Chapter 9 Friends?
?Azalea?
"Don't look at me like that," he glares darkly right back at me.
"Where'd this confidence come from?" he questions darkly, "you didn't have it a few weeks ago."
My facade crumbles. As so do my big girl britches.
He knew what he did hurt me.
I go to walk away from him again. I'd hate it if he saw the tears gathering in my eyes. He already thinks bad enough about me.
"I fucking told you-" he starts angrily but I cut him off, jerking my arm away from his as hard as I can at the moment.
"I don't care what you told me," my voice turns shaky.
"Lilah-" I cut him off again, turning around to shove my finger right in that stupid gorgeous face of his, not caring anymore if he sees the new tears slowly rolling down my cheeks.
What happened to me never crying in front of people?
"Don't call me that," I let my voice waver.
"I can call you whatever the fuck I want," he keeps his eyes away from me, not looking at me once.
Heck, I don't even have to worry about him seeing me crying. He's not even looking at me.
"I can too," I'll probably regret this later.
"You jerk," his darkly glaring eyes snap to mine only to soften a bit when they see me. Like I care.
"You're mean, you're rude, you don't care about anything, you only think about yourself, you have no manners, you-" he cuts me off jerking me to him softly.
"Shut up," his voice rumbles against me.
"You don't think before you speak, and you have no idea how your words affect other people," I begin to cry harder, shaking my head.
"You're cruel. You're evil."
"I wish you weren't so mean," I finally let out a sob. He crushes my face to his chest, his strong arms holding me impossibly close to his warm body.
With all the feelings taking over my body I sob into the chest of the man who has made me feel this way.
When the words I spoke to him finally register, I regret them. I was mean. No one should be talked to like I just talked to him. That thought only makes me continue to cry.
He smells so good. That makes me cry.
He's holding me. That makes me cry.
He's mean to me. That makes me cry.
A good little while passes with me just crying into him while he holds me to his chest. But then he pulls me away from him.
With softer eyes than I'd ever seen but his eyebrows still pulled together, he wipes the tears from my face.
"Don't cry over me," he speaks in a tone softer than I've heard from him ever before.
"Don't make me," I reply softly, my heart still in pain. His hand goes to my hair, it drifts through my locks before lightly grabbing it and tilting my head up to his.
"I don't know how to be good to you," he finishes and my heart falls.
"I grew up with no mother. No sisters, no grandmother, no aunts," he starts, his dark eyes fixed in on my green ones.
"No one was there to tell me how to do it," his other hand brushes against my shoulder blade.
What about his dad?
"But I never did anything to you," I whisper. I hate to make myself seem full of myself but I don't think I deserved this.
"I know," his head falls downward and I find myself wanting to keep seeing those eyes of his.
"You shouldn't have acted like you wanted to kiss me if you actually didn't," I tell him. More like scold but he deserves it I guess.
His eyes raise back to mine.
"But I did," his voice remains quiet as if someone could hear us if he talked too loudly. There wasn't really anyone around.
The hand not in my hand comes to rest on the side of my neck, his thumb brushing against my jaw.
I can't do this again.
"Grey," I allow my hand to reach up to his. I gently pull it away from me, a little shake to my head. I look up to see his jaw clenched a bit. Nowhere near how it usually is. We're getting somewhere.
"I-I can't do that," I say softly.
Please don't let this backfire on me.
"Friends?" I question trying to keep the hesitancy out of my voice. He slowly takes his hand out of my hair. The same hand grabs onto the hair tie on my wrist. He fiddles with it, keeping his eyes downcast.
He better not think I've forgiven him. I have not.
God he looks so cute.
His jaw clenches twice like he's holding back from saying something. I think we're definitely getting somewhere.
"Friends," he utters as if tasting the word on his tongue. Then, his eyes come back up and meet mine. He lets out a little sigh looking between both of my eyes.
I give him a little nod. His jaw clenches once more.
"Alright," he finally agrees and a small smile lights up my face.
We can be friends. No romantic things. No romantic thoughts. No romantic gestures. And if everything goes okay, perhaps I can teach him what he never was taught.
"Hello!" I greet and his eyebrows furrow in a cute confused face. Stop, no romantic thoughts.
"I'm Azalea!" I smile.
"Azalea..." he drawls out for the rest of my name, now understanding that we're starting over. A second chance.
"Azalea Delilah Carson," I fill it in for him.
"Lilah," he decides, just as the first time. Although, it was in a much nicer tone this time. And there was no glare.
I can definitely deal with this.
"What's your name?"
"Grey," he says shortly, his eyes not acting as if we're strangers. He can't keep his gosh darn eyes off my legs.
"My legs don't have eyes, Grey," I remind him and his eyes snap to mine angrily before they simmer down.
"Then don't wear that," he mutters under his breath, I guess forgetting that we're supposed to not know each other.
"You can't-" he cuts me off. 'You can't tell me what to wear' went down the drain.
"It rose to the fuckin' heavens and the guys saw it," his voice turns dark but I have a hard time figuring out if it's toward me or the guys.
"Free show, amirite?"
"Not funny," he grumbles, gripping onto the top of my waistband. I've decided that a grumbly-Grey is just his personality.
"Friends," I remind him softly and he lets out a harsh sigh releasing my waistband in a more than touchy way, dragging his hands along my waist.
He opens his mouth to say something only to be closed a second later as he finds something over my shoulder.
"Azalea Carson! What the hell?" Aaron's voice fills my ears and my eyes widen a bit. I forgot about him.
I left him waiting, didn't I?
"Who's this?" he questions as he nears Grey and me, his eyes taking on a slightly widened state as they peer at the man beside me.
"Who the fuck's that?" Grey questions down to me although his scowl stays on Aaron.
"Aaron, this is my friend Grey," I hear Grey's knuckles crack as he clenches his fist. Holy cow.
"Grey," I grab his clenched fist and place it behind me so that Aaron can't see it. God knows he'd freak and probably call the police or something.
"This is my friend Aaron," I look between both guys. Aaron's eyes are narrowed at Grey and Grey, well, of course, he's glaring at him.
The fist behind me unclenches and grips onto the back of my shirt as if it acts as some sort of calming solution.
The two don't say anything. They're sizing each other up. Losers.
If I was Aaron, I would be extra friendly to the large man beside me.
It's quite obvious the size difference between the two. Aaron may be fit but Grey is one heck of a man.
"Um," I break the silence.
"I should head on back to-"
"I haven't seen you around here," Aaron chides. He grew up here, he knows a lot of people.
"I haven't been around here," his deep voice grumbles from beside me. We've got a Knoxville boy over here.
"Is that so?" Aaron asks like he's some sort of FBI interrogator. Excuse me Aaron, I'm the one with the qualifications here, not you.
Why so suspicious all of a sudden?
I can feel that Grey doesn't like Aaron's words by the way he releases my shirt before grabbing a bigger bunch of it and leaning closer to me.
"What's your fuckin' deal?" I look up to Grey as he scowls darkly at Aaron.
Aaron raises his arms in surrender.
"We should head back to the store," I interrupt them. Gosh, these two are stressing me the heck out.
I walk out of Grey's grip and toward Aaron. I turn back to him.
"Goodbye, Grey," I tell him softly before grabbing Aaron's arm and pulling him with me.
"I trust that guy as far as I can throw him," Aaron lets out as we walk back to my car.
"That's not very far," I laugh, "he's a lot bigger than you!"
"That hurt my ego a bit don't say it again," he grumbles back.
"There's no reason to 'not trust him.' You don't even know him enough to decide that," I shake my head at him.
"He's a dickhead."
What can he just see that through Grey's stance or something? He's spoken two sentences to him.
"I've already established that he's one of those but you haven't so don't judge," I point my finger out and he lets out a defeated sigh.
~~~
? Grey ?
-Warning: Trafficking, rape, drugs, and murder take place or are mentioned after this point-
I slam open the door to the bar. People look my way but I shrug them off.
I push open the door to the back and walk down the hallway. At the last door, I push it open.
"Bossman, did you just have a quickie?" Jonas smirks my way from his seat on the brown leather couch.
I grab him by the front of his shirt, lifting him to me.
"Fuck off 'fore your nose gets broken," I sneer and he backs down. Fucking idiot.
I release his shirt and he sinks back into the couch. Just the thought of them seeing anywhere near under her skirt makes me want to knock them all the fuck out.
"What's got you all riled up?" Maxon inquires, his blue eyes glistening like he already knows the answer.
I ignore them.
She's got me fucking riled up.
"Aaron," I say suddenly, "did Jake ever say anything about an Aaron?"
They look down at the mention of his name. He was one of us.
"His best friend," Theo speaks up, "It was his best friend."
Fuck.
My hands fidget like they always fucking do when I'm stressed.
Lilah's face flashes through my mind. I shouldn't want to do the things I want to do to her.