chapter 23

Isaac POV:

"-So now I love to come here whenever I can which is nearly every day, even when I don't order anything." Blaire finished explaining on how she had accidentally stumbled upon this parlour.

"Do you home school?" She seemed to have a lot of free time on her hands.

"No, I still have to go to school-" She started to respond, when I looked up from the booth we were in, to see someone that looked similarly close to Zavier.

He wouldn't be here though. Even Blaire had said that most time, non locals wouldn't be able to find this place easily.

It wasn't a small place, but it wasn't the biggest café he had been to. However, as soon as he had walked in, it had felt comfortable, the waiters warmly welcoming them in. The interior of the café was warm and cheery, with bright lights and colourful walls.

I looked away, and carried on paying attention to Blaire. "-And it's fine sometimes." I missed nearly everything she had said but just nodded, taking quick glances to look behind her.

It was fucking Zavier.

"Fuck." I groaned, slumping in my chair for the hope that he wouldn't see me.

"What's wrong?" Blaire looked behind her, then looked back, recognition in her eyes. "It's that guy from the party."

But he wasn't alone which was the worst thing. He was with the girl that had been eating his face off at the party. She was wearing a white bandeau top, showing off her belly piercing, paired with some black jeans.

Fucking hell. It just couldn't get worse than this, could it.

Well, it did.

Zavier's eyes were already searching the place, seeking somebody, when he saw me. Immediately, I slumped more into the booth I was in, but he was already making his way to our booth, ushering away the waiter who had gone up to him.

"Well, well. What a coincidence that the both of us are here." Zavier directed this to me, completely ignoring Blaire who watched on.

"Yeah it is." I paused for a few seconds then continued. "Well, that was nice. We'll see you later." But Zavier didn't take the hint.

"We might as well do a double date." Zavier's girl started to protest, but then he whispered something in her ear, and she smiled, biting her lip suggestively.

Weird.

I looked at Blaire, but she shrugged worriedly, mouthing sorry.

Wow, that sorry really solved all my problems. Thank you.

Of course, Zavier had to slide into my side of the booth, and his girl with Blaire.

"I'm Blaire and that's Isaac." Blaire introduced for the both of us. Though I'd say the introduction was mostly needed for the girl Zavier was with.

The girl didn't make any effort to show she had heard us, and was more focussed on her nails.

"I'm Zavier and that's Leslie." Zavier had to introduce.

I couldn't help the snicker that left my mouth at her name. Leslie? Really? Her parents did not like her.

"Anything funny you want to share with us, Issy?" Leslie finally looked up, an ugly sneer on her face.

I rolled my eyes, but didn't answer her. Great start already.

15 minutes later, we had somehow managed to order, the somehow being because Leslie kept changing her mind on what to eat and in the end, Zavier had to choose for her.

Now, Blaire was attempting to carry a conversation with Leslie, while I was doing the opposite with Zavier.

No way was I going to voluntarily start this conversation. I mean, it was just weird how he was able to be in the same spot at the same time as me.

And that's bullshit if you say coincidence.

But I had never mentioned doing anything today. Today was our rest day before the finals, so Coach had given us freedom to roam the town, but no further. I had hoped Zavier would've gone to some club with a fake ID then I could've been left alone.

But no, he decided to come here.

Another irritating thing was Zavier's leg that kept brushing against my mine. I swear he had moved closer to me, but when I had confronted him about that, he just made up some crap excuse saying that it was my imagination wanting it to happen.

As if.

"Enjoying this?" I didn't turn to face him, but I already knew he had a smirk on.

"I would've been if you and Leslie wouldn't have showed up."

"Don't lie." Zavier put his hand on my knee, making me confused. "It's 1000 times better with me here."

I tried to take his hand away, but he only made his grip tighter. "Fuck you, you want to snap my knee or something?" I whispered angrily.

"Are you okay Isaac?" I hadn't even realised Blaire had given up on her conversation with Leslie.

"Yeah I'm good don't worry." I gritted my teeth as I felt Zavier's hand slowly move up my leg.

"We were just talking about how you two play soccer right? And the finals coming up." She said 'we' but I know it would've just been her.

"Yeah it's going to be really hard competition, but we're aiming for a win." I spoke.

"You'll be amazing I bet." She smiled, and the presence of Zavier started to disappear from my mind, until he pinched my thigh, and opened his big mouth. "So Claire, what hobbies do you do?"

Her smile dropped slightly, but she still answered while I was recovering from the pinch that hurt like hell. "I love to paint. It's something I'm really passionate about actually." Her smile came back, probably thinking about her artwork.

"You should show me a few of them some time. Only if you want to." I hesitantly spoke, hoping she wouldn't reject me, and also that Zavier wouldn't pinch me again.

To my luck, she didn't reject me at all. "I'd love to." Was her answer.

I tried to move to the side, but Zavier started tracing circles with his fingers on my thigh, and it felt so good that I forgot about my futile attempts to escape.

But only for a second.

"Zavier, stop." I whispered weakly as his hand slowly moved dangerously close to an area where it shouldn't be, but to my surprise, he actually listened.

Well, half listened.

His hand remained on my thigh, but it didn't move any further up.

I tried desperately to ignore it, and have a conversation with Blaire, but every time my brain would start to kick the thought out, Zavier would kick it back in by either rubbing the side of my thigh gently with his thumb, or even worse, pinching it.

I just couldn't take it anymore.

"I'm gonna go to the restrooms before our order comes."

"That bladder of yours needs to be checked." Blaire teased as I stood up, feeling free from any type of arousal I was starting to feel.

On getting to the restrooms, I let out a huge sigh, grasping the small privacy I had now before I would have to go back to the table and join in with Blaire's attempts to keep a conversation.

Too bad it didn't last long.

"That bladder of yours needs to be checked." A squeaky voice that was definitely not Blaire's entered the restroom.

"That's not funny Zavier." I stepped away from the sink to face him.

"Good thing I wasn't joking then."

"Why do you not like her so much?"

"I don't not like her." He paused for a bit, probably thinking of some bullshit excuse. "She's just... not someone I'd be friends with. Am I not allowed to not like somebody?"

"Yeah you can, when you have a justification for it." I was going to lean against the wall, then remembered this was a restroom, and who knew the amount of germs that could be on it?

Zavier didn't say anything for a few seconds, staying quiet, before once again opening his big mouth. "You're such a simp."

"Using simp wrong. 1 point to me." I gloated. We didn't do points, but it just seemed fun in the moment since Zavier was getting so worked up over nothing.

"Fuck off." He stepped closer but I still smiled at the fact I was actually able to get under his skin, just by bringing up Blaire.

I at last had the upper hand over him, and I wasn't going to let it go easily. "Maybe I'll go to Blaire's room again." I pretended to ponder, but kept my watch solely on Zavier's increasingly annoyed reaction. "I mean, you're a fuck boy Zavier, which sex positions are best?"

Zavier didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. His jaw was clenched, further accentuating his jawline, and his eyes hadn't left mine once.

I carried on, so in my own bubble of pomposity, that I forgot to carry on watching Zavier's every move.

Until I was shoved lightly, but unexpectedly, causing me to stumble back into the wall.

The contaminated wall.

"You're so fucking annoying, you know that-" Zavier spoke calmly, leaning closer.

"Thanks." I interrupted him.

"-But so fucking irresistible." He mumbled, maybe not for me to hear, but I did.

And before I could say anything, Zavier's lips met mine and for the second time in less than a week, Zavier Reid was kissing me, and I was kissing him back.

My arms instinctively wrapped around Zavier's neck, pulling him closer to me as he deepened the kiss, feeling more confident. Our tongues became entangled, as I felt flutters in my stomach start to rise- that not being the only thing rising.

Thoughts of where we were completely vanished as all I could focus on were the soft lips working on mine, triggering sparks. Zavier pressed his body against mine, allowing me to feel the whole outline of his body, and let me just say, I was not the only one getting excited.

He started to grind his lower half against mine, his erection satisfyingly rubbing against mine as I held in a groan that threatened to escape at the contact of our bodies.

My arms dropped from his neck, and instead, made their way up his shirt, feeling his toned stomach, hearing a small groan from him which made me smirk against his lips.

His mouth left mine, the warmth immediately disappearing, before shifting to my neck.

I relished the feeling of him planting short kisses on my neck for an instant, but snapped back to my senses and pushed him away, ignoring the confused look on his face. "Not the neck dumbass."

"Why not?" With his hair all over the place, his pink lips swollen, and his heavy breathing, all I wanted to do was drag him to a room and do some inappropriate things, but this was reality, and we were in some unhygienic parlour bathroom.

"Because I'm not going to go back to the booth looking like I ran into a vampire who attacked my neck. That's why."

"Of course you'd be the one to ruin the mood." Zavier went to stand opposite the mirror, fixing his hair and adjusting his pants.

"There was no mood in the first place. I don't even know what we're doing. We're meant to fucking hate each other, not kiss every so often." I let my thoughts roll out, watching the way Zavier showed no emotion at my words.

"Don't worry Isaac, we'll go back to hating each other if that's what you really want to make yourself feel better."

"Wait, Zavier-" but he had already walked out the bathroom, leaving me in a hot mess of angst and confusion.

I didn't want to spend any more time in these restrooms, wondering if I'd rather have everyone know I kissed a boy, or think that I was constipated.

I would say the latter.

Walking back to the table, The order had now arrived while Blaire played with the straw of her milkshake. Her head shot up, maybe feeling my gaze on her, and upon seeing me, her emotionless face lit up and a smile grew on her face, as I had no choice but to sit back next to Zavier again, deliberately leaving as much space as I could.

"You took so long..." Blaire at once confronted me.

"Yeah..." I trailed off, hesitant of what excuse to formulate.

"And your cheeks are so rosy." Wow, it's not as if I had eyes.

"Uh huh." I stuffed a spoonful of the cookie dough ice cream that I had ordered into my mouth,  desperately wanting the conversation to shift from my appearance.

"Check your texts." She had an urgent look on her face, as if she was trying to indicate something to me.

"Why?"

"Just do."

I pulled out my phone and opened my messages to see a recent text from Blaire. I could feel Zavier trying to half lean over to read the texts, but I ignored his presence.

Blaire🦋: Should we try sneak out

me: you read my mind

Blaire🦋: Ah thank god

Blaire🦋: I thought you were enjoying this and I was starting to feel bad for wanting to leave

me: it's fine but how r we gonna do this

"Who are you guys texting and why are neither of you eating?" Zavier finally got fed up of straining his neck to peer over at my phone, and spoke up.

"Isaac's constipated."

"Blaire's having cramps."

We both said at the same time.

I mentally smacked my forehead; this wasn't a movie where there were side characters who were stupid enough to believe our blatantly obvious lies.

Even Leslie looked up from her phone with the most judgemental look on her face as she shuffled away from Blaire, as if cramps were contagious.

"Blaire's having cramps, and I'm...struggling with issues concerning the toilet." I bit my lip, glancing at the doors which seemed so close, but yet so far.

"Yeah." Blaire agreed weakly, but of course, Zavier wasn't convinced.

Zavier now turned to face me, "Are you going back to the room then?"

"No.. uh- Blaire has some really good treatment for.... you know what." I wasn't really willing to use the word constipation to embarrass myself more.

"Oh." Zavier now turned back to face Leslie.

Blaire eyed me worriedly as we sat in a pregnant silence, wondering whether to leave or wait.

After what felt like a million years but in reality, a few seconds, Blaire got up, doing some kind of stretch with her arms.

I took this as our cue to leave, and placed a random amount of money on the table, and joined Blaire so I was standing next to her.

"It's been great seeing you guys, but we're going to go sort out our... problems. See you guys later."

"But hopefully not." I muttered very quietly under my breath as I walked out of the parlour with Blaire.

"We're free." Blaire held out her fist for a fist bump, which I accepted, smiling back at her.

Free for no more than two hours when I would have to see Zavier again.

But for now, I could enjoy the time I had without him.

A/N: the way I be closing my eyes while writing these minor smut scenes ➖👄👁 .... they be moving fast but hey... who doesn't randomly hook up with their sworn enemy in a stinky bathroom? #relatable 22/10/20 updates will be sm slower now which is annoying cuz i used to be rlly ahead like 4 chapters ahead but then i had a 2 week exam timetable so i didn't have any time to write so now i'm no chapters ahead but i'm going to try get at least 2 chapters ahead so the next chapter might take a bit longer to come out but luckily, i'm on half term so woo :)