Chapter 7 Xavier #2
We hurt each other. We make each other bleed. We push and push and fucking push, but we would always come back to each other.
She eyed the table sitting between Ryder, Caleb and me, counting the glasses, and as her head lifted up, her eyes clashing with mine, I knew I was about to be in the world of trouble.
"Fancy seeing you guys here," she said, smiling widely as if we were all old friends.
My eyebrow arched but I didn't say a thing until she did something that made my blood boil.
A rope tightened around my throat as her hand landed on Ryder's shoulder, rubbing, going slowly over the fabric of his shirt.
Ryder's eyes widened, looking at me as if he was asking for help, but I couldn't give a fuck about the man sitting opposite of me. She was playing with fire, and my reaction was exactly what she was banking on.
My fists clenched as heat pushed onto my face, and I could feel my ears getting red. "I didn't know you were working today," I gritted out
"I had no idea I had to give you my schedule," she replied flatly, as if me sitting here didn't affect her even a little bit. "Is this one of those big brother situations I knew nothing about?"
Bitch, my eyes said.
Asshole, hers replied.
"Definitely not a big brother situation." My jaw clenched hard, my teeth grinding against each other, and she still had her fucking hand on Ryder's shoulder. "But it would be nice to know where you are just in case I need you."
"Oh, really?" The corners of her eyes crinkled. "You might need me?"
"Yara," I warned. "Stop it."
Her eyebrows rose while I glared at her hand, trying to stop myself from jumping up from my seat.
I had girlfriends in the past and I couldn't give a fuck if they went and fucked the entire town.
All I cared about was what they could do for me at the moment, but neither one of them had ever given me this heartburn.
This fucking feeling in my chest.
She glanced at our glasses and then at Caleb, ignoring my comment. "Do you guys want me to refill your glasses?"
"No," I answered before any one of my friends could. "But you could maybe sit with us." See? I could be nice. I could try and show her that I wasn't a complete asshole.
I could feel Caleb's eyes on me and probably a million questions in them, but I didn't want to look anywhere but at her.
Something akin to vulnerability rushed through her eyes, but it disappeared faster than it appeared, replaced by the look of pure spite.
"Sorry boys." She gave me a once-over. "I can't just casually sit with customers, but—" she grinned before her eyes landed down on Ryder, "—I do have a question for you, Ryder. "
The man in question first looked at me, then at Caleb, and the way Caleb was again shaking his head and trying to communicate something with his eyes told me that the two of them already had a conversation related to Yara, and it seemed that Ryder had listened.
"Uh." He seemed torn between looking at me and then at her. "Tell me?"
Yara bent down, smiling at him while the fire in my chest intensified.
I wanted to burn something. Hit something, or someone, and I couldn't do any of those things because this was exactly what she wanted me to see.
This was my punishment for playing with her, for trying to show her that she meant nothing when in reality she was my everything.
She was the soul of my soul, but she still couldn't see that. Yet.
I will show her.
She leaned all the way to Ryder's ear, giggling like a fucking schoolgirl the entire time, and whispered something. My skin was on fire at this point, but I couldn't look away from them.
The color drained out of Ryder's face, and I could only imagine what she was telling him. It felt as if the hours had passed from the moment she started whispering to him and the moment she glanced back at me, smiling widely like a cat who just caught a canary.
"So?" Yara asked, looking down at him as she straightened up. "Would you?"
"I-I," he stammered, "I don't know. I—"
"Oh, come on," she giggled. Fucking. Giggled. "It will be fun. I always wanted to see one of those." One of what?
I would give her everything. Show her every single corner of this godforsaken world if she asked for it.
Ryder took one look at my fists, then at my face and as if he came to a conclusion, he nodded, looking back up at her. "You know what?" She peered at him as if he brought down the stars just for her. "Fine. It's a date."
A date.
A. Fucking. Date.
She practically jumped up and down, and before I could stop the avalanche happening right in front of my eyes, she hugged him tightly, pressing her chest against his side.
Ryder's arms came around her, and just as I was about to get up and stop this charade, she looked at me from the side while she hugged my friend, grinning from ear to ear.
"Well, then—" she stood up, fixing her black shirt, "—since you guys don't want anything, I'll get going.
" Oh, I wanted something, alright. Something she would give me whether she wanted to or not.
"It was nice seeing you." She was lying through her teeth, but for those who haven't had a chance to see the real her she might have seemed genuine, almost happy, but I could see right through her.
She was trying to mess with my head. She was trying to make me jealous.
The moment Yara stepped away from our table, chatting with patrons seated at a table not too far from us, my hands wrapped around my glass, bringing it to my lips and downing out the rest of the whiskey left in it.
"What the fuck did she ask you for?" My voice rumbled, the question directed at Ryder. He took far too long to reply, and I fucking hated the fact that he knew something I didn't. "Tell. Me."
"She, uh." He rubbed the back of his neck. "She wants to go out tonight." I saw red. "No, dude. Sit the fuck down."
I had no recollection of getting up, but his words rang around my head and instead of strangling my friends I sat down, waiting to hear the rest.
"She wants to go to the race tonight," he whispered, leaning closer to the table. "You know." He looked around making sure no one was nearby. "The race."
Oh I knew which race he was talking about, but what surprised me was the fact that she knew about it.
"What time?"
"Six," Ryder simply replied. "She wants me to pick her up at six."
"Does she know?" Caleb piped in, making me look at him. "You know... About—"
I shook my head, finding her again on the other side of the lounge. "She doesn't." But she's going to find out. "You're not going with her," I said, looking at Ryder.
"I know," the fucker smirked. "You are." Damn right I was.
Yara Quinn would soon be Yara Thornton, that much I was sure of, and tonight was just the first step of showing her how the things worked in my world.