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That could only mean one thing. If he wasn’t the threat, then… I looked at his massive counterpart and saw my worst fucking nightmare.
It was unfair. Totally unfair. That was the only word I could think of to describe it. I finally get her back and this—this—is who she makes friends with?
The most beautiful, God-like mountain of a man stood in front of me, black designs twisting around every inch of skin that jutted from beneath his far too-fitted T-shirt. His black hair swept perfectly around his giant head. And he couldn’t have taken those fucking rings off for the gym? The hand he extended to Kai to retrieve his belongings was large enough to grab her entire face. A phantom fist punched the air from my chest as my mind and heart began blistering with anxiety. This muscly man would be my demise.
I always knew Kai would move on eventually. I stood idly by as she dated Javi, watched as she learned lessons that knotted my insides with despair, and supported her as best I could. And I hoped, in a very small corner of my mind, I hoped that maybe she would, at the very least, reject the world together with me forever. I’d given up years ago on the hope that she’d ever stoop to my level and love me, but I just… I just thought we had more time.
“You could have given these to me tomorrow,” Aaron said, gripping the straps.
Tomorrow. When they’d see each other again. My stomach deflated and cramped.
“Just in case.” Her shoulders jumped once.
His lips stretched, ticking up in one corner to reveal the smallest sliver of white teeth. “Do you know what these are really for?” His voice was sinister, as if it wanted me to know he was the villain in my narrative, as if it was mocking me.
“I do,” Kai answered lazily, sliding her water bottle into an empty side pocket of her bag. “But something tells me you’ve thought of another use.”
His fierce eyes narrowed. In an instant, he grabbed both of her wrists in one hand, sandwiched them between his pointer and thumb as if they were nothing, and placed one strap around them, pulling it taught. He handcuffed my beautiful Kai with those gym things. My heart stopped.
The small one rolled his eyes and let out a groan as if he were tired of his friend displaying such behaviors. My eyes did not roll. They fixated on Kai’s wrists. So much so that I almost missed her flinch and the little sound that jumped from her throat when he’d pulled to tighten the hold. My gaze then lifted to his face. Aaron, she’d called him. My gaze lifted to Aaron’s face, and he locked eyes with me, and he smiled.
He smiled the same way I smiled at Javi that night in Madrid when I gave Kai fries he didn’t even know she wanted.
He smiled the same way I did when Jake Saunders asked her for a dance at prom and she said no because she was with me.
He smiled the same way I did every time a guy winked at Kai in public and she made a stink face toward me, leaving them rejected in the dust.
I did not smile back at Aaron, because I did not have the upper hand. I’d already lost.
“You should really ask permission before doing that,” Kai teased, though I could hear the unease in her voice.
“And you should learn who you’ve just become friends with.”
“Oh, I’m well aware, Aaron. You’re not exactly hard to read.”
I snickered at the glimmer of hope Kai had offered me that she saw right through this shmendrik, though it didn’t seem wise for me to get snarky in front of this guy. The only thing keeping me from shitting myself here and now was that the small one seemed to share the sentiment. He caught my eye and smirked.
“You promised you wouldn’t be a creep,” Kai said.
“I believe I said, ‘Unless you want me to.’”
“Then perhaps I’m the one who’s hard to read.”
I had to bite down on my own lips to keep myself from laughing at that one. My beautiful Kai was knocking this loser flat on his ass, and for a moment, I forgot how incredibly jealous I was of the playful banter they seemed to possess after only two hours together.
Right before my eyes, I watched as Aaron’s smile turned him into the spitting image of the Cheshire Cat. He loved it. The more she pushed, the more he’d pester, and he seemed like someone who always got what he wanted. My giggles faded, dissipating into a liquid that rained down my throat and into my stomach, reminding me of the reality of the situation. I was about to lose her again.
Aaron didn’t introduce himself to me after he released Kai’s wrists. He only winked in my direction as he turned away. He knew I wasn’t Kai’s boyfriend, and I reminded myself how stupid I was for even thinking he might’ve suspected that. Half of me wanted to stand up straight and stay close to her as if marking territory, and half of me knew how fucking stupid that was for so many reasons. The smaller one offered me a friendly wave and a charming smile. No introduction from him either.
The two finally sauntered away. Aaron wrapped his arm around the smaller one’s shoulder and kissed him on the head. Perhaps it was all a silly act. Perhaps they were together.
A fool’s hope.
The silence coming from my left side suggested that they weren’t. If they were together, Kai would’ve sensed no threat. But she’d yelped faintly when he trapped her hands, and I’d ignored it behind the clouds of envy in my mind. She did not say their names or explain who they were, as I thought she would. Only silence. For a few long seconds, silence and an empty stare. As if she were remembering something—thinking of someone.
“Kai?” Her head snapped to me and, in the same instant, an eerily large smile crawled across her face. It sent a genuine shiver down my spine. “Does that guy bother you?”
“Who, Aaron?” she asked very normally. “Not at all. He’s actually really cool. Doesn’t make my radar go off. But he’s a little touchier than I’m used to.”
