“You know that’s not what happened,” I say, annoyed that he’s ignoring whatever this thing is between us. “Why can’t you just admit that there is something here?” I ask with my heart on my sleeve as I indicate to the space between us.
“Bianca,” he sighs. “There’s not. You’re my student, that’s it. You were there and I took an opportunity that I shouldn’t have”
I shake my head in disbelief as my heart silently breaks. “That meant something, Rylan,” I tell him, not ready to give in just yet as I feel my eyes growing heavy with unshed tears. “That’s not the way you kiss someone if you’re just letting off steam. I could feel it and I know you felt it, too.”
His eyes fill with emotion and I realize I’m right, he feels that connection between us no matter how much he wants to deny it’s there. He looks away from me, putting a stop to the conversation. “You should go,” he tells me as he starts the engine once again.
I give him one last lingering look before taking my things and closing the door behind me. I step away from his car and force myself to keep walking, leaving my heart behind and refusing to look back. I hear his car back out of the spot and take off down the road, far away from the Academy and far away from me.
----------
I collapse on my bed, ignoring the million questions I’m getting from Jacinta as she begs for information on the navigation test. I fall into a deep sleep as exhaustion takes over my body. Exhaustion from the physical marathon I’ve put my body through or exhaustion from the emotional one? I’m not quite sure.
I wake at 7 pm and throw myself into a shower, taking pleasure in the feel of the hot water on my skin. I scrub my body trying to rid myself of the feel of Rylan’s body pressed up against mine, but the memory is ingrained deep within.
I head down to the cafeteria for some decent food as my tummy rumbles like you wouldn’t believe. I find Jacinta and sit down next to her and she immediately launches into her questions. The second I try to answer, the emotional floodgates open and a sob comes pouring out. Jacinta takes one look at my face, scoops up my dinner and drags me back up to our room.
She sits me on my bed and curls up beside me as the tears run their course, knowing I won’t be able to get a word in until it stops. Twenty minutes later, I wipe away my last tear. I eat as many bites of dinner that I can possibly manage and spill every last detail of my navigation test from the first fight, to the bullet chain which I hold tightly in my grip, the nearly morning kiss to the actual afternoon kiss. She listens intently to every detail of my story with her mouth hanging wide open.
We climb under the covers together, snuggling into my pillow while she gives me the hugs I so desperately need. “So, you might not be ready for this, but if you are, please describe every last detail of that kiss,” she says. “I can imagine it was hot.”
A wide grin spreads across my face. “You better believe it was hot. It was amazing,” I say, launching into the details of the most memorable kiss that I’ve ever gotten. I tell her all about the way he held me, the way my hands roamed over his naked chest, the feel of his lips against mine. And I know for sure that no man will ever be able to give me another kiss that even comes close to the way he made me feel.
----------
I wake the next morning and check the time. 7.03 am. Great. I’m late. Rylan is going to kill me. Oh well, I throw on my workout clothes and rush out the door, tying my hair up as I go. I push through the gym doors and come to a standstill when I find Ben, the casual Instructor, waiting for me.
“Um, hi,” I say, confused. “Where’s Rylan?”
“Ah, not sure really. He asked me to fill in. He said he had some things to do,” he says, indicating for me to sit down and get started on my stretching.
“He had some things to do at 7 O’clock in the morning?” I scoff, knowing exactly why he isn’t here. Anger runs through me as I at least had the balls to show up today.
Ben ignores my comment and launches straight into what he wants me to do. An hour later, my body is aching and I’m impressed with Ben’s abilities for one on one mentoring, though nothing compares to Rylan’s.
I make my way back to my dorm to prepare myself for the school day, wondering just how long Rylan thinks he can avoid me for. Though, it can’t be that long as we have combat training this afternoon. That should be interesting.
----------
It has been the longest two weeks of my life. It’s been two weeks since the navigation test and two weeks since he has spoken to me or even looked at me for that matter, and I swear, going into training every day and seeing him there, acting like nothing happened and not being able to talk to him, to even touch him, feels like I’m slowly dying inside.
I sit in the cafeteria during our lunch break, pushing my food around my plate with a fork. “Alright, I’ve had enough of this,” Jacinta declares. “You’ve been sulking around ever since that test. I’m putting us on the list for whatever outing is going on this weekend and I’m getting you out of here,” she says, leaving no room for any argument.
“Fine,” I mutter, eyes still trained on my lunch.
“Oh, sounds exciting,” Trey mocks from across the table.
“You shut it,” she demands. “I’m putting both your names down as well.”
“What? No way,” Daniel screeches. “How’d I get roped into this?”
“Because you’re Bianca’s friend and what she needs right now is her friends to give her a good day out.”
“Fine,” he huffs. “But just saying, if she just dated me like I had planned, none of this would be happening,” he says smugly.
I scowl at him from across the table and he throws me a wicked grin in return, managing to get me to crack a smile. “You would have liked that wouldn’t you?” I fire back. “But you have Nora to keep you warm at night now.”
“You know it,” he winks.
“Oh, my god,” Jacinta says. “The two of you shut up. You’re like children.”
“Come on, babe,” Trey says with a smirk on his face. “You know you love it when they’re like this.”
“Whatever,” she scoffs, as we get up at the sound of the bell. “I’ll head over after class and write our names down.”
Trey, Daniel and I head into our last combat session for the week, and as usual, my eyes instantly search him out, only this time, he actually looks up and I find myself stopping in my tracks. The hard eyes that I’ve become used to over the past two weeks suddenly soften and makes him look as though some sort of weight has been lifted off his shoulders.
“You’re late,” Rylan scolds from across the room, apparently reverting back to being our jackass instructor as his eyes leave mine and take my heart with it. We move deeper into the room as Rylan begins the session while avoiding me at all costs. I catch Treys and Daniel’s eyes on me every now and then, checking how I’m holding up, but it’s pointless, they know I’ll never show any signs of weakness during this class, even if it kills me.
The bell indicating the end of class finally rings and I head over to the stairs to grab my bag, going as fast as possible, certain he’ll call out for me to explain, but nothing comes. Though, I shouldn’t be surprised, he doesn’t owe me an explanation. I’m not his girlfriend and clearly never will be, just a student who crossed the line. After all, he’s had two weeks to explain and a million chances to do it. If it’s not happening now, it probably never will.
I head for the door and grab the handle when the door is opened from the other side and pushed open. Miss Layton walks out in front of me. “Oh, Bianca,” she says with her hand on her heart. “You frightened me.”
“Sorry,” I mutter, trying to step around her.
“Bianca, before you run off,” she says, reaching out and putting a hand on my shoulder to stop my hasty escape. “I wanted to apologize for what you saw the other week. It was extremely unprofessional of me.”
“No need to apologize,” I say, wishing she would drop dead so I could get out of here.
“Sorry, Love. I just can’t seem to help myself around him,” she says as if we’re best friends gossiping about the sexiest guy in class. My eyes involuntarily flick toward him to see his gaze trained on us with curiosity and suspicion written all over him. I turn more towards the door and she finally gets the hint and gives my shoulder a squeeze before sending me on my way.
A permanent scowl fixes to my face as I turn to step out the door, hearing her voice behind me calling in delight. “Rylan, what do you say about a late lunch?” I cut off his response as the door slams shut behind me.
I walk into Daniel on the other side of the door. “You okay?” he asks in a hushed tone. “That was a bit rough.”
“Tell me about it. But yes, I’ll be fine,” I say, giving him a fake smile.
“You’re such a liar,” he says, looping his arm through mine. “Come on, apparently Jacinta and Trey have date night in my room and I need a break from Nora, so looks like it’s just you and me for tonight,” he says, dragging me off towards my dorm where he leaves me with a promise to be back once date night starts with a selection of scary movies to keep my mind off Rylan.
Later that night, I send Daniel out the window with his collection of all the Paranormal Activity movies which we laughed at the whole way through. Jacinta comes barging in through the door with two minutes left before the Friday night curfew kicks in with a dreamy smile on her face.
“I take it date night went well?” I ask as she flops down on her bed.
Her head snaps up at my question, lost in her own thoughts. “Huh? Oh yeah, date night was great,” she sighs. I take a closer look noticing the swelling of her lips.
“Spill,” I demand. “I want to know all the details.”
She looks up at me with a blush creeping into her cheeks and a wide smile spread over her face. “We had sex,” she blurts out, instantly covering her mouth, shocked she said anything.
“WHAT?” I yell. “I had no idea you were even thinking about that.”
“Yeah, neither did we,” she says. “It just kind of happened.”
“Wow,” I say, pleasantly surprised. “Give me all the details. Was it perfect? Did it hurt? Was he good? Oh God. Tell me he was gentle with you? Because if he wasn’t, I’ll kick his ass.”
“Yes,” she laughs. “Too all of that. It was perfect, well, it was kind of awkward, but once we figured it out, it was amazing. You know, after it stopped hurting.”
“Wow,” I repeat. “I kind of thought I’d be first,” I laugh.
“Yeah, I kind of thought that too, well, actually I thought you would have done it years ago,” she laughs.
“Hey,” I yell, hitting her across the head with my pillow.
“It’s true,” she defends. Still laughing hard as she wipes a stray tear from her eye until she can recover. She lets out a sigh and lays back into her bed with a dreamy smile plastered on her face.
I lay in bed, watching as she basks in the memories of her perfect night. Jealousy courses through me, knowing that a reality like that with Rylan is getting further and further away as he’s probably doing the exact same thing with Ms. Perfect Layton right now.
I fall into a dreamless sleep clutching at my bullet chain, holding onto the only piece of Rylan I feel I have left.
----------
It’s Saturday morning when Jacinta and I get up and put a little extra effort into ourselves. We head down to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast and to meet the boys. We sit around chatting until it’s time for us to get on the bus to head for our day out, which apparently is to the mall.
We gather around the bus waiting for whichever teacher will be in charge when Rylan and Miss Layton join the group of teachers that have gathered around.
“Perfect. Just what I need,” I mutter.
Jacinta turns at my mumbling. “What was that?” she asks.
I nod my head discreetly in Rylan’s direction showing her the new addition to the chaperones. She spots him immediately and an angry scowl comes to her otherwise pretty face. “Damn it,” she fumes. “This was supposed to be a nice day out for you.”
“Don’t stress,” I say, trying to lighten her mood. “We can work out where he’ll be, which I’m sure is anywhere near her and avoid them like the plague.”
“You sure? We can go next week if you’d like?”
“No, really, it’s ok,” I say. “Besides, if I leave now, it’s pretty damn obvious to him why and I refuse to let a male have that kind of power over me.”
“Dramatic much?” she laughs as we begin to pile on to the bus.
“Shut it, whore bag,” I say, dropping into the seat beside Daniel who automatically brings his arm up and around my shoulder, pulling me in close as Miss Layton gets onto the bus followed by Rylan.
She walks down the aisle with Rylan trailing behind and stops by my side as she eyes me and Daniel. “Are you guys dating now?” she gushes. “How cute.”
“Oh no, no, no,” Daniel says correcting her with a smile in his voice, one that after a lifetime of friendship, I recognize as mischief. “I’m dating Nora, but Bianca here, she’s just a little fun on the side,” he smiles. “You know what I mean,” he adds with a wink then pulls me in closer, grabs my face and draws me into a hot and heavy kiss.
I slam my hand down onto his chest and push off him. “Get off me, you grot,” I groan, scrunching my face up as I wipe his kiss from my mouth. Secretly wanting to hate on him as it just makes me realize that the only lips that I want on mine are from the very silent and brooding man, standing in the aisle.
I look over at Jacinta who’s holding a hand over her mouth trying desperately to keep her laughter in while Trey smirks over at us with that same mischievous gleam in his eyes.
“Bianca,” Miss Layton reprimands with disapproval dripping from her voice as she looks down at me. “You shouldn’t let a man treat you like this. It’s not healthy, especially for a young woman. You must have more respect for yourself than that,” she scolds.
My eyes swivel to meet hers in fury. I mean, who is she to preach on showing respect for yourself? She’s the one going around campus flaunting her feelings for Rylan. I go to open my mouth, but Rylan’s eyes snap to mine with a clear warning not to make the comment that he knows I’m seconds from letting fly.
“Don’t worry about her, she loves it when men treat her like shit, it’s her thing,” Daniel says with a wicked smirk, cutting me off. “Besides,” he adds as his eyes flick to Rylan with a hidden warning. “You know us guys, always messing around on the ones that matter.” Rylan shoots Daniel a murderous glare as he smirks back at him.
At that, a snort comes flying from Jacinta as she clamps her hand harder over her mouth with tears streaming down her face as her body shakes in silent laughter. Seeing Jacinta like this, I can no longer control my emotions, a wide, wicked smile breaks across my face and I join in with her laughter.
“Isn’t that the truth,” Miss Layton says finally picking up on the fact that Daniel is messing with her. She rolls her eyes at him and makes her way down the bus. Rylan passes lowering his regretful eyes down at me and I know he never intended to hurt me.
“Ugh, I can’t believe you kissed me,” I say to Daniel. “But you know you’ll have hell to pay on Monday for that one?”
“It was worth it,” he winks as he pulls his arm tighter around me, giving me the comfort he must know that I crave as the bus pulls out.
After a short bus trip, Mr Garcia, our designated trip leader stands before us, dishing out all the usual rules. “The time is now 10 am,” he starts. “We will meet back here at 3 pm. All students under the age of eighteen are permitted to stay within the building,” he says indicating to the shopping mall behind him. “As for the rest of you, feel free to explore the area. Keep in mind there have been Vampire sightings in this area,” he adds, causing Rylan’s eyes to flash in my direction. “Though, I doubt anything will occur in the middle of the day, do remain cautious. Now, I have your chaperone’s
contact details in case of an emergency. Once you have taken them down, you can get lost.”
I opt for not taking down Rylan’s contact details as having his number stored in my phone could never be a good thing, though, Jacinta clearly doesn’t hold the same reservations as she adds all the chaperones contact details into her phone, like the good little girl she is.
The four of us head off into the shops. Jacinta and I browse through as many stores as possible and successfully get my mind off Rylan for the first time in weeks while Trey and Daniel stand out the front of each store moaning about how long we’re taking and holding as many bags as our saving accounts can possibly manage.
We take a break and get ourselves some lunch while we figure out what we’ll do to occupy us for the rest of the day. We come to a vote, deciding on taking a walk and exploring the area, not caring about breaking the underage exploring rules. We walk and talk for ages, getting lost in each other’s company when we hear a blood curdling scream coming from the alley beside the building.
“What the hell?” Trey asks as our training kicks in. Dropping all our shopping bags, Trey, Daniel and I take off towards the sound. Another agonized scream comes tearing up the alley, followed by a hollow, monstrous laugh that has my blood running cold. I run harder, knowing exactly who it is I'll find when I turn that corner.
Running full speed ahead, I call back to Jacinta who’s struggling to keep up. “Call Rylan, tell him we’ve found the vampire.”
“How do you know it’s him?” she calls back, between breaths.
“I just do,” I screech, not having time to explain further.
We turn the corner and I come face to face with the monster who has haunted me for the last nine years. My heart races as memories of that day threaten to take over my senses, but I can’t allow it, I don’t have time to dwell on my past. We push forward down the shaded alley and even though he hasn’t looked up, I know without a doubt that he can sense us here.
“What’s the plan?” Trey shouts.
Destruct: The Guard Trilogy (Book 1) Page 23