Chapter 204
CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED FOUR
NICOLE
“Stay with me,” I whispered.
My hands tightened around his collar as I pulled him closer to me. I never wanted to let go. I never wanted our kiss to be over, these feelings to fade, my life to end. With Akio, I felt more alive than I ever had.
“Please, Akio,” I begged, and while he might’ve thought that I wanted him to stay with me for the night …
I wanted more than that. I wanted him to stay with me until the day Dad killed me, the day I’d get to see Hannah again.
A crushing pain came over my chest, and another tear fell from my eye. “Stay with me.”
“I’ll stay,” he said against my mouth.
“Promise me.”
Promise you’ll stay even when … you find out what my own father does to me.
Promise you’ll stay when I come crying to you with black eyes and broken ribs.
Promise you’ll find it in yourself to love me because nobody ever has.
All the promises I wanted him to make rushed through my head, but I couldn’t speak.
Not even one of them.
“I promise, Nicole,” Akio said, tucking some hair behind my ear and pulling away slightly to look me in the eye. “I’m not going anywhere. But if we stay out here, you’re going to catch a cold.” He took my hands and stood. “Come on.”
Once he pulled me up, I wrapped my arms around his torso and hugged him as tightly as I could, my forehead on his chest and my fists clenching his shirt, like if I didn’t, then he would disappear into thin air.
Rain poured down on us, but he stayed with me until I felt … okay.
I would never feel good, never feel better. But I felt okay, and that was something.
At least I still could feel.
“Come on,” he said, tugging me to his car. “You’re going to get sick.”
While nobody else was at the Overlook tonight, we had both parked near the far edge of the round roadway toward the more private areas of this side of town. Akio opened the door for me, and I slid onto the leather backseat with my wet clothes.
“Sorry about—”
He slipped in beside me and shut the door behind him. “It’s okay.”
“But you don’t even know what I was going to apologize for.”
“I don’t need to,” he said, shaking off his coat. Underneath, his graphic tee was soaked through from the rain. He reached over his shoulder and pulled his shirt over his head. “You don’t need to apologize to me for anything.”
I opened and closed my mouth a handful of times, my wet shirt clinging to my body and making me feel so sticky. When he had pulled off his shirt and dropped it at his feet, I gulped and averted my gaze so I wouldn’t stare at him.
But, God, every time I was with him, he became more and more attractive to me.
Maybe it was because of how sweet he was, how safe he felt.
“You don’t have to sit in your wet clothes,” he said, peering over the center console into the front seat. “I think I have a spare sweatshirt around here somewhere.” He reached his skinny arm between the seat and the door, making a face. “Here it is.”
Once he gave me the Jujutsu Kaisen sweatshirt with the infamous Satoru Gojo on the front, I set it on my lap and played with the button of my shirt. Bruises covered my body from this evening, and I didn’t want him to see.
The thought of him finding out about what had happened scared the hell out of me.
But it was dark.
So, I quickly tugged my shirt over my head and yanked on the sweatshirt before he could even say a word. And luckily, Akio hadn’t noticed as he took my shirt and tossed it at his feet with his wet clothes.
“I can wash it tomorrow for you.”
“You would do that?” I asked.
His lips curled into a small smile. “For you.”
Warmth spread through my body, and a giddy feeling rose in my chest. I didn’t know how to react in this kind of situation, so I giggled behind my hand and watched water droplets drip off his hair and onto his face.
“Do you want me to take you back to your hou—”
“No!” I exclaimed, then cleared my throat. “I mean, no.”
He scratched the back of his head. “I’d suggest coming back to my place, but I think my mom will be home soon.”
“I don’t mind.”
“I do.” He opened and shut his mouth. “I mean, I … she …”
“Nobody likes their parents,” I whispered. “I get it.”
“We can go if you want. I don’t mind.”
I placed my hands on his shoulders. “Let’s stay here.”
Suddenly, two sets of headlights shone in through the rear windshield. Rain pounded down on the glass, but I squinted enough to see Mr. Avery, one of Redwood’s Literature professors, step out of the farthest car with an umbrella.
Akio peeled off his foggy glasses and wiped them. “Is that Mr. Avery?”
“Yes.”
Once Akio pushed his glasses back up his face, he moved closer to me. “What do you think’s going on?” he asked. “I’ve seen him do some business with my mom, but business doesn’t happen down this way because it’s usually busy at the Overlook.”
Mr. Avery stopped next to the driver’s side of the nearest car.
After exchanging a few words with the driver, the car lights turned off, and Sakura Sato stepped out of the car. Akio and I both gasped, turned around, and sank down in the backseat of his car so they wouldn’t see us.
“Is that Sakura?!” Akio whisper-yelled. “She’s the valedictorian of our class!”
“I know!” I whispered back. “What is she doing with him?!”
When he shrugged, I peeked my head up over the edge of the seat to look back out the window. Mr. Avery had Sakura pressed up against the car, her chin in his hand and his head buried into the crook of her neck.
My eyes widened even more, and I sank back down in the seat. “Oh my God!”
Akio peered over the seat, then widened his eyes and sank back down. “Oh my God!”
We both looked over again to see Mr. Avery now setting Sakura on the hood of her car and kissing down her body to her open legs.
“Oh my God!” we said in unison.
Sakura Sato and one of our teachers.
One of our married teachers?!
“Do you think they can see us?” Akio asked.
“Of course not,” I whispered, heart racing. I clutched his hand. “If they saw our cars, then they wouldn’t have stopped.”
“I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Akio!” I exclaimed. “Stop looking.”
“They’re having sex in the middle of the road! How can I not?”
A giggle bubbled up my throat. “Because it’s private.”
“But they’re doing it in public.”
When Akio peeked up again, I tackled him until we fell back on the seat, him lying down and me on top of him. He wrapped his arms around my waist and smiled as that pretty mouth laughed. I playfully slapped his shoulder.
“Why do I get the feeling you wanted me to do this all along?” I asked.
“Hmm …” His grin widened, the moonlight glimmering off his brown eyes. “I don’t know.”
Once my laughter died down, I rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes, listening to the constant pounding of rain on the car and the fast racing of his heart.
I’m declaring this the most normal thing I’ve ever done.
I didn’t care what anyone said.
Sleeping at the Overlook with the guy I am falling in love with seems pretty normal to me, right?