Episode 9
1781 Words
CASSIAN
“I hate you.”
I turned to look at her, and she simply shrugged, “What? I can’t help that I’m very honest.”
She had this pointed look on her face, as though she was genuinely trying to convince me to take her words to heart.
I didn’t.
“We’ve been officially fake dating for barely thirty minutes, Red. That’s not very encouraging,” I teased as we walked toward my truck. “We are supposed to be in love moreover no one hates me.”
She looked up at me and stared for a while, her brows slowly pulling together as she did.
“I think you’re too pompous to think you can’t be hated?”
The thought was in fact crazy because no one likes me, I didn’t make it any easier for them and I certainly don’t care who does and who doesn’t.
I do, however, know for a fact that she didn’t. Else she wouldn’t be stretching up her neck just to meet my eyes to tell me how much she did.
“You’ve been mocking my height,” she accused before quickening her steps to catch up with me and slipping her smaller hand into mine. “A fake boyfriend shouldn’t be doing that.”
She wasn’t wrong though.
It wasn’t like I could help myself… I didn’t know any girl that was sane enough to be near me and the only one that did the top of her head could barely reach my shoulder… Yet somehow, she had enough attitude packed into her small frame to argue with me every chance she got.
My eyes dropped to our joined hands and back to her face to see that her glare had intensified.
I could already tell this ride was going to be f*****g interesting.
Everything about her was amusing… despite how mouthy she was it was obvious she was doing that to avoid her racing nerves.
“Our terms don’t involve you staring at me like a f*****g creep every five seconds,” she blurted as we finally reached the parking lot. “If you want to say something, just say it.”
I chuckled.
There it was.
“I have to sell our act, Four Eyes.” As if she could read the sarcasm in my voice, she just ignored me with the scowl on her face now wider.
I unlocked my truck before walking around to the passenger side and pulling the door open for her.
“Now what is it?”
Her eyes moved from me to the open door and then back to me.
“Nothing,” for some reason her voice was now high-pitched. “I’m just surprised you have manners.”
I scoffed.
Opening a f*****g door was considered manners these days?
What the hell had Whitaker ever done for her to look at something so basic like I’d just laid my jacket over a puddle for her?
“I might as well shut it, then.”
Her eyes widened before she quickly climbed inside, smiling sweetly at me.
“Too late.” She teased.
I shut the door harder than necessary, and her laughter followed me as I walked around the truck.
For the first few minutes of the drive, Violetta was quiet.
I glanced at her… suspiciously quiet.
She was staring out the window, her fingers absentmindedly playing with the sleeve of my jacket.
When I’d placed it around her shoulders earlier that morning, it was because the cameras were watching and I needed to sell whatever the f**k we’d just agreed to… I hadn’t expected her to still be wearing it hours later.
For some reason, I liked that she was… it suited her well.
“You missed the turn,” her voice finally broke through the silence and I turned my eyes back on the road.
I ignored her… she had been quiet for a while, I needed to hear her voice more and what better way than to startle her.
“Cassian.”
“Hm?”
“You missed the turn to my apartment.” She grumbled, looking like she was going to bite my ear off.
“I know.”
I could practically feel her staring at the side of my face, “Turn around now.”
“No.”
It had taken me everything to maintain my poker face.
“Cassian.”
“Red.”
“Take me home.” She ordered.
“I will.”
“Then why the hell are we driving in the opposite direction?”
“I need to stop somewhere first.”
The suspicion that immediately crossed her face almost made me laugh.
“Where are you taking me?”
“You’ll see.”
I could feel her glare on me and I ignored her, placing my eye still on the road.
I could swear her voice became two times higher as she screeched, “Cassian Alexandris, if you’re kidnapping me…”
“You got into my truck willingly.” I interrupted her immediately with a smirk… she looked like she was about to spark so I added, “I’ll take you home when I’m done.”
“That doesn’t mean you get to drive me wherever you want!” She had her hands crossed as she threw back.
“Well you did sign the napkin.”
Her mouth fell open, “That napkin does not have a kidnapping clause!”
I couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped me.
Yeah.
This was definitely going to be f*****g worth my time.
I glanced at her again and found her glaring at me, her lips pressed into a thin line as though she was mentally considering every possible way to murder me and get away with it.
“Red?”
She huffed dramatically and sank back into her seat
Surprisingly, she stopped asking questions for only about two minutes.
“Are we there yet?”
Violetta! She was going to be the death of me.
And to think all I’d done was drive back toward campus from the café… I knew if she could, she would continue to ask the same question every thirty seconds until we arrived.
“Yes, Red.”
“Oh.” The disappointment in her voice almost made me turn to look at her.
We pulled up outside the athletic center less than two minutes later, and Violetta immediately leaned forward to peer through the windshield.
“The rink?”
I switched off the engine.
“Come on.”
“That’s all the explanation I get?” she asked, eyeing me up.
“Yeah, you're being nosy.” I teased, giving her a rough pat on the head.
“I’m starting to understand why everyone doesn’t want to talk to you.”
I stepped out of the truck.
“Good.”
She muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like, asshole but followed me anyway.
The building was empty when we entered.
Our footsteps echoed through the hallways as I headed toward the office beside the changing rooms…Violetta stayed close behind me.
I knocked in front of Coach Miller’s office.
“COME IN.”
Violetta looked at me, “He does sound happy.”
Despite the sarcasm in her voice, it was obvious that she was nervous.
If the way her fingers kept on tightening around the strap of her bag wasn’t screaming enough… I could tell by the amount of times she had adjusted her glasses that they were already sitting perfectly on her face.
And that was exactly why I hadn’t told her where we were going in the first place.
I pushed the door open, but before stepping inside, I leaned closer to her.
“Breathe,” I whispered. “We’ve got this.”
Her eyes met mine but only for a second.
Coach Miller was pacing behind his desk with a tablet in one hand but the moment he saw me, his expression darkened.
I stepped inside with Violetta… It was when I shut the door behind us did he realize I wasn’t alone.
His eyes moved between us questions swirling in them.
“Alexandris,” he finally said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “What the f**k were you thinking?”
Violetta stiffened beside me.
Coach shoved the tablet in my direction.
The video was paused on a frame of me standing over Derek. His blood covered my knuckles, while his face was barely recognizable beneath the mess I’d made of it.
For a moment, I simply stared at the screen.
Was that what I looked like whenever I lost control?
That wasn’t me.
At least, I didn’t want it to be.
That was the anger buried so deep inside me… anger that I’d spent years pretending didn’t exist. It searched for the smallest opening to let loose, once it did… This was the result.
“Care to explain this?” He yelled, and the disappointment in his eyes was painfully obvious.
We both knew why screwing up wasn’t an option for me… there was so much at risk, especially with a track record as f****d up as mine.
“He grabbed…”
“Is that it?” he interrupted, “No one gives a s**t what he did! Not me and certainly not the board!”
My jaw tightened.
Coach must have noticed the change in my expression because he immediately pointed the tablet at me.
“Don’t look at me like that… look at you!”
He threw his hands into his hair, cursing under his breath.
“Derek is in the hospital, Cassian. The fight is everywhere. The athletic department has been calling me since six this morning, and scouts are asking questions.”
I said nothing.
“This isn’t some stupid campus fight that disappears after a week. You’re the captain of this team, and instead of our championship win trending, this is what everyone is talking about!” He shoved the tablet toward me again. “Do you understand what that means?”
“I know.”
He scoffed, “Do you?”
His voice rose, “Because you’ve got a strange f*****g way of showing it.”
Coach wasn’t done with me.
“You already have a reputation. Every team interested in you knows you’re talented, Cassian, but they’re starting to ask whether you’re worth the f*****g trouble.”
I’d heard it before… different voices but the same f*****g words.
It was either I was too difficult or too much… it had always been one or the other.
That was the reason I’d left home in the first place.
I was a risk… a problem waiting to happen.
A f*****g mistake.
- Writer
