Chapter3
1243 Words
Abby's POV
Cheeks flaming, I rush back to my room. The beating of my heart is super loud in my ears.
Images of his body keep flashing in my mind. Water sliding down his skin, his toned muscles, the unique tattoo of a sleek sword inked on his chest. And then . . .
I pat my cheeks. “What the actual hell! I can't believe this.” I take a pillow from my bed and press it against my flaming face, but it doesn't stop flashes of his body from assaulting me.
It takes some moments for my body to calm down, but once I do, I carefully move over to my door and open it a little so I can peer down the hall.
Just then Jaxon comes out of the bathroom, with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.
I duck back into my room, take a deep breath, and go back to my bathroom. When I turn on the shower, the water comes on once again.
The shower here must have stopped because the guest room’s was in use. I should have noticed it earlier. The guest room’s plumbing and mine are connected.
After my shower, I hastily get dressed. I have less than ten minutes on the clock when I rush down the stairs hoping to see Caleb since we usually go together. He's probably also running late since he hasn't come to call me yet.
“Caleb's gone already. He had to leave early,” Dad says as I hit the landing.
“What? Why?” Can today get any worse? “How am I going to get to school on time?”
Dad takes a sip from his cup of coffee. There's a look in his eyes that makes me a little nervous.
“You'll go with Jaxon. He's starting officially today—”
“No no no,” I interject. “Please can you just take me?” I beg. I don't want to go with the guy whose entire body I had just seen. It would make the car ride so embarrassing that I could die.
He drops his coffee mug down on the dining table and comes over to me, eyes softening. “Abby, I know that it's a little hard adjusting to him, but I promise, he's not as bad as you guys think he is.”
“No, Dad, that's not what I'm trying to say,” I try to explain, but he talks over me.
“I’d have loved to take you but I have errands to run before I head to the school and you'd be late.”
“Dad…” the rest of the protest dies in my throat.
He leads me outside where Jaxon is already waiting by the car, looking off into space with that angry look on his face.
His hair is very dark. And long. It falls around his face in these pretty wavy curls that softens a look clearly meant to be vicious.
I can actually see the charm in his looks, and I am not going to deny that it's nice to look at, but that's where it all ends for me.
“Jaxon, Abby will be joining you this morning. Feel free to ask her any questions that would make your first day easier.”
Jaxon's eyes fall on me briefly before he gets into the car and turns on the engine.
“Have a great day sweetheart.” Dad taps me gently on the back before going inside the house.
I get into the car, trying my best to not look at the person inside.
—
The ride to school is very fast, and heavy with awkward silence.
It occurs to me that maybe he's angry because I interrupted his bath.
As we pull up in the school's parking lot, I turn to him, ready to just give a quick apology and be done with it.
“Hey, um, about this morning…I'm sorry I didn't mean to walk in on you like that, I was in a hurry and…” As I am speaking he gets out of the car. I don't put it past him to actually lock me in the car so I hop out and close the door.
Just as I do that, he locks the car and walks off towards the school entrance.
Once again, he's given me nothing but ice.
—
Two weeks later, it's still the same thing. Jaxon still treats me like I'm nothing but air. I try not to let it get to me, but still it stings a little.
During cheer practice, I'm about to make a jump we've done a hundred times before. Kayla insisted that we were getting something wrong.
I'm flipped into the air and make the flip as always. I'm supposed to land right on the interlocked arms of my teammates, but suddenly I'm falling too far.
My body slams into the ground with so much force that the world spins. I cry out, but everywhere hurts.
Kayla leans over me. I try to get up, but the moment I place weight on my ankle, unforgiving pain shoots up my leg.
“Aw, did that hurt?” She says quietly, leaning close to me so that I'm the only one that hears. “Well it'll hurt even more if you don't do as I told you and stay away from Jaxon.”
Before she pulls away she plasters a wide, innocent smile on her face, and turns to the rest of the team, who looked like they were still trying to understand what happened.
“Don't worry, Abby's fine. She obviously didn't learn the new additions I made to the routine. Let's give her space to practice more, shall we?”
With a snap of her fingers, she declares cheer practice over and ushers everyone out of the rink, leaving me alone.
“Ah, s**t,” I touch my swollen ankle and tears fill up my eyes from the pain.
I wait a little, trying to summon courage to force myself up despite the pain, when I hear someone approaching.
I turn. “Jaxon.” He's once again here for solo practice. He always comes in right when we're leaving. I can't blame him though seeing girls squealing all the time because you must be tiring.
He looks down at my legs. Unexpectedly, he bends down and assesses me closely. “You're bleeding.” His voice is rich and deep and I realise that I've never heard him speak directly to me.
Before I can process that, he picks me up bridal style and takes me to the nurse’s office.
She's not inside as expected so after he puts me on the bed he just…stands there, almost as if he's at a loss on what to do with himself.
Luckily, the nurse comes in soon after. As she settles things, Jaxon picks up his bag to leave.
“Thank you!” I call out as he reaches the door.
He pauses, then nods a little before going outside.
“Oh dear, your ankle’s all swollen sweetheart…” The nurse's observation fades into the background. My eyes are still on the exit, reimagining that nod.
He not only spoke to me, but also helped me. It's the first time that he's ever done anything nice to me.
And I don't really know how to feel about that.
- Writer
