Lingering Denial

Chapter 7

Axel's P.O.V~

Amazed. That's what how I felt when I watched her connect with Aaron that quickly. He hadn't been that talkative and attached to any girls ever since our sister. It only made me more interested and intrigued in her.

As I watched her talk about her childhood, it amazed me just how carefree she looked, with such a glimmer in her eyes. It made me think back to my own childhood, which used to be just as radiant until the incident... Though, looking back at Aurora's expression made me push it to the back of my mind.

The way she talked about it all, and her own dream, I honestly admired her for sticking through to it until now. "To me, you sound just like her already." I felt a genuine smile forming on my face, as I watched her lost in her thoughts, looking completely serene. "With an excited look in your eyes, when you talk about your dream."

Unlike my own dream which had been long forgotten, I almost felt satisfied maybe, just maybe hoping to see her fulfil her own. At some point, we had stopped walking. I met her surprised light brown eyes, with my own, unintentionally holding her gaze, as an unspoken level of understanding and draw flowed between them. Hypnotized. Again. A draw which had frozen time along with it.

We were interrupted with a guy's voice. It had broken the intense gaze, and made us look away from each other. What was this pull I felt towards her? "Aurora?" Still confused at how connected I had felt with her, I decided to just wave it off. I turned towards the uninvited stranger, throwing him a questioning, but cold and blank look.

What was I doing? It was too dangerous to even hang around her this much... I couldn't have the wrong people misinterpreting anything, especially not now. They would most likely be more alert of my actions, since I just moved back.

In spite of that, I can't help but start to feel protective of her; It's just how similar she is to my sister. Just as long as my view of her doesn't change any more into the direction I want to avoid.

"Noah. Hi... what are you doing here?" She quietly questioned, her previous enthusiasm and care-free tone dimming down to her normal, shy one again. Noah grinned at her walking closer to her, before replying "Just taking my sister out for a bit..." Noah paused for a bit when he caught sight of me. His eyes widened slightly, before he snapped out of it and warily asked Aurora, "...Who's this guy?" Was there a flash of recognition I saw?

I continued to scrutinize the guy named Noah, as he warily glanced back at me, looking intimidated, though he tried not to show it. Aurora glanced up at me, not surprised by the change of expression, before shyly introducing him. "Oh sorry, don't mind him, this is Axel, a... friend." She elbowed me discreetly to act nicer, before I sighed looking at Aurora's pleading face slightly irritated. "Axel, this is Noah. He's in the year above, but in the same department as me." She said before greeting his sister who had run up towards her.

Now that I thought about it, why did the Noah guy seem so familiar...? My guard suddenly came up. Somehow, he gave me a really bad feeling. I reluctantly shook Noah's outstretched hand, quite painfully, should I add. Noah stared back at me with hidden hatred in his eyes, which I noticed as he grabbed back forcefully. Yep, I definitely did not like the guy.

He glanced between me and Aurora for a while, before a glint flashed in his eyes. Pretending to flinch, Noah took his hand back, glancing quickly at Aurora, before she glared at me pointedly. I scoffed, checking quickly to make sure Aaron was in the playground.

Aurora went back to talking with him about something to do with their course. She was asking him about how the internship was, and what you had to do in it. He animatedly replied back but I could see him glancing at me every now and then. He had the nice guy personality going on for him, grinning at her and laughing every now and then. It seriously bothered me although I tried to look as if it didn't, and that I didn't care about Aurora in case my hunch was right.

All of a sudden, Noah reached his hand towards Aurora's face, much to her surprise. She automatically flinched, considering yesterday's events and subtly leaned towards me, while I unknowingly did the same. I cautiously watched until he took his hand away, and grinned at her, "Eyelash." He said before blowing it away, if it was even there in the first place that is...

Aurora nervously laughed it off, and I moved away from her, but knew it was too late. Noah maliciously smirked at me, when she wasn't looking making me glower back at him, irritated. Well, there goes that plan. I had to talk to one of the guys, and...might even have to ask Liam about him...

The fact that Noah seemed had the ability to be around her a lot while I wasn't there now concerned me. If I was right, he could easily do harm to her. It reminded me of the exact reason why I wanted to avoid being close to her in the first place. I might have been too ignorant.

My phone tinged, snapping him out of his thoughts, before I checked the message. 'Lucas: Dude, where r u?! It's in half an hour!'

I sighed, apprehensive at the timing. I worriedly glanced back Aurora naively not noticing anything. Her laughing triggered me to grab her hand and pull her away. There was no way in hell I was leaving her with that guy, this late at night.

"Aaron! We're leaving" I shouted out, before Aaron swiftly came running towards them. Aaron was clever enough to understand to not ask questions, as he obediently followed behind.

I glared dangerously at the sly smirk Noah gave me as we left while Aurora looked at me like I had just grown two heads, "Axel. What the hell are you doing? Why!? No wait-"Aurora complained before giving up trying to escape. She turned around to look at Noah apologetically, "Sorry, Noah. I'll talk to you later!" She managed to get in, before I increased our pace. "No worries, see you tomorrow!"

~

Once we were quite some length away, I began to slow down, letting out a breath of relief. That's when Aurora stopped, managing pulling her hand out of my grasp, as she crossed her arms. I turned around, for some reason missing the warmth of her soft hands, to find a questioning expression aimed towards me. We were close enough for Aaron to run towards our friends, which he did once he saw Aurora.

"Would you be so kind as to enlighten me with what that the hell that was back there?" She demanded, annoyed at the fact that she was being dragged around without an explanation, "And your attitude towards Noah, when you've only just met him."

I watched her surprised at the outburst, before walking towards her. "There's nothing to worry about. I'm sorry. Let's just go" I looked in her eyes, signalling her to come, but she just stayed put and narrowed her eyes at me suspiciously, "No. Explain it to me. I'm listening" She watched me expectantly, "You can't just expect me to be okay with your attitude towards one of my friends without an explanation"

We just stared at each other for a while daring the other to back down, before I sighed "Look, I'm just warning you. But, it's better if you stay away from him." I explained to her, with a low tone, my cautious gaze drifting back to the road we came from.

Looking stumped, Aurora curiously looked up at me, before asking, "Why?" I sighed in frustration, before looked back at the girl properly, trying to be clear about the warning. "I just have a bad feeling about him, ok?... He's dangerous. Trust me."

Aurora look slightly more confused before she laughed a bit, "He's not dangerous... I've known him for a year." She looked at me, with some doubt, but it was wavering. I rolled my eyes at her naivety, fed up "What about before then, huh?...Look. You don't know him."

Putting my hands in my pocket, I walked forward signalling for her to follow, "Now come on, the others are waiting." I knew she was itching to talk more, but I couldn't deal with any more. I might end up blurting stuff about myself while I'm at it. I just hoped she wouldn't let her curiosity get the best of her and ignore my warning.

"Whatever..." She mumbled following me, "But you should still apologize to him..." Oh my god, this woman.

~