He senses my presence and turns around. “Do you like living here?” Roman eyes lock on to mine.
“Yes, it’s my first place away from home. I like having my own space.” I answer him, not breaking eye contact.
“I don’t like you living here.” He grounds out.
I suck in a breath. “Where should I live then?” I ask in a whisper.
“With me,” he simply says.
“Roman, I can’t live with you,” my hands clench tighter onto my towel that is wrapped around my body.
“I’ll give you time to think about it, but you will live with me, eventually.” He says with finality. “It’s going to be sooner rather than later.”
I am at a lost for words as I stare at him. He moves to sit on my bed, back resting against my headboard and legs stretched out, ankles crossed.
Roman lifts his eyes back to me, and I stay standing with my mouth agape.
“Baby, you should get dressed. You’re going to be late for school.” His eyes move to my closet.
Right, I do need to get dress.
I saunter over to my clothes and ponder over what Roman has just said.
I get dressed in record time. We leave my place and Roman drives me to school, my hand clasped in his.
“Can you drop me off at the bus stop?” I ask as we are getting near the school.
“What bus stop?” Roman asks.
“Our bus stop,” I smile thinking back to the first day we met.
“Our bus stop,” Roman repeats, smiling.
He pulls the car along the curb right next to the bus stop and shifts the car to park. I lace my fingers to the back of his neck and press his lips to mine.
“I’ll call you later this week?” I ask breaking our kiss.
“I’ll pick you up after you’re done with your classes.” Roman says.
“Roman,” I say. “I…we…I’m always swamped with studying and homework during the week.
He smiles and caresses my cheek with the back of his fingers. “I’ll pick you up today and we will see each other this weekend.”
“Okay,” I kiss him quickly before opening my door.
I look back at him one more time before I climb out of the car. I wave goodbye and walk to the bridge.
My eyes drift right to my table when I am standing outside the door to my classroom.
I don’t see him. Kevin is not at our table.
Where is he?
I look around the classroom, searching for Natalie. I know that I won’t find her at her seat. She’s always late.
Are Kevin and Natalie together right now?
Did she spend the weekend with him?
I’m feeling bitter by the time I take my seat. My eyes lock on the door waiting for Kevin to walk in.
The moment I see them, my heart drops into my stomach and I feel nauseated. Natalie has on a black jersey dress and black knee high boots and is laughing at something Kevin said. She is looking at him adoringly. And he looks at ease, relaxed. He’s wearing a white t-shirt with a big face of a skull on the front and blue jeans. He’s always in jeans and looking sexy as hell.
Did he even think of me over the weekend?
Kevin turns his attention away from Natalie and he looks directly at me. His hazel eyes glittering green. His relaxed look is replaced with irritation.
I look away.
“How was your weekend?” Kevin asks when he sits down.
He doesn’t sound interested in the least bit.
“It was good,” I say, nonchalantly.
“Don’t fucking play with me, Angel.” He warns.
His words catch me off guard and my mouth drops open.
“What is your problem?” I hiss.
“I’m mad…at you,” he turns to face me.
I swallow the lump in my throat and try to give him a blank face. But I know my emotions are written all over my face. When it comes to Kevin, I find it hard to hide my feelings.
“But why are you the one looking like you just stepped on dog shit,” he continues his face stoic.
I burst into laughter and just like that, Kevin makes the taint on our relationship disappear. And as I look at him smiling back at me, I feel an overwhelming urge to grab is face with my hands and kiss his crooked smile.
I grab his hand instead. “I missed you,” I tell him honestly.
“Yeah, you thought of me all weekend even when you were with the rich douche-bag,”
“Kevin, please just take me telling you I miss you…and leave it at that.” I sigh.
Kevin doesn’t say anything back; he simply pulls my hands to his lips and gives it a quick kiss. All over my scars, it is as if he doesn’t even see them.
We drop each other’s hand when the professor walks in the door. As the professor goes over the class assignment for the day, I see Kevin giving me quick glances from my peripheral vision. My face breaks into a smile.
When the class breaks to pick up bones to study, Kevin gets up and goes to the back of the room where Natalie is sitting. I try not to think about the palpability that Kevin left me to go to Natalie. Instead, I zero in on the torture of having to memorize bones and their damn curves for the next three weeks.
Pushing my bravado to the surface I walk to the back of the room, where Kevin and Natalie are leaning against the counter talking to each other. My heart thumps in my chest, as I get closer to them.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” Natalie says, loudly when she catches me approaching them.
“Stop,” Kevin warns giving her a death glare.
“She makes me sick,” Natalie turns away from us and walks back to her desk.
“I’m going to teach her some manners, I promise,” Kevin cocks his head waiting for me to tell him why I walked over.
“I need you to study the bones with me,” I smile sweetly.
“Sure…” Kevin laughs. “Come on pretty smile, let’s go make those damn bones our bitch.”
Snickering, I follow him back to our desk.
Lola ambushes me at the front door as soon as Roman drops me off.
“Okay, Okay we can go out for chips and salsa and some margaritas,” I say laughing at her scowling face.
“You know I’m getting sick of you not sleeping here, you do live here you know.” Lola lectures me, hands on her hips.
“Oh my God…Lola!” I exclaim. “It was just two nights! And the first night doesn’t count, I was basically forced to sleep at Kevin’s house.”
“No…you didn’t need to sleep at Kevin’s house, you tart, you wanted too.” She smirks.
“I didn’t have my keys and you left with some guy without telling me.” I say frowning.
“Um…hello, that guy is Kevin’s brother, he could have easily called him to pick up the keys from me.”
Realization shocks me and I cover my open mouth with my hand.
“He didn’t tell you…did he?” Lola throws her head back and laughs.
“I’m going to kill him,” I promise.
“Sure, sure, let’s kill him after margaritas. Now, go put your backpack in your room.” She orders pointing to my room.
I do as I’m told and meet Lola back at the front door. She tells me that ‘the little Mexican joint is nearby so we will walk it’. Her exact words, not mine.
The humidity is high and I thank myself for wearing cream color linen shorts and a light baby blue blouse today. Lola does better than me; she has on a flowy flowery short dress.
“Did you know Aubrey and Kevin talked on the phone yesterday?” Lola asks.
I stop dead in my tracks. “No,” I stammer out.
“Well you shouldn’t care, right? Because you are with Roman.” Lola looks at me intently.
“No, I shouldn’t care and Roman and I are seeing each other, but we are not…exclusive.” I tell her.
“There is something there…you and Kevin…” Lola trails off thinking to herself instead.
“Kevin and I, what?” I ask narrowing my eyes.
&n
bsp; “I don’t know…” She trails off again.
“Lola Sanchez, if you don’t tell me right this minute, I’m going to pinch your arm.”
“Fine, fine, keep your claws to yourself,” Lola side steps to move a little bit away from me. “You and Kevin have this spark, it’s crazy, but you see it swirling around you guys whenever you are near each other.”
“Spark?” I arch my brows
“Yes, spark,”
Our conversation comes to a stop when we walk inside the restaurant. It’s crowded and noisy, filled with lots of college student.
“Hi, welcome to Anita’s…how many?” A short petite girl with blonde hair greets us.
“Two,” I tell her.
“Outside or Inside?”
“Outside,” Lola and I say simultaneously.
We giggle following the hostess to our table.
“Umm…B.T.W, Cody is joining us in a little bit,” Lola closes her eyes and turn away from me as if she is anticipating a blow to the face.
I don’t answer her until we are seated at our table. “Did you just say an abbreviation as a word?” I stare at her incredulously.
“So, what’s the big deal,” She says laughing.
“Well…” I start to tell her everything that is wrong with what she just did, but decide against it. “When will Cody get here?”
“In an hour, I told him I wanted to spend some alone time with you first.”
I nod and look down at the menu that was placed for us by the hostess.
“Hi, ladies my name is Juan and I will be your server today, what can I get you to drink?”
Our waiter is a tall bald headed guy with pretty dark eyes.
“We know what we want, can we order everything now?” Lola asks.
I stop looking at the menu and focus my attention on her. Lola grins and gives me a quick wink. I shake my head at her.
“Yes, you may,”
“We will have six tacos, carne asada, a large order of cheese quesadillas, extra sides of jalapeno peppers and two mango margaritas.”
“Sounds good,” The waiter walks away after he was done writing everything down.
Our margaritas and complimentary chips and salsa are brought to our table first after about ten minutes of us waiting.
“So…” Lola starts, sipping her drink. “Tell me all about Roman. Mr. I’m so powerful, I can rule the world.”
I take a long sip of my drink before answering. “He comes off as intimidating, but he’s such a good guy. He’s sweet to me.”
“But he’s not Kevin,” Lola giggles.
“Are you drunk already?” I scold. “And stop it, with Kevin, already.”
“Uh…I…don’t think we can,” Lola’s face washes with fear and she stares to something behind me.
I turn around and there standing behind me is Kevin and Cody. Kevin has his stupid crooked grin plastered on his face and Cody has his eyebrow arched.
Kevin had changed clothes from school. He now has on tan cargo shorts, a short sleeve blue and white flannel button up shirt. Cody has on a black t-shirt with the words tap-out on it and blue jeans. Cody looks just like Kevin, only thing different are their eyes. Cody has light brown eyes.
Kevin pulls the seat out that is next to me and sits down. Cody walks over to Lola gives her a kiss on the lips and sits down next to her.
“What were you saying? Stop with, Kevin?” Kevin asks, amusement in his eyes.
“Why are you here?” I snap.
“Wow…this is how you greet someone who spent a whole fucking hour studying with you?”
“Kevin…” I whisper
“Save it, I’m here to hang out with Lola and Cody, you can join in our conversation when you are done being a brat.” He cuts me off.
Lola gives me a knowing look. She mouths spark. Yes, there is a spark that always twirls around Kevin and I and it’s a mad frenzy like Kevin’s personality. I take another long sip of my drink, finishing it.
The waiter comes over with our food and sets everything down. Before he leaves, I order three more margaritas, all for me.
“That better not be just for you,” Kevin warns.
“What is it to you?” I bite out.
“You get one more and that’s it,”
I want to scream in frustration. I look to Lola for help, but she’s deep in conversation with Cody.
Kevin takes an empty plate and fills it with a taco, a slice of quesadilla, and some chips. He places the plate in front of me with a side of salsa.
“Eat,” he simply says.
I stare down at the food, not having an appetite.
Kevin sighs deeply. “You will eat, or I will take you to my truck and spank you.” He whispers into my ear.
I take a bite of the quesadilla all the while having heart palpitations.
Satisfied, Kevin leans back into his chair, draping his arm on the back of mine.
Lola breaks away from Cody to check on me and Kevin, when she notices the way we are sitting together, her face breaks into a cat like grin.
I mouth to her, “I hate you.”
She shrugs and turns back to Cody to give him a kiss on the lips. Cody hooks his arms around her shoulder and pulls her in. Lola snuggles herself into Cody’s body and giggles.
“Do you want to get out of here?” Kevin breathes next to my neck giving me an allover shiver.
I wrap my arms around my body, rubbing my hands up and down my arm.
“No, Lola wants to hang out with me today.”
“Does it look like she’s going to ever break away from Cody?” Kevin asks popping a chip into his mouth.
I turn my head to look at Kevin and his lips softly brush across my cheek. My body reacts to the sensation, I close my eyes and a little moan escapes my lips.
My eyes fly wide open finding Kevin staring at me, his hazel eyes blazing.
I bite my lips nervously and look around, trying to avoid Kevin’s eyes. Cody and Lola are looking at us intently.
“It’s time to go.” Kevin says in a husky voice.
He pulls out several bills from his wallet and tosses them on the table. He stands up and pulls me up along with him.
“See you guys later,” he tells them and drags me out of the restaurant with him.
“Where are we going?” I ask, finally getting myself out of my haze.
“Do you like stars?” Kevin asks, when we reach his truck.
“Yes, but that doesn’t answer my question?”
“Get in the truck,” Kevin orders opening the door for me.
I climb inside and watch him walk around to get into the driver’s side.
Kevin doesn’t say anything to me as he is driving. He gets on the freeway and after about thirty minutes passed by, I am beyond curious.
“Kevin, are you going to tell where we are going?”
“We are going to look at stars and talk.” He glances quickly to me.
“Talk?” I repeat.
Kevin doesn’t say anything else. I am now a nervous wreck
Kevin backs his truck to the edge of a cliff, when he’s done parking; he reaches behind him and pulls a thick blanket from the back seat.
“Ready?” He asks.
“Yes,” I whisper.
I follow him to the back of the truck and we climb onto the bed. Kevin lays the blanket down and we get on top. We sit with our back press against the back window of the truck. I am sitting Indian style and Kevin has his knees bent, arms resting on the top of his knees.
“It’s so beautiful up here. The stars seem so close to us.” I say reaching my arms out to try and catch a star with my hand.
Kevin laughs softly, looking up at the sky. He stays quiet and looks like he’s deep in thought. I watch him blatantly.
“What?” He turns his head to look at me.
“You said you wanted to talk,” I mention to him.
“We can’t just enjoy the quietness and serenity of this…” Kevin waves his arm out in a half circle motion. “Yo
u always have to get down to business.”
He lets out a long deep breath.
I lean into him and rest my head on his shoulder. This is my way of telling him I’m sorry. Kevin gives me a peck on my forehead. His way of saying I’m forgiven.
We watch the stars for what seems like forever. I yawn and Kevin moves us down the bed of the truck, so we can lie on our backs. My head is resting on his chest and Kevin has his arm around me. I can feel his heart beat against my ear and it soothes me. I feel so content.
“I don’t want you to keep secrets, anymore.” I tell him.
“I don’t have any secrets.”
“Then why do I feel like I don’t know you at all?” I counter.
“Angel…we’ve known each other for all of a month, it takes time to get to know someone.”
“Can I ask you questions to get to know you better?” I ask, feeling very hopeful.
“You can, but I can choose if I want to answer or not.” Kevin tells me. I feel his chest rise and even though I can’t see his face, I know he’s smiling.
“Fine, who is Natalie?” I fire away.
“She’s a student in our Anatomy class, but I do believe she is in all of our classes too.” Kevin brushes my hair out of my face.
I slap his chest with my hand. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Next question,” Kevin coughs to hide his laugh.
“You are insufferable,” I grumble.
“You should ask the next question, you might get a better answer.” He suggest sarcastically.
I take him up on that and without pausing to back out of the question, I let it slip through my lips.
“Why were you on the phone with Aubrey on Sunday?” I close my eyes to try not to regret my question.
“Who told you I was?” Kevin sounds annoyed.
“You can’t answer a question with a question.” I point out.
“Our twenty-one questions for Kevin, is now over.” He simply says.
“Kevin…” I plead in a whisper.
“I want to ask you questions, now.” Kevin says.
“Okay.” I sigh.
“Did you sleep with Roman?” He asks, his voice rough.
The question shocks the hell out of me and it renders me speechless. The only action that comes to mind is to move away from Kevin. So I push myself up off of him, hug my knees to my chest and bury my face in my hands.
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