BURN

Chapter four

CHAPTER FOUR

“Where are we going?” I asked watching him hop on a bike that seemed to be his.

“Hop on,” he instructed.

I stared at the bike and then looked back at his face, hoping to find some huge smile on it and him admitting that it was just a prank but only impatience was registered all over his features.

“I’m not going to get on that thing,” I flat right rejected, crossing my arms.

“The more you keep standing there, the more people recognize you and I’m pretty sure you don’t want your brother finding out that you were seen with me,”

Sighing I accepted the helmet, pushing it over my head before hopping on. Afraid I would fall, I wound my arms around his waist, holding onto him tightly with the side of my face pressed against his back and my eyes closed. I felt his whole body shake and realized he was silently laughing.

“I’m glad you find all of this funny,” I mumbled a small smile lighting up my face.

“Its pretty funny actually. Just make sure you don’t faint when I begin driving because unfortunately I really go fast,”

I didn’t have time to reply at least caution him before he went flying. I had never felt my heart nearly jump out of my mouth like I felt now. I never opened my eyes in what seemed like forever until I heard him slow down to a stop.

“You can open your eyes now and step off the bike,” he said.

Breathing heavily I squinted my eyes open, realizing my surroundings didn’t really look familiar. With a new wave of panic setting my heart I carefully stepped off the bike, removing the helmet. It was a rather fancy compound with four story building, holding two apartments on each floor.

“Where the bloody hell are we?” I asked stepping away from him.

“So the good girl does cuss,” he said instead as he parked his bike. I rolled my eyes at his statement but followed him anyway.

“I’m really serious. Where are we?” Darkness was already closing in which meant it had to be around six-something in the evening.

“What do you think?” Replying a question with a question, really smart of him.

He began ascending the flight of stairs as I followed him. I knew I had a chance to turn back but I did not even know where we were. I could call Jade but then she would flip if I told her I was with Malcom. Well, calling my brother was obviously out of question. I almost ran into his rather broad back when he stopped at the last floor, the apartment on the right. The door was slightly open so he just walked in. After some hesitation I followed him inside. If I had thought my apartment was fancy this was above fancy. Everything from the thirty two inch flat screen TV, white leather sofa to the very last thing in the house spelt money.

“Thank God you are back Malcom. I was just about to-“A good-looking guy emerged from somewhere inside the house but stopped talking mid-sentence on noticing me standing awkwardly in the middle of the carpeted marble floor. His hair was shortened, and his build almost quiet similar to Malcom’s except his skin was much darker.

“I didn’t realize we were having company tonight,” he added, glaring at Malcom.

“Sophie this is my housemate Trent, Trent, you already know Sophie,” Malcom went ahead to introduce us, completely ignoring his glaring housemate.

“Nice to meet you Sophie,” The smile Trent benefitted me with, did not quiet reach his eyes.

“Me too,” I replied in a small voice.

“Are you going to order dinner or are you cooking again? Because I’m starving right now,” Malcom said non-chalantly while plopping down on the couch.

“I’m cooking tonight. Tina is coming, remember?”

“Tina? It totally slipped my mind,” Either he was just testing Trent’s patience or just fooling around but either way he was clearly getting on his nerves, judging from the aggravated look on Trent’s face.

“And it looks like I’ll have to call her and give some dumb excuse to cancel,”

“Relax, Sophie is not staying the night Trent. She is just here to pick a few things, probably have some dinner with us and then I’ll drive her back to her apartment,”

“Fine,” Trent relaxed visibly as he walked to the kitchen.

“Are you going to stand there till dinner is ready?” Malcom raised an eyebrow at me.

Sighing, I sat on the other end of the couch. He flipped through the channels aimlessly as he hummed something inaudible under his breath. Finally he settled on some ongoing hip-hop music channel and immediately began bobbing his head in rhythm to the song playing. All this while, I pretended to stare intently at the television but in truth my mind was wheeling around at the fact that he was just inches away from me. To really think about it I was insane to have agreed to come here knowing my brother was obviously going to find out. I had no idea what bothered me more, the fact that I didn’t really know what Malcom thought of me or the fact that he was acting so indifferent of me. When I risked a glance at him I was surprised when our eyes met instantly. My heart began beating erratically against my chest with just one thought stuck in my brain; could he have been staring at me all along?

“You know everyone is saying we slept together,” he poised never breaking the stare.

“Yeah. I received quiet a tongue lash for that from my brother,” it was a surprise that my voice had remained normal.

“But you don’t have to worry though. I really did not want to sleep with you,”

“What? But-“

“If I really wanted to sleep with you, I would have driven straight home and not start making out with you against some rando’s car, not that we even got to the making out stage before you decorated my attire with all your beer and dinner. Wait, did you really think you could run away from me though?” he was not in the least bit angry. Actually he sounded amused by the entire ordeal.

“Well, at least I was able to hide from you for a whole day to cook up some worthwhile apology,”

“Really? What’s the apology?” the way he c****d his eyebrow made me my throat go dry.

“Um…I really have none yet actually,” I admitted.

‘”Well, in the near future you don’t have to worry about me trying to get into your pants,” My brother would have been happy to hear that but somehow I didn’t feel quite the same. It was clear he didn’t find me pretty enough.

“And why is that?”