Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
S he’s supposed to be back today. I’ve gone the whole damn month without reaching out to her while she’s been in Italy with her family. Did I obsess over her social media every time she uploaded a new post? Absolutely, but I’m not ashamed.
I resisted the urge to message her. She says she wants me to forget about her, but she doesn’t. Aurora’s been more active on social media this past month than she ever has been. Posting pictures of herself with captions directed at me, or at least that’s how I read them anyway.
I’m probably seeing what I want to see. Still, I don’t fucking care. She’s coming back. Her last Snap yesterday was of her in her bedroom, commenting on how good it was to be home.
I mostly wanted to prove her wrong, prove that a month apart wouldn’t douse the fire that’s ignited between us.
I know she feels it. The fact that I’ve gone back to instantly looking for her through the crowds tells me that fire isn’t dimmed in the slightest. If anything, I’m more hungry for her than I was before she left.
I’ve kept myself busy working for my dad, doing odd jobs while trying to decipher what he’s actually up to here in New York. The more time I spend in this city, the less I’m missing Boston. Which I guess isn’t a bad thing.
“Hey, Connor, I missed you on Saturday. You said you were going to be at the party.” Melissa, one of the cheerleaders who’s been trying to hang off me for the last two weeks, wraps her hand around my arm.
It’s her way of trying to claim ownership.
I know that. I’m about to shake her off, but then my eyes are drawn behind Melissa and I spot her. The girl I actually want to own me.
Aurora.
And she looks downright pissed, her glare honed in on where Melissa’s hand is on my arm.
When she looks up at me, our eyes connect—and, oh, she’s more than pissed.
Which is why I smile at her and let Melissa step in closer to me.
She wanted me to forget her. This is what she wanted, so I don’t know why she looks like I just killed her cat.
Turning my attention back to Melissa, I shake my head. “I had other shit I had to do,” I tell her. Usually I would have shaken her off by now. The fact I haven’t makes her more bold as she moves a hand to my chest.
“Why don’t we meet up at lunch?” Her offer isn’t the least bit tempting. A chorus of gasps has me looking back down the hall, to where Aurora is pressing her lips against some guy’s mouth.
“Who is that?” I ask Kenny, shoving Melissa aside.
“Timothy, stoner,” Kenny says. “Also about to be a dead man when her cousins find out about that little show.”
Not if I get to him first.
“Catch you later,” I say, heading towards the exit I saw this Timothy kid walk out. I brush right past Aurora. “Hope you made it worth it for him,” I tell her and keep walking.
It doesn’t take long to find Timothy behind the building smoking a joint.
Grabbing him by the shirt, I catch the fucker off guard and throw my fist into his face.
The joint drops from his hand and smoke billows out of his mouth as he chokes on it.
My fist slams into him again and again until I’m pulled off him.
“Whoa, man, walk it off.” Some punk-ass kid pushes me. I throw a punch at him before I turn and stomp away. Aurora is there, by the door, watching the whole damn thing.
“This isn’t a game you want to play with me, Connor. I will win.” She smirks at me.
“Who says I’m playing a game?” I counter while shaking out my hand.
“Do you really think you can just go around and beat up every guy I kiss?”
I shrug. “Don’t see why not.”
“Maybe I’ll just follow your lead and start kissing girls, then. It didn’t look like you spent the last month lonely.”
I smile. “Jealous?”
“Are you?”
“Insanely,” I admit.
“Huh, I’m not.” Aurora laughs. “I don’t care who you let all over you. As long as you stay out of my way.”
As kids, we’re taught not to play with fire, that we’ll end up burned if we do. I feel like that warning should come attached to Aurora. Because whatever the hell we’re doing, someone is going to get burned or we’ll both blow up together.
My tray hits the table with a thud. “Whose face did your hand meet?” Kenny asks, looking at my bruised knuckles.
“Just be thankful it wasn’t yours again,” I tell him. The day Aurora kissed him right here in this very cafeteria, I made the excuse that I wanted to spar in the ring with him. I went overboard and broke his nose. It’s healed now, but I still get a little joy out of the knowledge that I did it.
“Oh, fuck,” Kenny says, his eyes wide when he looks at Timothy. He makes the sign of the cross. “Tell me that you are not doing what I think you are doing.”
“How the fuck am I supposed to know what you’re thinking, asshole?”
“Aurora Valentino?” he says her name like it’s a question.
“Who?”
“The hot psychotic blonde over there.” He points to the table the Valentinos are all sitting at together.
“Never noticed her before,” I lie.
“Yeah, and I’m the fucking Virgin Mary,” Kenny deadpans. “Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing good can come of that, Connor.”
I wouldn’t say nothing good . Because the two times I’ve watched Aurora come , it’s been fucking epic. “Why do you say she’s psychotic anyway?” I mean, I get it. The girl is fucking violent. She’s made me bleed twice. I’m also here for it.
Kenny looks at me with a stupid expression. “You know that girl Melissa you were talking to this morning?”
“Yeah, what about her?”
“You didn’t hear what happened?”
“Obviously not. Do I look like the local gossip rag?” I grunt.
“She was taken out of the girls’ bathroom in a stretcher, ambulance and all. Rumor has it her wrist was broken and she was knocked unconscious,” Kenny says.
My gaze falls to Aurora. She didn’t. Did she? “Who did that to her?”
“No one is talking about it, which means one thing. It’s one of them.” Kenny nods his head towards the Valentino table. “And as much as I hate those douchebags, Dante and Orlando wouldn’t hurt a chick, so that leaves one Valentino. The scariest of them all, if you ask me.”
“She doesn’t look that scary,” I say, staring at her while I pull my phone out of my pocket. I open the Instagram app and send Aurora a message.
Me:
Not jealous, huh? Does Melissa know that?
I see her look down at her phone and pick it up. She’s typing out a reply before my own phone vibrates in my hand.
Aurora:
I don’t know what you’re talking about. Stop messaging me.
Me:
So you don’t care if I get up, walk over to the nearest girl, and drag her into an empty room?
Aurora:
Not at all. Before you go, though… do me a favor and ask your cousin if he’s got five minutes to spare for me?
My hand clenches around my phone.
“Look, I’m not saying you shouldn’t… Actually, that’s exactly what I’m saying. You fucking shouldn’t go there, man,” Kenny says.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Tell her to leave me out of your fucked-up foreplay.” He looks over my shoulder, reading my message exchange.
Me:
Kenny says you’re psychotic. He’s not interested, but I can scratch that itch for you if you want?
Aurora:
When hell freezes over.
I laugh. She says that now, but we’ll be in hell together one day, so it’s never going to freeze over.
“Why are you fighting at school? You’re supposed to be keeping a low profile,” my father asks me. The dinner table in the O’Malley household is anything but cozy. It’s formal as shit and silent unless you’re asked a direct question.
“Someone disrespected me, Da. Did you want me to let that slide?” I tell him.
“How so?”
“Some punk called me a leprechaun fucker. So I knocked him out.” I shrug.
“Who?”
“No idea. Some stoner,” I say. My dad is only interested in making sure it wasn’t someone important. Someone related to one of the other crime families.
“Good. Don’t let little shits disrespect you. Still, we’re not trying to gain too much attention,” he reminds me.
“I’m aware, Da.”
“Have you made any friends yet? You haven’t brought anyone over,” my mom says.
“I have friends, Ma. They’re back in Boston,” I tell her. When her face falls, I feel bad. “I hang out with Kenny and his group. Speaking of, I told him I’d go hang out tonight. Can I be excused?”
“Sure, honey. Have fun,” she says.
Once I’m in my car, I message my cousin to tell him I’m picking him up. I don’t know where we’re going but I can’t be home right now.
I pull up to his place a few minutes later. The gates open, and I drive up to the door. I don’t bother getting out. Instead, I wait for him to walk over.
“Wanna take my car?” he asks.
“Not a fucking chance. Get in, asshole.”
“I hate this car,” he groans. There is nothing wrong with my Mustang. It’s a hell of a lot better than his pretentious Ferrari.
“Deal with it.”
“Where are we going?”
“To drink whiskey until I pass out,” I tell him.
“Cabin?” The family has a little cabin about an hour out of the city. We’ve used it for parties a few times.
“Sounds like a plan.”
“So, any blonde reason you’re drinking yourself stupid?” Kenny laughs.
“Nope.” Truth is… I can’t get the image of Aurora out of my fucking head. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her for the last month. And now that she’s back, now that she’s close, it’s worse.
Half a bottle of whiskey later, I do the one thing you’re never meant to do. Drunk text.
Me:
I can’t stop thincsing offff u. Y?
My phone lights up with an incoming call. “Hello?”
“Are you drunk?” It’s her. Her voice. Aurora.
“Huh?”
“Connor? Where are you?” she asks me.
“Where are you, Sleeping Beauty?”
“Not funny. Where are you, Connor?” she repeats.
“At the cabin. I’m not drunks,” I tell her. “You’re pretty, you know.”
“I know,” she says, disconnecting the call.
The phone drops from my hand, and my eyes start to close as sleep finally takes over. I hope I dream about her.