He asked Tori clearly since it was only the three of us in the quiet space.
"I don't know. She was running from Lilith and the rest. It is all I saw." She fearfully explained as I threw another brick and got it through the windscreen.
There was a weird silence that passed after Tori's words, except for the crashing sound of the glasses while I hurried back to get more bricks.
"You can tell your dad," I told him and wiped my wet eyes with the back of my hand, then knocked down his sister's window.
While I continued, my best friend and my boyfriend/stepbrother had frozen in their stance, staring at me or perhaps pondering on their choices before Leigh snatched a brick from me and exhaled.
"She deserves it anyway." He hissed and tossed the brick through the rare window, blowing the entire glasses. They shattered before us.
While I watched in shock, Tori had groaned,
"Screw it." and picked the knife from the pavement, taking part in the vandalism by giving me a hand in scraping the surface of the glossy paint.
Wide-eyed and slack jaw, I wondered. "What are you doing?"
"Being your jail cell companions, clearly." Tori shrugged while Leigh delivered more bricks and handed me some in my arms.
I smiled and pulled Tori into a hug and shelve a kiss for Leigh.
Those words were all I needed to sew my torn down, heart.
And in the next ten minutes, the vehicle that had driven me to school, my first day in hills high, was wreaked according to my emotions.
Tori and I laughed hard, imagining Lilith reaction when she came out and realised she was really screwed, having happy tears streaming down our faces like days when nothing mattered.
"Take me out of here," I asked a quiet Leigh, and he stepped forward to hold me but stopped instantly when his eyes flew to my friend. He seems to be contemplating.
"She knows," I informed him, and Tori nervously smiled at us.
Leigh circles his arm around me and helps me to our ride.
I heard Tori whispering to him, "You should take care of her." but I safe her the embarrassment of knowing I heard her and acted oblivious to their little interaction.
"Later." She said, and I waved before she turned away and walked back into the school.
Against the car, Leigh grabbed my hands in his. My fingertips were freezing, so his hands warmed me up.
Eyes down, he mumbled, "You are bleeding." and kissed my fingers.
"It's just a prick," I mumbled.
He is regretting what we just did, isn't he?
Then it dawned on me; I just made him choose between his sister and me.
I opened my lips to apologise when he blurted against my fingers. "I am sorry, Ava."
But why?
Why isn't he looking at me?
"You did nothing. I should apologise." Not him.
"Is like you said, everything is connected to me." He swallowed, his lips brushing my fingers while he spoke hesitantly. "I shouldn't have brought you here. But I did and look; you're a mess because of me."
What?
Is this why he is sad?
"It is my school. In some weeks, I will be back here. Don't blame yourself." I slipped my hands from his and cubbed his jaws, pushing up on my toes to kiss his cheeks tenderly.
He smiled and pulled me into a comforting hug that reminded me of how lucky I am of having him here.
After a minute, he helped me into the car, circled and hopped in too.
Slowly, I was fastening my seat belt when my eyes flickered outside the vehicle and met a figure staring at us.
It's too dark to tell who it is, but it sure wasn't Tori.
My breathing stopped while watching the person take a corner and disappear into the darkness.
Did we just get caught? But we didn't perform any inappropriate act, did we?
"Maybe we should drive away and never stop until we are out of this state." Leigh proposal snapped me out of the terror going in my brain.
"You are joking, right?" I asked him.
"No," He shook his head, his expression serious.
I let out a deep breath and lean my head against the window while he drives out of the school car park with our hands intertwined by the centre console and regrets finally making their way into my head.