Rei's Outfit^
3. Monday Morning Week Two
Trying to assure Noah that everything was fine with me after I showed up drenched and visibly frazzled was difficult but luckily I was good at bullshitting and so eventually, he dropped it and we continued partying the night away.
Not at Staircase though; I needed to get as far away from the club as possible. I managed to convince everyone that I had seen this really cool club on our way over here and that we should check it out and so we did.
Jasper and his mates were actually pretty cool and we ended up having loads of fun together as a group; it was great at keeping my mind off of Eli. We stayed out late, like really late. Like 3 am late.
To say my Nan was pissed when I got home would be an understatement. She was so angry that she made me go to work at 8 am the next day hungover and unbelievably tired. Yeah, I know; pure evil.
My work friend Sarah helped me out though; she manned the tables whilst I just worked on the till for the whole day. Bless her.
Anyway, it was now Monday morning and my anxiety was through the roof thinking about the fact that I was about to enter a confined space (school) that was going to contain the boy I had been trying to actively avoid and not think about since Friday (Elias Ryker/Hood Guy). I smoothed my hands over my pink cotton smock dress and gave my knee-high boots a little tug in a poor attempt to prepare myself. I could do this. Taking a deep breath, I shrugged my bag onto my shoulder and exited Noah's car.
"Friday night was so good Rei-Rei, I went home with this really hot blonde and - "
"Okay, Noah, let me stop you there," I turned and grabbed his shoulders, "I love you, but I swear, if you talk to me about one more meaningless hot blonde, brunette, ginger, whatever, I am seriously gonna disown you as a best friend...and maybe key your car." I turned to look at the said car, his beloved black Pontiac G8, and nodded my head, "yeah, I'll definitely key your car."
Walking towards the school, my confidence began to grow as I told myself that Elias definitely would not approach me. Nearing the gates, I slowed my pace to allow Noah to catch up with me.
Reaching my side, he pouted at me, "that wasn't very nice, I was just trying to tell you about my weekend and you had to go insult my baby." I rolled my eyes and carried on walking. Noah knew me better than anyone, though and grabbed my shoulder to stop me, "Hey, you ok?"
I smiled at him and shook off my doubt, "yeah No-No, I'm fine." He nodded his head as if I'd given him the answer he wanted and swung his arm around my shoulders, my smile broadened as I completely forgot about my reason for being scared.
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My first three periods went by pretty smoothly. There was the usual teasing from Lana about how I was gonna be on my own but I decided to be the bigger person and just flip her bird as I walked away.
The third bell rang and I packed my bag as quickly as possible to try to escape the hell that was English class, but of course, my teacher just had to ask me to stay behind.
"Miss Cole, I know we've only been back a week but now is a good a time as any."
What on earth was this old crone on about?
"I've been looking at your essays from last year and I must say, I am quite impressed. Your view on the literature is often unique and your skill at providing evidence to back your opinion is profound."
Huh, maybe she wasn't such an old crone.
"I would really appreciate it if you would tutor some of my younger pupils"
Yep, never mind, definitely an old crone. Now, how do you politely say, hell no?
"Mrs Graceford, I really don't know, I would love to help you out but I'm not sure if that's such a good idea."
That was a pretty good response, right? Polite but obvious.
"It will get you extra credit, Miss Cole."
Or not so obvious. However, I was kinda interested, what could be the downside? Oh, wait, kids. Kids in my free time, yeah no.
"Miss, I'm really sorry but I just don't want to."
Couldn't get more obvious than that.
"Okay Miss Cole, I'm not going to force you, the offer stands if you change your mind."
I smiled at her gratefully and left the room to an empty hallway, the bitch had wasted 5 minutes of my Nutella eating time. Ah, Nutella.
See that was my first mistake, getting lost in a daydream about nutty chocolatey goodness.
My second mistake was not screaming when some heathen dragged me into an empty classroom.
My third was yelling at him like I was somehow in charge of this situation.
"Who do you think you are? I almost dropped my Nutella you piece of shit, then you really would have had it. Jesus Christ, some people just have no manners these days. I mean, all it takes is just a tap on the shoulder and a 'Hey, Rei, can I talk to you for a minute?' There is absolutely no need to basically INDUCE A GODDAMN HEART ATTACK!"
Panting and out of breath from my very ladylike scolding I then chose to look at who I yelled at and who did I see; none other than Elias Ryker or as I named him: Hood Guy.
Fuck me.
He raised an eyebrow with a scar through it, "I'd rather not thanks," he rumbled in a deep sexy voice.
Wait, what? Did I just say that out loud?
Wait, did he just...reject me? Asshole.
"For your information, I didn't mean to say that out loud and I definitely did not mean it in that context," I paused to scan him up and down for effect, "yeah, no, you wish Boxer Boy."
That was my fourth mistake, the stupid nickname, I just couldn't keep my mouth shut. One minute I was stood there feeling stupidly confident, the next second I was pushed and pinned against the door with both of my hands in one of his above my head and a very angry but very sexy boxer in my face.
"So you did see me on Friday before you ran off?" He really did have a sexy voice, but for someone so gorgeous he clearly wasn't all that brainy.
"Well, obviously, it's kinda hard not to see someone when they open a door on your face and then proceed to walk into you?"
"I wasn't looking for an answer"
"Then why did you ask a question?"
"Shut. The. Fuck. Up."
"M'kay."
He seemed to be contemplating something in his mind as we stood there. I took the time to properly study his face. He was all sharp planes with his strong jawline and high cheekbones. Sooty eyelashes framed his icy blue eyes, so long and curled they seemed to go on forever. I tried my hardest to ignore the fact that he smelt so good. Like spice and leather.
"Are you fucking smelling me?"
Oh shit. Recover, recover, say something Rei. RECOVER, you dumb bitch.
"My name is Reillyn Cole," I sputtered out and then because I had apparently lost all brain function, I added, "and I love tigers."
No, no, no, I did not just say that. Tigers, Rei? That's how you recover? At least before he didn't know my name or my favourite animal! Oh god.
He raised that hot as hell eyebrow again, "tigers huh? Why does that not surprise me? For someone so small, you sure do have a big fucking mouth."
I rolled my eyes, "why does everyone keep calling me small? I'm 5ft 3, damn it! Maybe all you idiots are just giants," I looked up at his 6ft something self again, like literally craned my neck and looked up at him, "yeah, see, giants"
Okay, so he did not look impressed. Actually, if possible, he looked even angrier than he did when he dragged me in here. Starting to make sense why he needs to fight, a good way to release all that anger.
"You can't tell anyone that you saw me there on Friday? Do you understand?" I hadn't told anyone anyway and I wasn't going to. I figured there was a reason that he wanted to keep it a secret and what right did I have to tell anybody; none. But he didn't know that so I decided to be a bitch and push his buttons a little bit as payback for scaring the shit out of me: twice.
"Who says I haven't told anyone already?" I looked up at him all smug as his expression morphed into one of fury. Code red, code red, he's gone completely mental, send help or he will kill Rei.
"Who the fuck have you told?" His voice dropped, the words dripping with menace as they shot straight through me, "I swear to god, you better tell me who else knows or I will introduce you to a whole new meaning for the word pain."
Pain blossomed in my wrists as his grip on my hands tightened and fear spiked through me at his ferocious expression and at that moment, I believed him.
"Okay, okay, I lied, I haven't told anyone, I swear. Just let go of me," I wriggled about in his grasp trying to get free.
If possible, his grip tightened even more, he lowered his head so he was eye level with me, "you better not have, Reillyn Cole."
He released his grip on me and stormed out of the classroom faster than I could blink. I ignored the shivers that ran down my spine at him saying my name and sunk to the ground cradling my wrists in my hand.
I don't know how long I sat there, replaying the conversation in my head, trying to make sense of it all. But the more I replayed the conversation the angrier I got and by the time the bell went signalling the end of lunch, I was furious; that fucker was the reason I missed my Nutella sandwich.
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[20/07/2021] Edited âï¸
okay, so, I am heavily editing this book
the book is currently based in America, Seattle to be exact but I am British so that means that there are a lot of inconsistencies as I often let my own life / sayings / habits bleed into the book
for this reason, the heavily edited chapters, will not match up to or be consistent with the later chapters.
for example, the names of the characters kyle and kinsey i will likely change and so the later chapters will have incorrect names
of course, Im not going to discourage anyone from reading but i would recommend waiting until i have completed the editing process - I'll post on my wall when the process is done but for now, yeah, its gonna be a weird read ð