Slapped
1084 Words
TESSA
He slowly reached my face, his breathing warming my lips before he could snap the thin thread hanging between us.
I froze, my pulse pumping up, and our eyes locked into something deep. Something unsaid.
Every inch of me wanted to push him away, take a step back, yet my legs were numb. Perhaps, his presence was that powerful.
Just when his grip tightened on the back of my neck, I slightly flinched.
But then, the pressure shifted.
Instead of the searing heat of a kiss, I felt a light brush against my ear. My eyes slowly opened only to find Kyle plucking a stray white feather from my hair.
He held the feather between his gloved fingers for a second, his gaze flickering from the tiny object to my face. Then, he let it go. He watched it float away into the air.
“Thank you,” I whispered, turning my face to the rain, hiding from his eyes. Every time our eyes met, something strange clouded my senses as if he was controlling me.
*What were you even thinking, Tessa? A kiss? Seriously!?* I felt a wave of embarrassment wash over me. My hands, which had been clutching his jacket, suddenly felt useless.
A part of me was confused. Whether he really was plucking a feather or he noticed me flinching and took a step back.
Neither of us spoke a word after that.
We stood there for an eternity while the rain slowed to a drip. Every few seconds, I’d glance at him, only to find him already watching me. He looked like a man holding back a storm, and I was the one trapped in the eye of it.
Whenever I felt the pull of his eyes, I turned my head in the opposite direction.
At some point, I started to sense we were playing hide and seek.
Finally, the clouds parted, and the streetlights flickered back to life. Kyle didn't say a word. He walked to the bike, kicked the stand up, and motioned for me to get on.
I sat behind him, my arms rigid, refusing to touch his back even though every instinct screamed at me to hold on. The distance between us felt like a chasm that had widened ten miles in the last twenty minutes.
“Hold me, Tessa.”
He glanced at me over his shoulder. “You're going to fall, and I won't take responsibility.”
Hesitant and awkward, I gripped either of his broad shoulders. He drove faster than the wind, my breasts landing countless times on his firm, strong, upper back. He must've felt it.
“Can't you drive slow?”
“I never learned to drive slow. You might sit on someone else's bike next time.”
He was suddenly being a jerk.
After a long, silent ride, he pulled up in front of my home. I slid off the bike before the engine had even fully died.
I took a few steps toward the door when Kyle’s voice cut through the stillness.
“Why did you really quit, Tessa?”
My feet paused.
I turned around to find him leaning over the handlebars, his helmet discarded on the seat.
“Why did you quit being a programmer? You loved that job. It was your dream. The girl who fought with me for a single mark is now running a café? Isn't it strange?”
The words somewhat sounded bitter.
“Not everything in life goes as planned. I quit because I was bored. I wanted a change.”
Without warning, he swung his leg off the bike and strode toward me. The distance between us vanished in seconds.
He stopped right in front of me, close enough that his presence seemed to fill every inch of space around us. His height forced me to tilt my head back, and I instantly regretted it.
Because looking up only made him more intimidating.
There was something infuriatingly unfair about how calm he looked while my pulse was completely out of control.
Kyle slipped a hand into his pocket and tilted his head slightly, studying me with a look that felt far too knowing.
“Stop lying, Tessa Vance.”
“You wouldn't leave your dream job until something bad had happened.”
“You’re imagining things,” I snapped, turning to head inside but he blocked my path.
“Am I? Because you keep taking his name in your sleep. Wyatt. You’re always begging him to not abandon you, to not leave you. Then you cry for him like he’s your whole world.”
My blood ran cold. “W-What did you say?”
“What exactly happened between you and Wyatt? Why did you keep crying for a guy who didn't give a damn about you?”
Rage took over me. I was barely suppressing myself. He had no right to question my past.
“Don’t dig into my personal life, Kyle. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Were you so madly in love that you threw away your career, your dreams, your entire identity for that pathetic excuse of a man? He chose your best friend over you, and you’re still rotting from the inside out because of it!”
“Why do you even care? I never questioned your past or anything!”
“Because…” His eyes darkened. “Do you remember our bet?”
My heart dropped.
“We had a bet, Tessa. We'll meet after seven years and see who has become more successful in life. I might've lost it. But you won our bet then lost it.”
Tears welled up in my eyes.
He leaned in, his eyes blazing with fury. “Since when did you allow a man to walk all over you like that? You’re suffering every day. What did he do to make you this obsessed with him?”
“Enough!” I raised my hand and slapped his cheek. Silence sliced through us, and I came back to my senses.
It was too late.
I gasped, reeling back as if I’d been the one struck. I stared at him, my breath hitching as I realized what I’d done.
Kyle looked at me, cold and sharp.
Then, he turned around and climbed onto his bike. The engine roared with a violence that made the windows of my house rattle in their frames. He just slammed the bike into gear and tore off down the road.
- Writer
