8. Griffin
EIGHT
I watchas she takes a sip of the milkshake I bought from Burger Shack. I’ve been going there since I was a kid and it’s a rite of passage to have a burger and milkshake after a bad day. She closes her eyes and lets out another soft moan that shoots straight to my cock.
Why does my body react so easily to her? Sure, she’s drop dead gorgeous but that shouldn’t be enough to make me hard from a simple moan. It’s infuriating how responsive my body is to her and it’s already proving difficult to hide. I clear my throat and shift in my seat, concealing my boner as I return my attention back to the stars twinkling brightly above us.
In our comfortable silence, my mind wanders back to Jason, the blond bastard from the bar. Although I would have done the same for any woman, I had punched him extra hard because it was Eliana that he’d tried his bullshit on.
The thought doesn’t sit well with me. I shouldn’t be feeling protective of this girl because she’s everything I’m trying to keep out of my life, yet here she is barreling through without a care in the world.
It must just be because she’s a new face, an attraction of the unknown. Regardless, she’s still a distraction, one I shouldn’t be entertaining. The last distraction I allowed into my life nearly cost me everything. I can’t allow anyone to have that opportunity again.
“So, when are you going to ask me about why I was snooping through your car?” The question catches me off guard, but I can’t deny that it was on my to-discuss list for the night.
“Why were you looking through my car?” I ask, curiously.
“I thought I might find something that gives me more of an idea of who you are, for the campaign.”
“And did you?”
She pauses for a moment, eyes flickering to the visor above her, before nodding slowly and sipping her milkshake while she avoids eye contact. I roll my eyes at her sudden shyness and lower the passenger side visor to investigate. To my surprise, a photo strip of Meghan and I from last year falls into her lap. I reach over to pick it up, my fingers grazing her thigh, causing her to release a small gasp. Satisfaction blossoms in my chest as I realize she’s just as affected by me as I am her.
I stare at the strip of photos for a while, remembering how happy I felt in that moment. I thought she was the one for me, despite what everyone else on the team was trying to tell me. I was blinded by love and didn’t see the real version of her lurking behind the nice girl persona she faked. I didn’t see it until the day of my accident.
Now everything feels empty, dark, pointless. My doctors have been trying to nudge me toward speaking with a professional about my feelings, but I left before I ever booked any appointments. I’m not ready to talk about my feelings yet, I still have questions I need answers to before I can do that.
I begin ripping up the photo strip while Eliana watches me silently. When I’m done, I dump the pieces into my empty cup, watching the leftover liquid soak them completely, ruining the images forever. I never want to see her face again.
“When did you two breakup?” Eliana asks.
“Six months ago.” I can see her mind working until realization dawns on her face and her big green eyes find mine again, rounding slightly.
“So, she was the big thing on your mind that was distracting you during the competition?”
“Something like that,” I answer, trying to remain vague.
She doesn’t need to know about what I saw that day. No one needs to know because it won’t change anything. I still got hurt, I still had to go through months of physio, I’m still here trying to prove to Gabriel that I deserve my spot on the team. Telling them would just drag them into my shit. So, I do what I’ve done for the last six months; I avoid the topic. My jeep purrs to life as I start it up and drive us back to The Shredder House.