He chuffed, the sound offensive, but bent slightly, a hand raising to rub the area. Mirth twinkled in those oceanic eyes of his. "Not bad, Little Bit. That's the way you do it." His eyes sparkled as though he knew just what his tone had done. Maybe I needed to be mad to hit someone.For the rest of the hour, Knix went over several different defensive positions. He stressed that the goal of each situation was to get away, not stay and fight. His instructions were only to help me escape not start or cause fights. Even as he stressed that, I couldn't imagine myself doing so. His focus allowed me to settle into a similar mindset, soaking in every lesson he taught me. After every successful attempt at mastering a new position, a new defense skill, he would praise me. I found myself not wanting to let him down, not wanting to disappointhim.
When construction guys began to trickle back in from their lunch break, they picked their work back up and the noise level rose. Sweating under the intense southern heat, Knix led me back into the house. A dark shadow emerged from one of the upstairs rooms and I started insurprise.
"Bell," Knix said. "I thought you were–" He cut himself off, glancing at me. Whatever it was he had been about to say, I was apparently not privy to it. "I thought you weren't going to be here 'til later," he corrected. I picked at the hem of my shirt in irritation. It wasn't like I would scream their secrets to the world. If I had to trust them, they could trust me too, couldn'tthey?
Bellamy's dark hair was loose around his face, hanging to his shoulders. "I got done early. Thought I might come and check out the place." He stopped in front of us. "Maybe pick up Harlow while I was here." He grinned at me. "Heythere."
I shifted from one foot to the other. "Hey," I replied. His bronze skin was a stark contrast to the loose fitting white t-shirt and whitewashed jeans he wore. Several braided bracelets lined one wrist opposite histattoo.
"Yea, we just finished up. You can take her. Did Marv tell you about her exams? Did you get in contact withWiggins?"
"Yea, I did." Bellamy ran one palm through his hair, pulling it back away from his face. "She can take her history exam online. I already got the teacher to send it to me. She can do it at the apartment and she can work on her paper today." His eyes flashed as he glanced atme.
"Good, take her and get that done." Knix pushed me towards Bellamy, his hand warm in the center of my back. "I'll see you later, Little Bit. Begood."
"No promises," I shotback.
Bellamy laughed and ushered me outside, and into a new car, a newer model SUV. The ride back to their condo was much shorter this time. I rolled down the window and let the speed of the car whip wind at my face and through my hair. When we pulled into the parking lot, I hopped out and followed Bellamy to the frontdoors.
We used the regular elevators this time. I scanned the area for the bitchy looking front desk attendant, but she wasn't there so I guessed it was her day off. As the elevator doors closed behind us and Bellamy slapped one of the buttons, I was curious enough to ask about why we had used the service onesbefore.
"Marv's paranoid," was hisresponse.
The moment we stepped through the doorway, I was startled by an attractive male butt encased in sweatpants swaying as Texas crawled along the floor next to thecouch.
"Come on, little one," he cooed. "I'm not going to hurt you, Iswear."
Cleo's hiss of uncertainty had me laughing. He was on the floor, crawling, trying to appease my cat. She recognized my laughter and shot out from beneath the couch, near Texas' feet. Before he could react and grab her, Cleo's little, fuzzy body was wrapped around one of my ankles. I bent down to retrieve her while Texas sat up, pressing his back against the coffeetable.
"We were doing so well," he said. "I don't know whathappened."
I shrugged. "Cats are fickle, I guess." I petted her back and she purred in myarms
Bellamy chuckled as Texas stood and glanced between us. "What's up? I thought you were at the constructionsite."
Bellamy looked down at me before addressing Texas. "She's gotta do homework," he said. "Take a test, work on her paper, that sort ofthing."
"Ahh." Texas hummed as he moved back towards hisroom.
Bellamy shuffled in the opposite direction. "I'll make us some lunch," he announced. "I'll let you know when it'sready."
With Bellamy heading one way and Texas heading another, I wasn't quite sure where to go until Texas turned around and gestured for me to follow him. I clutched Cleo to my chest and let him lead me back to hisbedroom.
"Okay, Marv dropped your bag off a while ago with–" He motioned to Cleo. "Bell probably already forwarded you the test. It should be in your email. You get to work on that. Let me know when you finish. We'll be out in the living room or in the kitchen if you need us. You can get changed in here if you want to shower in the bathroom. We won’t botheryou."
I guessed I was using his room then because the moment he was done informing me, he turned and left the room. I sighed, placed Cleo on the pillow at the head of the bed, and shifted to sit down. Cleo curled up, scratching her paws along the surface a few times before fallingasleep.
Opening the laptop that I retrieved from my bag, I scrolled through my emails and found one forwarded from an unfamiliar address. Sure enough, my history teacher had sent me an online version of the final exam with instructions on how to go about completing it. I could already feel the pressure of the test throbbing in the back of my brain, but I got down to work and opened the document. The sooner I started, the sooner I could finish and it would all beover.