Chapter-31🌜Weird hugs
William's POV
Are hugs supposed to be this long, or am I being weird?
The one happening in front of me is painfully exaggerated, or at least in my opinion. I can't reason my-whatever this feeling is.
I am never hostile to new people. I actually want to get to know strangers. Although, that doesn't mean I try to do so, social anxiety is a thing, you know?
The point is, I usually want to do all of that, but with her...
I just feel this weird tightness in my gut, almost rising all the way up my wind pipe and constricting it.
Is she like his long lost lover or something? Maybe not even a lost one, she could be his current...
So, Zane has a girlfriend? But if that was the case, she wouldn't have said, '...I missed you...' in a voice way too sweet for my liking. Like they are meeting after an eternity.
It might be because they were apart for just a while and they are that annoying 'we can't stay two metres apart' kinda couple.
Hmm... In our meetings alone, he didn't mention having one. Not even a hint.
'So he didn't mention he is in a relationship to me...' I stop that thought before it makes things weirder.
He doesn't need to tell me that. It's not my business.
But in a way it is. In these people's prying eyes, I am his partner. So, he should have told me about his relationship status. Otherwise, how will we be able to keep up this lie?
I don't know if I am hallucinating from just a glass of champagne, but I see her turning her head from the crook of his neck and stare right at me. I feel the dark eyes checking me out.
But not in a lustful way. More like they are evaluating me. In the end, she stops on my feet and then rolls her eyes, bringing them back up. As if this was the most disgusting sight she has ever seen.
She looks at me right in the eyes, with her narrowed ones. Dark brown almonds clashing with each other. She is glaring and isn't even trying to not make it obvious. Almost like she wants to intimidate me.
Well, too bad. Because I glower back with even more intensity. The hand in my pant's pocket, gripped tighter into a fist. She sees how our dislike for each other is mutual, making her expressions lighter.
Her nose wrinkles at me and she passes me a toothy smirk. Then puts her head down to rub her cheek on his shoulder, though her eyes are still fixated on me with a challenging gleam.
This bitch-
Zane steps back and puts some much needed distance between them. But her... don't even get me started on how she lingers for a second like a leech. Zane turns back to me, and he doesn't look weird, so I don't either.
I face him with my practiced poker face as he introduces her, "William, this is Veronica, my-"
Or at least tries to, because this bitch interjects. "His everything." Why do I feel like this is directed more to me than to Zane? Like she wanted me to know that.
But that's just for a second, because she turns her face in his direction. Ugh, her sickeningly heart shaped eyes are making me cringe.
I turn my face to Zane to see his reaction to her... declaration. His forehead is wrinkled with confusion, as his eyes look at her with uncertainty.
"What?" She asks him with hooded eyes. "Haven't you called me that before?". She comes closer and grabs his shoulder, "that I am you everything?"
"I..." he trails as his eyes move back and forth between me and Veronica.
"Oh, don't be uncomfortable because of William now..." She lazily doodles on his shoulder with her nail, but she faces me back with a smirk.
Excuse me? What the fuck does she mean by 'uncomfortable because of William'?!
The only one who's making both of us uncomfortable is her. Not me.
"Don't mind William..." she crosses her arm around Zane's and puts her cheek back on his shoulder, facing me. "We are just close like that..."
She turns back to him, leaving merely an inch of a distance between their faces.
She gives his cheek a small peck as she asks, "right, Zee?"
'Zee'...eww.
Zane, is already a short name and now an even shorter version. Ugh.
Does she not know how to stand on her own, or is clinging to him part of her personality? Like there's not much difference between her and a panda to a pine tree.
"See, William doesn't mind..." She says, but my focus is somewhere else. As in, on that smudged lip stick mark she left in his cheek. I just can't stop glaring at the perfect outline of her lips that I just have an annoying itch to wipe off.
"He won't mind if I take you for a second..." She tightens the hold of his elbow, "we have a lot to catch up on".
The way she says 'catch up', tells me it's not just words they want to catch up on.
"You won't, right?" She looks back at me, feigning innocence, but the curve of her lips says another story.
If she is trying to provoke me, it's not gonna work. It will, if this mattered, and it doesn't.
I give her a tight-lipped, "no." She has already started pulling him as they start walking, not even waiting for my answer.
Zane didn't stop her.
Not when she leaned in.
Not when she kissed him.
Not even when she called herself his everything.
His eyes flicker back to me.
He is looking... apologetic. Almost concerned about something as he tries to read my face. Maybe even trying to see something on it.
But I don't let him as I look away.
She can take him wherever she wants.
Garden. Bedroom. Hell.
I don't care.
I don't.
??
I look at the crystal clear reflection of my, while I rub the handwash on my hands frantically. Trying to scrub away something-something I don't know.
If I do, then I don't want to acknowledge.
"Whatever." I mouth, my voice echoing in the empty restroom, as I put my hands under the censored tap.
The water starts flowing in a melodious flow, filling the silence making my ears ring. I look down as I make sure there isn't any soap left.
But I feel the sharp gong of my instincts boom, as I feel the heavy weight of a hand on my back.
Who is this?
"There will be people who will try to hurt you..." Zane's words from earlier make my anxiety triple. The thumping of my heart suddenly became too loud in the silence.
I fill the hollow of my hand with water, still running down the drain. Then remove my hand in front of the censor and the tap stops flowing water with a soft ripple.
Fight or flight.
I slowly raise my head to greet this motherfucker, and it's-
"Ryan?" I see the familiar face, I have seen a million times since childhood. I empty my hand in the basin, while rubbing my chest with the other. "What the fuck! I thought you were-"
I exclaim, but don't complete it.
And he just gives me a lopsided grin, "you thought, I was...?"
I don't answer that one, instead ask him one of my own, "what are you even doing here?"
"Hmm, if you have lost your sight completely with age and you know your myopia... it's called a restroom, there's even a bigass sign outside." He feigns concern with a generous pout.
"Ha-ha. You are so funny, Ryan!" I roll my eyes, "now come back to the point, will you?"
"You are of no fun, boo!" He fucking boos like a kindergartener. Ugh, I am surrounded by manchilds.
"Ryan-" I warn him with my raised brows.
"Okay-okay!" He huffs with a groan. Mind you, this is a grown ass man.
"I saw you coming here all by yourself and without your, you know..."
An unsaid 'husband' knocks on my brain, only for it to get kicked out. "He is my nothing." I grit my teeth.
"I didn't even mention it's a 'he', though..." He shakes his head, already knowing I can't say anything to that. Not even needing to mention which 'he' we are talking about.
And it's right, it could have been anyone else. In my situation, it's mostly my dad. Why was he my first thought?
I ignore it as I snap, "continue". Feeling irritated with my own foolishness.
"I just came to check on you, to see if you are okay, or if you need something." A sudden wave of guilt passes over me and submerges all my irritation. I was being such a bitch, when he was here just for me sake.
"Yeah... I am sorry..." I apologise, meaning every word of it.
"Don't be. I know this is so hard for you, after Romie, and now you have to marry him... I know it's making you overwhelmed." He tells me with his hands on my shoulder. "I am here for you, you know?"
"I-I do..." I stutter out, as my eyes start welling up with unshed tears, but I don't restrict them. Not in front of him. "Can I get a hug?" I ask him desperately for something I didn't even know I need.
He just opens his arms and I lean forward, not even caring about raising my own. I bury my head in his shoulder, as my world becomes hazy. I gasp for air, every sob leaving my mouth is quieter than the previous one.
"Shh... let it out... I am here..." He coos in my ear as his hand rubs my back. "Everthing will be fine, Willy..."
There's pain in his voice too, as he uses the nickname that he gave me when I put a bandage on his bruised thumb, in sixth grade.
Since then, I have always been 'Will' or 'William'. Never Willy.
I stay right there until everything falls silent again. My jagged breaths, now in a noiseless flow. I pull back, slowly. All the emotions gone, leaving me with some much needed courage.
Ryan raises his hand as he wipes my cheek with thumb, "I also wanted to ask you about our plan."
"Yeah, do as we discussed." I inhale sharply, trying to pull back everything irritating my nose. "Keep Vance out of my back."
A/N??
I am here, y'all! This was the update...
Hmm, how was the chapter? Did you guys like it? ??
What do you think he means when he says keep him out of his back? Hmm...
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