The moment I opened Mia's door, I was met back with the irritating sight of Henry and his displeasing-sized, blonde-haired head staring back at me. My frown deepened.
Observing him from head to toe, I noticed he'd changed his clothes since school, and had freshly washed hair. It sickened me.
Henry's smile that had previously been on his face slipped in a second as he took me in. It was without a doubt that both of us were unimpressed by the other one's presence.
His eyes narrowed, confusion overtaking his expression. "Ethan? What are you doing here?"
My eyes rocked between his slowly, deadened, and emotionless as I wondered what my next move should be.
Feeling Mia's movement beside me, I decided to work quickly.
"She's sick, go home," I snapped rudely. Then before he could even speak, I started to slam the door in his face.
Mia quickly pushed past me, and annoyingly caught hold of the door before it had time to close. "Wait no," I'm fine," she rushed out in a panic as she quickly flew the door back open. She threw Henry, a kind apologetic smile, one that made my blood boil at who it was being directed at.
"Sorry, about that Henry, come on it," she said with a nervous laugh before pulling the door further open to make room for him.
I, on the other hand, made no move to get out of the way. Like a stiff unmovable wall, I stayed still and locked eyes with Henry as I completely blocked up the entranceway.
Henry eyed me warily and let out an awkward cough before attempting to uncomfortably squeeze his way past me. To my irritation, he managed to succeed and soon entered past me into the hallway. Kicking the door closed, I turned around to face them, annoyed my plan had failed.
A part of me was genuinely tempted to fully fake a heart attack, so Mia would be forced to ditch this prick and take me to the hospital instead. It would be immoral yes, but effective.
Henry turned to Mia with a smile, one that was all gooey-eyed and sickly. Do not fake a heart attack. Do not fake a heart attack. "My living room is the first door on your right," Mia explained as she nodded her head behind her.
As Henry walked forward ahead of her, Mia hung back slightly until she was at my side. My heart fluttered. Take that Henry, she wants to walk with me, not you so go, fuck yourself.
Suddenly, Mia turned to glare at me, her eyes firing away in the way I was far too used to. I hated how much I liked the expression; how much I missed it. Then just as quickly as the appearance of the glare, her hand whipped out to smack me on the shoulder. It was firm enough to let me know she meant business. She was pissed.
I couldn't help it and the corners of my lips tugged up ever so slightly, threatening to turn into a smile.
Deciding to play with her, I turned to her with wide, innocent eyes. "What? You looked a little sick to me?" I shrugged, feigning cluelessness.
Mia threw me a flat look, a look that told me 'I don't believe you for one second.' Her lips edged slightly up, but she wouldn't let it turn into a smile.
Rolling her eyes hard, she pushed ahead of me and into the living room.
As we entered, I found Henry waiting patiently on the sofa. His expression brightened as he locked eyes with Mia, but then swiftly dullened as he spotted me in the doorway.
"I didn't know he would be here as well..." Henry muttered, his eyes falling slightly as he looked me over. I could see irritating rocking between his eyes.
The image of his disappointment was almost enough to make me smile.
Mia let out a breath of a laugh. "Yeah, I have no idea why he's here, just ignore him," she said before taking a seat next to him on the sofa.
My eyes narrowed in on her, at her words, my jaw locking together hard. Ignore me? Well, we'll fucking see about that...
"Did you bring your chemistry books?" Mia asked as she turned his way.
Henry's expression went deathly cold, and his eyes started to dart around the place. It was the expression of someone who'd been caught out. Turning to Mia, he nervously scratched the back of his neck with a laugh. "I'm such an idiot, I completely forgot my bag," he explained, the nervousness in his tone only intensifying.
Realizing I was going to have to take a seat if I had a chance of stomaching any more of this bullshit, I leisurely moved forward and relaxed back against the armchair at the side.
"How strange. It's almost as though you weren't planning on studying at all," I drawled as I raised an inquisitive eyebrow in Henry's direction. Henry squirmed in discomfort under my gaze, clearly knowing I knew exactly what he was thinking.
"Or-" Mia snapped. "He could have just forgotten his books because he forgot his books."
I let out a sigh, a frustrated one, annoyed at how clueless she was being. How could she not see that this idiot wanted her?
Mia rose to her feet, and for a second, I had a brief hope that she was on her way to kick him out of her house. To my disappointment, she looked down at Henry with a smile. "It's fine, we can just revise from my textbook," she explained before marching to the corridor to likely retrieve her books from her bag.
In the seconds that she was gone, I kept an icily still gaze on Henry while inspecting him from head to toe. I couldn't help but wonder if Mia already had a thing for him, and if so, why. Henry's throat worked furiously as he shifted anxiously in place, avoiding my gaze altogether.
I was about to ask him sassily why he hadn't asked me or Lucas for help if he was struggling so bad, but Mia jogged quickly back into the room before the words had a chance to leave my lips.
She was walking a little too fast, perhaps in fear that I would murder Henry if she left the two of us alone in a room for too long. It was smart of her â that's all I was going to say.
The sofa bounced lightly as Mia returned back to the place beside Henry. It had taken all the strength in the world not to hook an arm around her waist as she passed by, and keep her with me. On my lap, and most importantly away from Henry. I didn't of course. I was supposed to be mad at her, furious. Though as my gaze focused on the far too slim-looking distance between Mia's right thigh and Henry's left, I suddenly wasn't all too fond of my decision.
"Is there anything in particular, you want help with?" Mia asked softly as she turned Henry's way.
Henry who was relaxed back a little too comfortably on the sofa, shrugged passively like he couldn't have given any less of a shit. "Nah, you can pick."
A scoff escaped past my lips and my eyes narrowed, hardly able to process how shit he was at pretending. At least when I had pretended to tutor her as a ploy to hang out with her, I'd at least prepped some material for us to go over. Fucking amateur.
Mia's brows furrowed, in a frustratingly cute way. "Okay, I guess we can just do thermodynamics; a lot of people find that tricky," she sighed as she started flipping through the pages of the large textbook on her lap.
Then I sat back and listened as Mia started explaining a question on the page. Her voice was calm as she explained and comforting, with not a hint of condescending nature to her tone. She'd always been good at explaining things â it was a quality about her I'd always admired. I found myself peacefully listening for a while, her voice naturally distracting me and causing my heart to feel all kinds of warmth.
No, Ethan snap out of it. You're here on business, not to get all sappy at the sound of her voice.
I cleared my throat, bringing my mind back into focus for another few seconds. Mia kept throwing Henry kind glances every few seconds, to keep his attention and it was starting to piss me off. Deciding she needed to pay more attention to me and not to Henry, I cleared my throat deciding to interrupt.
"That's wrong, you need to divide it by two because it is diatomic," I piped up in the middle of her sentence.
Mia's stopped talking and her head sharply swung up to look at me, her eyes darting between mine in irritation.
I tried hard not to smile, feeling smug that my plan had worked, and those warm brown eyes were now all on me, and not on Henry.
"Actually, Ethan, if you hadn't so rudely interrupted me, you would know I was getting to that," Mia spat back at me, her eyes flaring with rage.
She was right, she probably was getting to it, but that was far from the point. The only thing that mattered was gaining her attention, and distracting her, and it seemed as though it was working brilliantly.
I chuckled lightly, my eyes shining away as I looked at her. "Sure, you were babe," I said, an amused smirk plucking up the corners of my lips.
Mia scoffed, her head recoiling back a little. "Babe? Who the fuck are you calling babe?" she snapped rudely, clearly thinking I was being a little condescending dick.
I arguably was yes, but it was for a good cause. It was for the charity of cock-blocking Mia at all costs. In case you hadn't realized, I was a very generous donator.
Henry cleared his throat softly, interrupting our little stare-off. "Do you mind if I use the toilet?" he asked suddenly.
Mia turned his way, the anger falling from her eyes. "Erm...yeah sure. It's just on the left," she said weakly, gesturing in that direction.
I watched with pride as he left, feeling tempted to trip him up on the way to the bathroom. Our arguing was clearly making him uncomfortable which I delighted at. I hoped he stayed in the toilet, or better yet found a way to drown in it.
As soon as the door closed behind him, I let out a light snort before turning back to Mia. "You scared him off with your craziness, you know," I laughed.
Mia turned to glare at me. "Or maybe he was fed up with your obnoxious and condescending attitude," she sneered.
It was a fair point; I was being obnoxious and condescending, but I didn't regret it for a second. The more we bickered, the less attention she'd place on Henry, and the quicker he'd go.
Wanting to mess with her, I put a hand on my chin and leaned forward as though I was deep in thought. "That's strange, that's not what you were calling me this morning. Correct me if I'm wrong but weren't you the one sending me love notes telling me how I'm a 'keeper' and how my 'sexiness was a crime,'" I taunted, my brow plucking higher.
Mia's mouth shut abruptly, and she blinked rapidly, her cheeks starting to burn an aggressive shade of red. Slowly, bit by bit she sunk lower on the sofa, clearly having some form of regret over her previous actions.
She lifted her chin slightly. "I'm surprised you even remember what they said since you ripped them up so fast," she bit back.
I became silent, the smile slipping from my face, the memories of why I'd ripped it up coming back all too fast. Except the thing was I hadn't even been strong enough to throw the pieces away, I'd kept them. A pathetic thing to do, I know.
Before either one of us had the chance to speak, Henry returned back into the room. He walked past me and reclaimed his place beside Mia on the sofa.
Except for this time, he'd placed himself way closer. Disgustingly closer. Mia who was already sitting pretty close to the armrest was shoved even further into the side by Henry's stupid choice to sit right by her side. The big-headed prick was squishing her.
I could see Mia looking awkwardly around, seeming to notice her current predicament as well.
My fingers dug into the side of the armchair as I glared off at Henry. I tried desperately to keep myself in place, and not drag Mia up off the sofa and away from him. Each second that ticked past the clock, made me more tempted to do it.
Mia soon cleared her throat and returned her eyes back to the textbook. Then picking up from where she'd last been speaking, she continued explaining the question.
However, this time, I wasn't listening, all I could focus on was Henry who was no longer even attempting to look at the textbook and was instead distracted staring off at Mia's face. A face that was far too close to his. What did this idiot think, staring at her face intensely while she read was magically going to make her want to kiss him? It better not.
My lips pressed together hard as I watched on, irritated.
"Does that make sense?" Mia asked softly as she finished, returning her eyes to Henry.
He smiled stupidly as she locked eyes with her, and there was a strange look dancing in his eyes, one that I didn't like at all. Mia shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.
"Henry, maybe you should try looking at the textbook instead of Mia's face, might help you to understand a bit better," I snapped sarcastically.
Mia threw her head back dramatically against the sofa with a groan before returning her eyes to me. "You're an idiot," she cried in annoyance.
"He wasn't wrong, you're kinda distracting," Henry answered with a smirk before throwing a flirty wink Mia's way.
Mia's face was heating up fast and she was looking at the floor in embarrassment. I couldn't tell if she was blushing because she wanted him to stop talking, or because she wanted him to continue. It put me on edge and made me furious in ways I couldn't even explain.
Well, in a way I technically could explain, but definitely wasn't ready to admit. I wanted Henry gone. Dead even.
My head whipped towards him fast. "Are you fucking kidding me?" I spat harshly.
Mia suddenly sat up straight. "I think it's time for a snack break," she said quickly with a nervous laugh, clearly knowing things were heating up.
"I'll get the snacks," Mia said as she quickly rose to her feet and marched towards me. "Ethan come with me," she said, snappily as she grabbed a hold of my wrist and tugged.
I sat rigidly for a second, still focused on glaring at Henry but eventually the light pull of her hand, and her distracting presence, made me climb to my feet.
She kept a firm grip on me as she pulled me after her and into the kitchen. My eyes dipped up and down her body as I walked behind her, something in me heightening and losing control.
All the repressed feelings, the conflict inside of me and the let's face it jealousy I felt towards Henry suddenly all exploded inside of me, in the most uncontrollable of ways.
The second, the kitchen door closed behind me, I lost control and suddenly my hands were snaking around Mia's waist fast. I spun her around sharply to face me causing a squeal to escape her lips before pushing her abruptly against the kitchen wall.
Her face was flush, and her eyes wide as she looked at me, her face only inches away. Her chest was rising and falling fast, in a way that was distracting me â taunting me even.
My eyes fell to her lips briefly, and I swallowed hard. I reminded myself desperately that kissing her was not the aim right now, no matter how tempting it seemed. I knew full well if I kissed her, there would be no going back. One press of my lips against hers, and I'd follow her upstairs, and do anything she wanted.
Drawing my eyes down to her neck, I reached out and brushed her hair behind her shoulders and out of view, wanting a clear and unobstructed target.
I watched as Mia swallowed before inching my way closer till my mouth brushed past her ear. There was a knot building up in my stomach, needy and desperate, in a way I couldn't control. This was the last position I should have found myself in with Mia after all that had gone between us, but my body refused to move away, refusing to give up what I wanted.
Irritatingly as much as I persuaded myself and bargained, both my mind and body, wanted Mia. Nothing but Mia.
I let out a frustrated breath before speaking, feeling conflicted at myself. "I'm still very fucking mad at you, but this needs to be done," I whispered against her ear.
The small shatters of my self-control snapped, and my mouth descended to her neck, and the next moments, my mouth was kissing the side of her neck.
"What are you....," Mia started to say in a whisper before her words died out in a breathy moan as I hit a particularly soft spot on her neck. The sound was like beautiful music to my ears, and I pressed myself into her firmer, the sound driving me on.
Her head melted back a little, exposing more of herself to me as I continued to kiss her and soon, I felt her hands on my back. She was gripping me tight, and it was shameful how much I liked it.
A smile pulled my lips as I started to kiss her with more hunger. So distracted from her touch, and the feel of her warm skin against my lips, I almost forgot what I was supposed to be doing. What my plan was.
Stopping, I started to suck at a particular spot, wanting to leave a mark for Henry to see. I was half-temped to call him in here, so he could witness this for himself.
The sounds that were leaving Mia's mouth were so sharp and sexy, I couldn't see to keep my mind straight, and I wanted so bad to finish things. To kiss her properly. To do more.
I placed a final kiss on her neck, before ripping myself away from her, knowing I needed to stop before I took things too far.
Locking eyes with her, I took in her breathless expression, and her dilated brown eyes that were rocking frantically between mine.
Do not kiss her again, Ethan. Self-control.
Distracting myself, I looked down at her neck, then smiled. A nice big obvious red hickey was forming in the center of her neck just as I'd planned. Unless Henry was stupid, this would send a message loud and clear.
"That should get that bastard to back off," I whispered before returning my eyes smugly back to hers.
Mia blinked two times, then her eyes brows pulled together harshly, the flustered look that was once in her eyes falling in a second as reality hit her. Hurt flashed through her eyes â sharp and strong causing the all too familiar repulsive feeling of guilt to return to my stomach.
Frowning, she glared me up and down before pushing me back hard causing me to stumble back a step. "You dick. What the hell is your problem?" she snapped.
My lips tugged down. "I had to, he's clearly too thick to take a hint," I scoffed.
Mia's brows furrowed. "Why do you even care? I thought you were supposed to be angry at me?"
My jaw went rigid at the reminder of that fact, and suddenly I was as miserable as I felt all weekend after hearing what she'd said. Her choice to hurt me.
"I am still very angry with you, but that doesn't mean I'm just going to stand idly by and watch your stupid tutor buddy try and work his way into your fucking pants," I snapped.
A frustrated breath escaped her lips. Why the hell are you dramatic? He hasn't done anything even remotely bad," she said as she pushed her way past me.
I watched as she grabbed a hold of a pack of Oreos from the cupboard with a stiff expression on my face. I was mad at her for not trying to do enough to drive Henry away, and even angrier at myself for caring and interfering.
"As soon as he thought he had a shot with you, he did something bad," I threw out.
"Just behave," Mia snapped before turning away, and marching her way out the door and to the living room.
I hung back for a second before reluctantly pushing myself off the counter and following after her.
Mia plastered a fake smile at Henry as she entered the room. "Here, I got some Oreos," she said before sitting back down beside him on the sofa.
Henry returned her smile, and the sight disgusted me. "Thanks, Mia, I appreciate it," he nodded.
"Thanks, Mia, I appreciate it," I said in a squeaky voice, imitating him as I flopped back down on the armchair.
Mia let out a deep heavy sigh, not even bothering to turn my way. "Just ignore him, Henry, he has some psychiatric issues."
My eyes slowly narrowed in her direction. The room soon fell into silence as Mia shared the cookies. Well, Mia hadn't technically intended to give me any, but I had rudely marched over to her and snatched a few for myself to eat.
What? Cock-blocking was hungry work.
As I was in the middle of chewing on my second biscuit, I swallowed with a smile, deciding to put my plan to work.
"Hey Mia, what's that on your neck," I asked with fake curiosity as I pointed childishly over to her hickey.
Mia's face turned towards me sharply, and she looked fully prepared to leap across the room at me any second. She wanted me dead.
Henry turned to look at where I'd pointed with a furrowed brow. "Erm...yeah, it kind of looks like a hickey, and I swear that wasn't there before...," he asked slowly, confusion overtaking his voice.
I chuckled in response. "Yeah, that's very true, it's almost as though Mia was messing around with someone when she went to the kitchen," I proposed with a smirk before taking another bite of my cookie.
Henry seemed to pause, and then his eyes slowly looked between the two of us. "Wait, are you guys hooking up or something?" he asked cautiously.
Yes, so fuck off.
"No, of course not," Mia quickly interjected, sending a spiteful look my way. "He's made it abundantly clear how much he hates me."
I bit my tongue, feeling frustrated that two parts of myself were conflicting with one another.
Mia then shrugged. "I suppose it must have been one of those stupid, blood-sucking mosquitoes," she smiled before throwing a sly wink my way.
My eyes once more narrowed. Did she just fucking call me a mosquito?
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