Chapter 19
NINETEEN
CASSIE
I’m so happy Jack is here. This would intimidate the hell out of me if he wasn’t. It appears that the sole aim in coming here is to hook up with someone and all around me couples are getting it on and don’t care who’s watching.
Jack is chatting to Siri and I’m beginning to feel like the third wheel and so I grab a can of soda and head outside.
It’s good to get some air and as I drop down on the step leading down to the yard, the music thumps from behind me, a dull sound reminding me that life is happening without me.
I hate how I felt when Frankie kissed that girl. I pretended I didn’t care, but a knot of jealously twisted inside me when he held her close.
He stared at me the entire time, which told me he was making a statement. Is he proving he’s not interested in me? Are we doomed to a weird friend hate relationship and does he just regard me as his cousin’s stupid friend?
A sudden movement behind me causes me to turn, and my heart flutters when I see the guy standing in the shadows.
“Hey.” I say softly and my response is the flicker of a flame as he lights the end of a cigarette.
“That’s a bad habit you’ve got there.” I shake my head and turn back to the view in front of me.
He joins me on the step and exhales smoke rings into the darkness.
“There is nothing wrong with experimenting, Cassie.”
“Is that what you tell yourself when you do something you know is bad for you?”
“How will you learn what is bad until you test it?”
“Research. Information—evidence.”
I sip my drink and he scoffs, “You come to a party and drink soda. How old are you?”
“I’m not ashamed of my choices, Frankie. I couldn’t give a fuck if you approve of them or not.”
“That’s what I admire about you, Cassandra.”
I raise my eyes at his full use of my name and yet I kind of like that he uses it.
“You don’t play by the usual rules which sets you apart from the other girls.”
“I am myself, Frankie. I have never played by the rules.”
“And yet you’re a good girl.”
“Should bending the rules make me a bad one?”
“You tell me.”
He blows more smoke into the air and then tosses the cigarette to the ground and stomps it out with his feet.
“Why did you resurrect The Claiming, Frankie?”
I’m curious and add, “I mean, it’s pretty obvious girls come easy to you. Why did you want to chain yourself to one?”
“Because I have yet to experience monogamy. I’m interested in testing if I like it.”
“And if you don’t, say one week into your experiment?”
“Then I’ll suck it up and run with it.”
He turns and his dark velvet eyes gleam in the dusky light.
“You see, Cassie. The Claiming is for one semester only. At the end, both couples meet again and have a choice.”
“What choice?” I’m curious about how this works.
He leans forward, his elbows resting on his knees and his voice is husky as he explains, “Their choice is whether to stick or twist for the next semester. Twist means break up and stick means carry on. If they twist, they can walk away and are either free to carry on as normal, or enter the challenge again, with a different outcome this time.”
“It makes sense, I suppose.”
He turns and his eyes draw me in as they bore deep into my soul and I couldn’t look away if I tried.
“What about you, Cassandra? This is your first experience of freedom. I’m guessing you would never have entered The Claiming if I hadn’t pressured you into it.”
“I wouldn’t.” I admit, reflecting his gaze back at him, which apparently amuses him.
“You see, Frankie, I’m like you. I love a challenge and crave excitement. I always have and college is a wild experience I want to enjoy in full. If that means testing relationships, friendships, my competitiveness and my learning ability, I’m up for it all. But the only reason I’m in this challenge is because I want to walk out the other side and win.”
“So, if you were claimed, how would you deal with that?” He asks, his blank expression concealing his thoughts.
“I won’t lose. We will never know.”
His sudden smile takes my breath away because Frankie Majerio is one impressive specimen of humanity. His dark good looks are enticing and his shrouded personality intriguing and I am not surprised he is so desired.
As if he can read my thoughts, he says with a sigh. “We all want more, Cassie. I want a challenge, the unattainable perhaps, which makes me no different from the students inside. They want recognition. To capture the bad boy, the one who doesn’t give a fuck about anything other than the girl who captures his soul. It elevates them above the rest. They become special if you like because they have something the others don’t have. He, in turn, wants a challenge. Somebody who doesn’t want him to prove he is the best. The man of all men where nothing is out of reach for him, no walls, impenetrable. He can smash through resistance while proving he is the best, so they are no different. Everyone wants to be the best and believe that this is the perfect way of winning.”
“You’re full of shit, Frankie.”
I nudge him and he chuckles softly.
“Are you just figuring that out?”
He offers me his beer and his eyes flash as he says darkly, “Prove you’re not afraid of alcohol. Show me you choose soda over it because you prefer the taste and not because you are afraid of it.”
“I have nothing to prove to you.”
I scoff and he shrugs, taking a swig of it himself. I’m surprised when he reaches up and pulls me toward him, his hand fisting in my hair and as his lips descend on mine, it’s a surprise attack I never saw coming. As my mouth opens in surprise, beer fills it and I pull back in disgust and spit it to the ground.
“What the fuck was that for? You’re disgusting.”
“I knew you hated the taste.”
“Perhaps it’s you I don’t like the taste of.”
I’m furious, mainly because my defenses were down.
“I should punch your smug face, you bastard.”
I spit the remains of the beer as he chuckles softly. “I would welcome it, Cassandra. I have never been punched by a girl. It would add to my experience.”
“You really are a–”
His eyes glitter as he leans closer and rests his lips against mine and whispers, “Jackass?”
This time he brushes his lips against mine softly, his breath mingling with my own and his unshaven jaw scratching against the soft skin of my face.
I should back off. Punch him in that sinful mouth, but he entices me. I love how edgy he is, so manipulative and so secretive. Maybe I am one of those girls and want to experience the darkness, but I’m not giving him the satisfaction of knowing that, so I push him away with a violent shove and stand.
“You’ve got to try harder than that, Frankie, because if you think I’m interested in kissing a man who will probably work his way through most of the girls inside that house, you’re doing me a disservice. I’m not one of them lining up for the fleeting attention of a psychopath. Where’s the challenge in that?”
I turn my back and head inside because if I don’t create some distance between us pretty damn quickly, I’m liable to break every fucking rule I’ve set because God knows I wanted to kiss Frankie Majerio back then more than I wanted to breathe.
* * *
When I head inside, I notice Siri laughing at something Jack is whispering in her ear and for some reason my world stops spinning at the sudden realization that I don’t like it.
Jack is mine. He always has been and not in any other way than he’s my closest friend. Seeing him with Siri is a bolt of jealousy I wasn’t expecting because what if Jack likes her? What if she likes him? I won’t be his number one priority anymore.
They notice me coming and Siri waves me over and I’m pushing my reaction down as a result of what happened outside. I wanted Frankie, and in that moment it was the most important thing in my life and when I walked away, it was to run to normality. To regroup in the familiar to prove I am in control. Jack is my rock. He grounds me every single time and yet what if things change?
“Hey, Cassie. Jack’s a scream. You never told me how funny he is.” Siri catches Jack’s eye and grins and I hate the weight growing inside me as I sense their friendship growing.
“What’s up, Cass?”
Jack’s eyes narrow as he watches Frankie entering the room shortly after me.
“Nothing. I’m just tired, I guess. It’s been a long day.”
I yawn as if to prove my point, and Siri nods in agreement. “Yeah, I’m the same. Perhaps we should leave. We have an early class in the morning.”
“I’ll walk you back,” Jack says quickly and I notice Kennedy heading toward him and grin.
“Is that out of concern for us, or you?”
He groans. “Both. Come on before she gets here.”
We move as one toward the stairs leading up to the main house and as we leave, I catch sight of Frankie watching us go as he leans against the wall, several girls already circling his orbit waiting to dock.
I turn away because I am determined never to be one of them, no matter how much I want to experience what that would be like.