Chapter 23: 20. Sunday Week Six

I used the creepy face thing again, but it's exactly how I envisioned Rei's hair.

20. Sunday Week Six

Nervous, I tugged my oversized denim jacket closer around my body like a shield as Ty, my Nan and I all waited patiently for the Ryker door to be opened.

"Rei!" Debbie exclaimed upon seeing me, "you look gorgeous," she pulled the door open wider and then ushered us inside, "come in, come in."

We all heeded her instruction and Ty ran off in search of the other kids whilst I introduced Debbie to my Nan, "Debbie, this is my Nan, Mary. Nan this is Debbie." They greeted each other but before they could start chatting, I handed Debbie the twins' birthday presents. "The pink is for Ivy and the yellow is for Aspen."

"Aw, Rei. You didn't have to get them anything, let alone something for each of them," she said gratefully taking the presents off me and putting them on a table.

My eyebrows furrowed, "why would I not get them each a present?"

"Well, most people just get something big for the both of them."

"Really!?" I exclaimed, "how does that not piss them off?"

"Reillyn Cole!" My Nan reprimanded me, I gave her a sheepish smile in response before going out to the garden to find everyone else and leave them both to chat.

The garden was decked out very nicely. The pool had glass blocks over it which made a makeshift dance floor where all the little kids were running around like nutters. Ivy and Aspen's names were streamed everywhere and I don't think there was anywhere I could look without having pink and yellow balloons in my eye-line.

"Oh God," Kie admonished as she came over to me and grabbed my shoulders, "Thank God, you are here!" She began shaking my shoulders, "if one more kid even breathes in my direction, I swear I am going to have to kill someone," she looked contemplative for a moment, "it will probably be Arik, he is pissing me off today."

A loud laugh escaped me at her words, "calm down Kie. Come on, there has to be some alcohol around here somewhere."

"Urgh," she trailed after me, "there had better be."

After 20 minutes of searching we came up empty, so we decided it was best to join our friends. Seeing as this was Eli's sisters' party, it was only Arik, Kyle, Jasper, Kie and I from our group but on my way over to greet them, I was intercepted by none other than Eli himself. He grabbed my wrist and gently tugged me to the side of the house, away from prying eyes.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Um, your mum invited me. Well, actually I think it was the twins but your mum was the one who sent me the text."

Eli's eyes were narrowed and he did not look happy, "what the fuck do you not get about staying away from me?"

At his rude words, my temper spiked and I tugged my arm out his grip before crossing them and narrowing my eyes at him in return, "not everything is about you, Elias. I am here for your sisters."

"Leave now," he demanded quite rudely.

"Who the hell do you think you are? You can't just order me around and expect me to do your bidding," I exclaimed, my arms rising and falling in frustration with this boy.

"For fucks sake Reillyn!" His hands rose to run through his hair, he was likely frustrated also, how many times were we going to have the same argument? But then he looked straight at me, met my gaze head on before practically growling the words, "just stay the hell away from me," he then stormed off and got lost in the crowd.

It took me a moment to regather my composure and I had to push my intense confusion over Eli's actions aside before moving to join the party.

"He's in a shitty mood today, huh?" Raven questioned me, coming to stand beside me and handing me a much-needed drink — gin and tonic I discovered upon taking a sip, thank god for alcohol.

"When is he not recently?"

"True but you'd be more likely to know."

I raised a brow at her, "why is that?"

"Well you certainly spend more time with him than I do, I'm barely home anymore babe."

"Right," I was going to leave it there but then all of my pent up anger and confusion came bubbling to the surface. "Exactly, you are perfectly right. We spend so much time together yet I barely know anything about him, he is so closed off. Whenever I even remotely begin to ask him questions, he shuts down. And lately, it feels like all he does is push me away and I just don't know how to get close to him. I care about him, Raven, more than I want to admit but I can't deal with this hot and cold shit anymore. He runs in a million different ways and I have no clue what he wants," I paused to take a huge gulp of my drink before barrelling on, "like, he kisses me and then tells me to stay away from him? I don't get it. He tells me he is no good for me but he is always there with his stupid foreign pet names and I just—"

"Hold on a sec," Raven interrupted me, "you guys hadn't kissed before that Saturday I met you?"

I tucked a piece of hair which had escaped my bun behind my ear before shaking my head, no.

"Well, shit. I thought you guys were in a proper relationship at that point."

That pulled laugh out of me, I had to hold my drink out to stop it spilling as I hunched over, stomach shaking.

"Me and Eli?" My head shook back and forth but my laughs dyed down to chuckles, "a relationship? No way, I know nothing about that boy, Raven. He won't even let me in enough for us to be considered friends."

"Really? Then why does he let you call him Eli?"

I didn't have a chance to answer because, at that moment, Debbie came rushing over to us, "there you are Rei! I need a favour."

A perfect distraction, "Yeah sure."

"Please will you go find Ryker for me?" okay so maybe not a perfect distraction, "the twins want to cut their cake and he's most likely to listen to you."

Raven raised a brow as if to say 'I told you so' and I nodded slowly in agreement because Debbie looked like her head was about to explode due to stress.

Emotions churned through me as I made my way through the Ryker house. Eli was such a huge question mark, he had always been a question mark but ever since we had kissed, he had been pushing me away.

Stopping in front of his closed bedroom door, I gulped down the remainder of my drink for some liquid courage before raising my hand and knocking. There was no response so I pushed the door open gently and was immediately invaded by his scent, spice and leather enveloped me and it was all I could do not to take a huge breathe in like a creep. Instead, I stepped further into his room and noticed his balcony doors were open, I bypassed his bed and stopped in the balcony doorframe. There he was, leaning on the balcony railing, dressed in all black with a cigarette in his hand. Why did he always look so good?

"Hey," I stated lamely.

Eli didn't even turn to face me, he just blew out a puff of smoke, "what are you doing here, Rei?"

My hands played with the plastic cup in my fingers as nerves crashed through me, "um, your mum sent me, the girls want to cut the cake and they're waiting for you."

"Fine, I'll be down in a sec."

I was going to leave, I really was but something stopped me — probably the alcohol, I always blamed the alcohol.

"Jesus, Rei, you can go now."

"I told you, what if I don't want to?" A part of me realised how desperate I sounded but then I thought back to what Raven said and I remembered that Eli did care, even if he acted like he didn't. Or at least I prayed he did.

Another drag of the cigarette — why is that so hot? — before stating, "well I want you to, so fuck off."

Ignoring the sting of his harsh words, I took a step closer to him, now fully out on the balcony, "I don't believe you, Eli"

"That's your problem, Reillyn, not mine."

This time, when I stepped forward, I reached out to him. My plastic cup fell to the floor, forgotten, as I placed my hands against his back and felt how all the muscles tensed under my touch before I softly asked him the one question which was burning inside me, "why have you not called me tigru since we kissed?"

He released a sigh but after a few seconds, he turned to face me and dropped his cigarette to stomp it out. My hands fell beside me. Neither of us said anything, he leaned against the balcony behind him and like he always did, he burned me with his gaze. It travelled right from the messy bun on top of my head, down to my many necklaces, then to the denim jacket sheathing my white dress which was tight on my chest but flared at my waist. They then travelled down my bare legs, stopping on my bright pink converse where his eyebrow raised.

"No boots today?" He questioned.

"Eli," I sighed out.

Sensing my annoyance with his response he stepped forwards and grabbed the sides of my head, tilting my neck back to look at me, "you're fucking stunning, you know that?"

I inhaled a big breath of air and my hands grabbed onto his wrists to support myself as my knees felt weak at his words. My heart was racing out of my chest as I responded, "no, I don't think I do, you should prove it to me."

He grinned at my words, "prove it to you?" if my knees hadn't already given out they did at that moment.

"Yeah," I breathed out.

My lips remained parted and my tongue darted out to wet them, Eli's eyes were glued to the sight and they visibly darkened causing desire to flare up within me.

His hands fell to my waist and he squeezed as his hands rounded to rest on my bum. He lowered his head just as I raised mine and our lips clashed in a heated embrace.

Much like the first time we kissed, there was an urgency between us that wouldn't be denied. My hands looped around his neck as he squeezed my bum in response. I jumped up, hooking my legs around his waist as he then clutched the backs of my thighs.

My back was met with the cold wall of the balcony as he pushed me against it for support and I moaned into his mouth in response, our mouths moving against each other like we couldn't get enough.

His teeth gently bit my bottom lip and my mouth opened on a brief gasp before he swallowed the sound, his tongue caressing mine. My hands reached down and I grabbed the bottom of his t-shirt before trying to tug it upwards. He moved away briefly, both of us panting desperately for air, to allow me to remove it before hungrily descending on my lips again.

My hands ran across his abs, feeling the hard ridges beneath my fingers as his soft lips moved urgently against mine.

The support of the wall was gone and we were now moving back into his bedroom where he softly lowered me onto the bed and positioned himself between my thighs.

He pulled back briefly before giving me a slight smirk which made me roll my eyes, grab his hair and pull his lips back down to me; I was addicted to his taste.

He groaned into my mouth and his hands found my jacket which he then began to try to take off me. However, because I was lying on the bed, he had some difficulty and I ended up letting out a laugh against his lips before gently pushing on his chest, silently telling him to move off me. He sat back on his haunches and I swear I drooled a little at the sight of his mussed up hair, swollen lips and panting tatooed chest in front of me.

He raised a brow at my look before asking, "you gonna take the jacket off then?"

I nodded at his words and sat up to remove the jacket, he smirked before leaning back over me, his strong arms either side of my head holding his weight up.

"Happy?" I questioned, lifting my hands to run through his hair as he looked down at me.

"Very."

His lips came down on mine again and I smiled against them, our mouths moulded together so intensely it was hard to know where he started and I began. My hands ran through his hair, tugging slightly causing him to let out a low groan and pull away from my lips so that he could instead he move his lips down my neck. He kissed, sucked, bit along my neck and I couldn't stop the moans from leaving my mouth.

"Eli," I sighed out completely content with where we were right in this moment but my sigh soon turned into a scream when someone roughly shoved the door open.

"Huh, well this is unexpected," Kyle announced, casually leaning against the doorframe.

My cheeks burned bright red as I panted under Eli. Eli turned over his shoulder and growled, "fuck off, Kyle, we'll be down in a sec."

"I don't think I believe you," Kyle smarted.

"Kyle!" Eli warned.

"Yeah, yeah, okay," with that he slammed the door and scurried off to probably tell all our friends what he had seen.

As soon as he left I burst out into a fit of giggles under Eli and he rolled his eyes at me in response before sitting up and getting off the bed in search of a t-shirt. I was still giggling when he handed me my jacket and grabbed my hand, tugging me off the bed and down the stairs.

"Stop laughing, tigru."

"I can't," I told him as we descended the stairs, "I don't even know what I find so funny."

Eli didn't respond merely tugged me along into the kitchen but he had no choice but to let go of my hand when the twins came running over.

"Rykerrrr!" Ivy screamed before jumping into his arms.

"Can we do the cake now?" Aspen yelled before jumping into his arms also.

"Yeah, I'll be over in a sec," he told them as he placed them on the ground again, "I just need to chat with Rei." They both nodded before running off back to their party in the garden.

Eli turned to face me and I let out a little giggle at his appearance. His hair was all messed up and he had some of my shiny lip gloss on his lips still, I can't believe the twins saw him like this. I stepped closer then reached up and ran my fingers through his hair in an attempt to neaten it before wiping the lip gloss of his lips using my thumb but he opened his mouth and gently bit my thumb at the movement. His eyes darkened and I stepped away before we ended up doing something that would mean that the girls never got to cut their cake.

"Hmm," he stepped back from me, "you need to fix up too," he told me with a wink before turning on his heel and confidently striding back out into the garden.

Well, shit.

"Holy crap! You really were making out with Ryker!!" Kie exclaimed from my right, I whipped around and was greeted by the sight of her, Lana and Raven all stood there.

"Lana? What are you doing here?"

"Oh no, we are talking about you, not me," Lana said as they all made their way over to me.

"I was wondering what was taking you so long to go get him. Guess that solves the mystery..." Raven added in causing my cheeks to flame once again.

"Isn't Ryker your brother?" Lana asked her.

"My stepbrother," Raven explained.

"I really think we should be getting back to the party guys," I went to walk towards the back door but Kie stood in my way.

"Are those hickeys on your neck Rei?" Kie asked.

"What?!" I shouted out, tugging my jacket down to take a look, "why that little shit! I can't believe he gave me a hickey—"

"Hickeys, plural," Kie interrupted but I carried on.

"—at his little sisters' birthday party. My Nan is here! My little brother is here! This place is full of kids and he has the audacity to give me a goddamn hickey!" I took in a big gulp off air.

"Rei, it's hickeys," she emphasised the 's' sound, "as in, multiple."

"I am going to kill him."

Luckily for Eli, Rose chose that moment to stick her head into the kitchen, "girls, come on."

"Coming," Lana yelled at her over her shoulder before looking straight at me, "we are not done, Reillyn Cole."

No, we are not.

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2760 words^

Edited ✅

Ahhh, i just couldn't help it. I was desperate for you to have this chapter so...voila, I hope you enjoy.

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Anyway, happy reading lovely people.

nai 💟