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NINE
STELLA
This cannot be happening right now. How am I supposed to hang around at thisparty, watching the bitch flirt and snuggle up to him as he sits there, acting like I don’t fucking exist? How am I supposed to do this after all that’s happened between us?
“Okay, I’ll just grab a plate and some chips and donuts, and we’ll head back to the confines of the bedroom,” Jade says, grabbing the snacks from the kitchen. The stupid reason I agreed to spend Spring break at the last place I wanted to be, Kai’s new apartment, was solely because Jade hadn’t been acting herself. I’m determined to find out what my best friend is hiding from me. Though why it had to be here is just added torture.
Drake bought an apartment, much a surprise to everyone who has no fucking clue how he came up with the money. I heard Jade mumbling something to Kai about him being back to his old ways and back into the cage fights, but a new apartment and a brand new sports car definitely means there’s something else going on.
To avoid questions or further prying into his secret affairs, Drake asked Kai and Jax to move in with him. That’s why we're here. Their new home, at least on the weekends until we graduate and they can move in full time.
Just as we’re about to head back toward the room we’re staying in, we’re ambushed by none other than my ex-best friend and supreme pain in the ass, Leighton Astor. “Where are you two running off to?” she asks, blocking our escape route.
I’m about to respond, but Jade is quick to beat me to the punch. “To go talk about how much we wish we were just like you, Astor,” Jade snaps. Leigh ignores Jade, looking right at me, hoping I’ll say something stupid she could use to insult me further.
“Whatever. Why don’t you guys stay and play a game of beer pong? Kai and Casey are the reigning champs, honestly couple goals,” Leigh sneers, and I can’t help but scoff and roll my eyes at the absurdity. I turn to where Kai sits with Casey on his lap. She may be currently tucked beneath his arm, but Kai doesn’t havegirlfriends. He’s made that blatantly clear to me.
“We’re not a couple,” I hear him groan before Casey shuts him up with a drunken kiss.
My heart stops, shattering into a million pieces as Casey shoves her tongue down his throat. I stare in shock at how he does absolutely nothing to push her away. Kai doesn’t kiss. He refuses to allow himself that form of intimacy. Fucking is one thing. Shoving a dick deep into a pussy isn’t as intimate as allowing someone to entwine their tongues with yours. His words, not mine. He must be that fucking drunk, or he’s doing it because he knows I’m watching.
His eyes connect with mine while she continues kissing him. They’re taunting me, teasing me, making me wish I were the one he was with. Now I definitely know the bastard is doing this because I’m watching.
A vision of the time we kissed infiltrates my mind threatening to break me. The feeling of being rejected by him when I tried to kiss him again, the foolishness I felt thinking he’d make an exception. My eyes were closed, my body ready, and he simply just walked away. No explanation, nothing.
“I’ll pass,” Jade says. “I’ve already smoked a bunch and am not in the mood to puke my guts out if I get cross-faded.” I turn to my friend bewildered but keep quiet. That’s a fucking lie, since I’ve been with Jade all night and she is yet to have a sip of alcohol, let alone smoke a joint. However, I keep that fact to myself.
Leigh rolls her eyes. Though, just as we’re about to walk away, the infamous Damon Drake steps forward and straight into me. I freeze as his daunting green eyes watch me with curiosity. They’re glossy and red, what I’ve learned means he’s high out of his mind. Yet he doesn’t look away. I’ve never really spent too much time with Drake, given he’s usually sulking around or avoiding the girls, but up close and personal, he’s goddamn intimidating.
“What about you, Little Silver?” he slurs, a teasing smirk taking over his beautiful face. “You up for a game?” I am unable to respond, staring up at what I believe is a flirty Damon Drake staring at me, awaiting an answer. I swallow hard, and a crooked smile takes over his expressions as he reads my reaction to his closeness.
Damon Drake is hot even, I have to admit it. In a,he’s way out of my league and would probably eat me alive way, but the tattooed bad boy who’s turned more heads than I can count here in Hillcrest, and surely fucked his way around Servite, is gorgeous.
But one question continues to baffle me.Why is he here flirting with me?It makes absolutely no sense given the pick of the crop watching our exchange with angry expressions.
Especially since I’m pretty sure he knows how I feel about his best friend. Despite how much I’ve tried to hide it, I can’t help the way I act, like a nervous, blubbering mess, the moment I’m around Kai.
Everybody knows I’m in love with Malachi Saint, just as everybody knows, we’ll never be more than friends.
Where Drake is sexy and alluring, Kai is perfectly imperfect. Everything about him is exactly what I need, what I crave. I don’t know how to explain it, but the moment I laid eyes on him that first day I met him when he and his friends showed up at my school, I knew things would never be the same. He’s dark, dangerous, and mysterious in every way, but he makes me feel comfort and safety, something that’s been lacking my entire life.
Maybe it’s the fact that I can see past the pain and trauma, and into the scared little boy I know is living deep within him. Just like the scared, pathetic little girls in me weeps every single night, hoping to find one day someone who could understand what it’s like to be invisible.
Although Kai’s presence and appearance don’t allow you to look past him, I know he wishes no one would see him.
We surprised everyone when we became unlikely friends and got closer than any of them could have ever guessed we could. Maybe it’s because understands me in a way no one else can. He listens and makes me feel safe. He sees my pain, because in a way it mirrors his. Not that Scar, Jade, and Ruby don’t, but they have so much stuff going on in their own lives to look past the walls I’ve put up and into the actual problems I hide.
Kai cares about me. I know he does, but he doesn’t allow me to look behind the curtain, to open the locked door he keeps shut tightly around his heart and mind.
On the other hand, I’m an open book.
Well, other than one deep dark secret, which will never see the light of day. I know Kai hides one of those, too.
Coming out of my thoughts, I look up and find Drake still watching me, waiting for a response. I tuck my hair behind her ear, a nervous tick I have yet to figure out how to get rid of. “I um, I’m not very good,” I whisper, looking away from him and down to my feet.
Casey scoffs, “Ugh, obviously.”
I scowl at the bitch, who’s currently still sitting on Kai’s lap. I can’t believe she was once one of my best friends. I’ve known both her and Leigh since before my life went up in flames. They were the best of friends, understanding, caring, and patient. They listened and never judged me. That was until the day I threatened theirstatusas the popular girls of Servite.
