Ava scurries across the dance floor meeting me in the center, she’s fidgeting with her hands, nervousness flickers in her green eyes. Does she expect me to reassure her, to tell her everything’s going to be okay? I almost expect her to run away, surely she knows I won’t let her stay here after what she did?
I’ve successfully avoided her all night while knowing this moment would come sooner or later. I just didn’t think we would have the entire fucking guest list staring at us when it did. That kind of makes saying what I want to her without everyone hearing or seeing obsolete, and if I fuck up, ruining my father’s wedding by being an asshole, then he’ll hand me my ass ten-fold. The next song starts, and I take a predatory step toward her.
Run. Run as fast as you can….
Forcing my curled fists to uncurl, I reach for her, grabbing her by the hip, pulling her into my chest before offering my other hand like a complete gentleman. She gasps softly through her parted lips at the contact and I take pleasure in knowing that I can get even the simplest of a reaction out of her.
Hesitantly, as if she already knows what will happen to her, she places her much smaller hand into mine and this weird electric current zings through me. It feels like I’ve stuck my finger in a light socket, and I want it to go away, but in order to do that I would have to let her go, and I’m not ready to do that, not yet.
No matter how much I try, I can’t help but notice how soft and warm her hand is inside of mine, the warmth of her touch seeping deep into my veins. Warm? Soft? What the hell, when did I grow a pussy? Why the hell am I thinking about her hand, about how tiny it is? She’s nothing, nothing but a fucking con-fucking-artist. I hate how she makes me feel, that she can evoke feelings from deep inside me that I shouldn’t feel for someone like her…for anyone, for that matter.
So fragile, soft, warm.
“Hi,” she whispers, her voice like a wisp of air blowing through the trees, as we start dancing. Hi? That’s what she says after all this time. After what she did to me…what she did to my family? Hi? What the fuck?
She should be crying, begging me to forgive her, not rambling some fucking hi like we’re long lost best friends or something. The blood in my veins boil, but I rein in my anger. When I don’t answer her, she keeps talking, carrying on like the last five years didn’t happen.
“So, I guess we’re going to the same college?” she asks, peering up at me through thick lashes. Up close, she looks breathtaking, which only drives my stake of hate for her deeper.
“Don’t!” I scold, through clenched teeth. “Don’t fucking pretend we are friends.”
Her whole body stiffens at my words, and my grip on her hip tightens. Shock flashes over her features and again, I’m baffled by how ignorant to this situation she is acting.
It’s an act. Plain and simple.
She might be able to fool everyone else, but she can’t fool me. I won’t be ensnared by her beauty. I mean, what did she think was going to happen? That she could just come back here and I would forgive and forget that she fucked me over?
Wrecked my family and my life, just to save her ass. It was a simple dare, but it ripped my entire world to pieces. We were only kids, but there were consequences for your actions and while she carried on with her fucking perfect life I suffered.
Unable to stop myself, I pull her closer, so close that her perky breasts are almost touching my chest. I can’t stop myself from looking at them. The last time I saw her, she was hardly a woman, and now she’s grown into herself, her body finally taking shape, her hips flaring, her breasts heaving.
Her sweet scent permeates the air, filling my nostrils. Maybe if I didn’t hate her so much, I’d find it appealing, but instead, I tell myself it’s revolting. Ignoring the way she feels against me, and the urge to inhale her, I lean down, my mouth pressing to the shell of her ear.
“This innocent act you’ve got going on, it’s cute and all, but I see right through it. I can smell bullshit a mile away and you smell like you’ve bathed in it.”
“Wh…what?” Her body trembles in my hold and her breath hitches in her throat like she might be scared. Be scared, cry, run… get as far away from me as you can.
“This is your only warning. Leave, go back to wherever the fuck it is you came from…and I’ll take mercy on you, just this once.” I lick my lips, pulling back, letting my eyes drop to her slender neck. I can see her pulse thrumming beneath the skin, giving away her fear and I can’t stop the sinister smile that appears on my lips. I shouldn’t crave her pain, her fear like I do. I know it’s fucked up, but I didn’t do this. She did.