Chapter Thirteen Almost Encounters
1093 Words
Abby’s POV
It drizzled lightly as I walked out of my literature building, hugging my cardigan tight around myself while students rushed past me with umbrellas and coffee cups, their lives looked way easier than mine right now
Jordan had practice, Harper had Wes and I was alone with too many thoughts. My phone buzzed in my coat pocket.
Jordan: Dont forget my game tomorrow, wear the blue sweater I like.
When does he ever say please
I typed okay anyway.
A car horn blared somewhere down the street causing me to flinch, ever since the night at Noah’s penthouse, my body had become traitorous
Every black car looked like his and every deep voice made my stomach tighten. Everytime I heard a sound from my phone, a small part of me wondered if it was him finally answering my text
I shoved my phone away and hurried towards toward the parking lot. My old Audi sat near the curb. The engine refused to start on the first try. “Come on,” I muttered
I try again and again, still nothing.
I dropped my forehead against the steering wheel with a groan. “Of course.”
Meanwhile, outside, rain thickened against the windshield, students disappeared one by one until the lot emptied. I tried the ignition… nothing
“Need help?”
Blood rushed to my ear, I look to see Noah standing beside the driver’s side window, rain dripping from the collar of his black jacket, one tattooed hasn’t rested inside his pocket while the other held a cigarette
I didn’t speak for a while and neither did he , then he took a look at the dashboard. “Battery’s gone.”
I swallowed hard. “Yeah, um, yeah…, I figured.”
“So are you going to wait for things to completely fall apart before doing something about them?”
I could hear the irritation under his tone
“What are you even doing here?”
“Meeting.” It was all he offered me
He knocked on the roof of my car. “Pop the hood.”
“I can call roadside.”
“Call them then.”
How hard is it to know what you actually want, one second he’s here helping me, the next he is looking like breathing the same air with me was the worst thing he had ever done
“You still stare too much.” He said opening the hood with such ease
Can’t lie there was truly something really beautiful about the ease with which he did ordinary things
Heat rushed to my face. “I wasn’t staring.”
I crossed my arms. “You know, you don’t have to be mean every single time you talk to me.”
He looked at me and then the fading bruise near my cheekbone. “You should stop giving people reasons to hit you.”
“Excuse me?”
His expression doesn’t change. “You heard me.”
“You don’t know anything about me!” I yell without meaning to
“I know just enough.” a few anger rushing into my chest
He slammed the hood shut. “Your car should start now.”
“Thanks” he gives a single nod and then steps away, however, when I got back into the car and looked through the windshield, he was still standing there watching me leave
**************************
Noah
I knew I should havee left the second I saw her, instead I stayed long enough to make things worse
The underground garage smelled like gasoline and burnt rubber by the time I got home that night. Mechanics moved around below me while engines roared somewhere in the distance
Usually, the noise cleared my head but tonight it wasn’t even close “you’re distracted.”
I look up to find Anna against the doorway of my office, blonde hair, perfect mouth, perfect body, there was nothing about her complicated enough to ruin me
I liked the sanity her presence in my life offered. She walked in carrying two glasses of whiskey. “You vanished after the meeting.”
“Had somewhere important to be.”
Her eyes narrowed. “ Fairs but with who though?”
I took the drink from her without answering, Anna noticed everything and like I had stated before, it was one of the many things about her that irritates me.
“You know?” She says. “Most people do not look homicidal after helping a girl with her car.”
Now that was enough to make me still
She smiled faintly. “Right, so it was her?
“That Carter girls.” She smiles. “Wes’ little sister.”
Hated to hear her reduce Abby to nothing but just the Carter girl, she is so much more and we all know that
Anna stares at me. “But you hate that family,”
“I think it’s crazy how much audacity you now have because you sleep in my bed occasionally. Don’t you think?”
“I think,” Anna said softly, “that you’ve never once kept tabs on a woman before.”
Her face turned white. “You are watching her.”
“She’s dating an asshole.”
“So?” Anna stared hard at me and continued. “You’ve had men following her for years, haven’t you?”
I looked away because she wasn’t wrong
Since the first time 16 year-old Abby, Carter came home from Biden school, wearing white socks and oversize, sweaters and smiling at me like I was some angel, I never recovered from
“She’s a Carter.” I say firmly though
Anna folded her arms. “At this point, it only sounds like you are trying to so hard to convince yourself.”
Without saying a word to her, i walked towards the window overlooking the garage floor below. Cars screamed across the concrete while the crowd cheered somewhere in the distance
All this noise, the speed, and even the violence would usually be enough to shut my brain up but tonight, all I could see was Abby standing in the rain looking shy me like I had hurt her
“Want some advice?.” Anna asked from behind me
“No, I don’t.”
“She’s either your revenge or your weakness.” She pauses. “But you should always remember, she can be both forever.”
My grip around my glass tightened even more, because. I had found my problem, I just didn’t know which one terrified me more
- Writer
