Chapter Twelve Controlled Chaos
1115 Words
Noah’s POV
The engine screams beneath me as I take a corner too fast while the crowd erupts around the track. Money, alcohol and a s**t load of adrenaline pulsed through the underground lot. Someone whistles when my car nearly clips the barricade but I don’t slow down.
The city blurs past in streaks of white and red lights, the steering wheel tight beneath my palms. Every sound fades except the growl of the engine and well…the excessive pounding of my chest.
My jaw tightens as the image of blue eyes and hard bruise on soft skin flashes across my mind, I slam harder on the accelerator, the finish line flashes past seconds later.
The crowd looses its mind and I barely notice
“Fisher!”
A hand slams against the roof of my car as I step out. The smell of gasoline and cigarettes hangs thick in the air while people crowd around me throwing congratulations i dont care enough to hear
Someone passes me a drink, another person asks if I’m racing again tonight
A brunette with glitter smeared across her eyelids pressed against my arms and says something about celebrating privately.
I ignore all of it because actually, none of it touches me anymore, nothing sticks!
“Jesus,” Luca mutters, falling into step beside me
“Who pissed you off this time?”
I slowly light a cigarette. “No one.”
“That’s bull.”
I exhale smoke into the cold night air. “Then stop asking questions you already know the answer to.”
Lucas shakes his head. “You’re getting worse.”
“Good.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
I shrug
In the few seconds of silence that follow, my mind finds its way back to Abby Carter
I hate that
“She made it back to campus.” Luca says casually
My eyes instantly cuts towards him
He notices and I see the weird smirk he has on. “Ahh, now there he is.”
I take another drag from the cigarette. “I told you not to talk about her unless it’s necessary.”
“You literally pay people to watch her.”
“That’s different.”
Luca laughs under his breath. “Right! Um, because surveillance is normal but conversation crosses a line, yeah.”
I don’t respond because three days ago, I had a man parked outside her dorm until sunrise because I needed to know she made it inside safely.
“Jordan’s been around her all day, though.” Luca continues. “But don’t worry, it’s been love throughout.”
My molars grind together, I’m not sure what pisses me off more, the fact that he can still freely touch her or the fact that she stayed.
“She went to his basketball practice too.”
I crush the cigarette beneath my boot. “Enough.”
Luca raises both hands slightly. “You asked for updates.”
I give him a stern look.
Abby Carter is a problem, I should have buried years ago alongside every other memory attached to Seattle.
Thankfully , my phone buzzes before Luca can say anything else.
Anna
Of course
“You coming?” Her text reads
“Yeah” I type after a few seconds of deciding if her message was worth a reply or not
*************************
Anna opens my penthouse door wearing one of my shirts and nothing underneath. Most men would probably consider that a fantasy, I consider it f*****g Tuesday
“You’re late,” she murmurs, stepping aside to let me in
“And you’re stil here.”
She rolls her eyes. "Good evening to you too.”
I toss my keys onto the counter and slightly loosen my tie. The city glows outside the glass walls surrounding the penthouse. Anna walks towards the kitchen island, pouring herself wine.
“You won again?” She asks
“Obviously.”
“One day you are goin to die doing that.” She says with a faint smile
“One day everyone dies doing something.”
She stares at me over the rim of her glass, her blonde hair falls over one shoulder. Aside the beauty everyone admired about her, Anna Stone noticed every single thing including this…
“So who hit her.”
My expression hardens. “Excuse me?”
“The girl from the funeral.” She sets her wine glass down. “The bruised one.”
I walk past her towards the bar. “ why do you care?”
“Because you do.” She folds her arm. “Matter of fact, you looked ready to kill someone that night.”
I pour whiskey into a glass while Anna leans against the counter, her eyes never leaving me. “Who is she?”
“Nobody.”
“That’s a lie”
I take a slow sip of the whiskey before meeting her eyes. “You ask too many questions.”
“That’s because you avoid too many answers”
She walks towards me, heels clicking against the marble floors until she stops in front of me. “So do you sleep with me because you want to or because you’re trying to forget something else?”
And that’s how you ruin things! By wanting meaning from them
I set the glass down.“You should leave.”
Her countenance changes. “You disappear for days, you barely sleep, half the time you look like you just want to put your fist through someone’s skull,” she pauses. “Then suddenly there’s a college girl crying in your penthouse.”
I lean closer to her, her breathing changes. “Careful, Anna.”
“You know what I think?”
“I really don’t.”
“I think she matters, and I think that scares you.”
For one second, my mind flashes back to Abby standing in my hallway wearing one of my shirts while trying not to look at the woman moaning in the next room.
And now that I think of it, I think I had brought Anna home intentionally that night, I wanted to make Abby uncomfortable.
Anna’s fingers slide against my chest lightly. “Where did you just go?”
“Nowhere.”
“You’re thinking about her, God.”
I grab her wrist gently but firm. “Anna. Don’t compete where you can’t win.”
“Who says I’m competing?” Anna reaches for my tie slowly, her eyes never leaving me. “You would have to change the name you say in your sleep though.”
With that, she plants a kiss on my lips and I kiss her back hard enough to silence us both
- Writer
