He is everywhere. 

His presence fills up the whole kitchen. It's strange, him being here lounging in the kitchen.

It didn't even take him five minutes to make himself comfortable in my house.

I pretend he isn’t invading my entire being, but he’s still everywhere. Filling the kitchen.

The entire house.

"I want to ask you a million questions." He says as he munches on the cookies I offered him. 

I smile, as I carefully poke holes in the cake using the meat fork."Shoot."

"Where are you going to college?" He asks.

"Stanford," I reply, "What about you?" 

He slaps a hand on the counter and shouts, "No way! Me too." 

That makes my heart beat a little faster. I look up at him and raise an eyebrow, "For real?"

He nods and smirks, "For real. That means more prank wars." 

"Oh no. No more prank wars. As much as I loved planning creative pranks for you, I am officially over it." I shake my head and start spreading the caramel over the cake.

He makes a non-committal sound in the back of his throat which makes me look up again and glare at him. "Promise me. No more prank wars." 

 "Fine. No more prank wars." He sighs as he walks around the counter and comes to stand beside me.

I laugh, "You sound like you willingly want to become a victim of my evil pranks. Do you want to end up in the ER again, Mr. James? I am sure I can arrange that." I reply as I place the cake on the wire rack to cool and look up at him.

He's just a few inches away from me. Looking over the planes of his face, long eyelashes holding his sea-blue eyes, his full lips part, and awareness suddenly runs through me. He raises his right hand and very slowly slides the pad of his thumb over my right cheek making my eyes flutter close.

It feels like we've gotten closer together even though I am sure neither of us moved. Roman inclines his body towards me. He pauses with his lips a couple of inches from mine. 

We are breathing the same air, a millimeter apart. I had no out. The smallest twitch would bring us into contact. My heart skips a beat. 

Impatient to get it done, I move forward to close the space between us but the moment ends when he clears his throat and takes a step back, making my eyes snap open. Through partly lowered lashes I can see the skepticism etched on his features.

"Uh, you had chocolate on your cheek." He clears his throat again and puts his thumb in the air to show me the chocolate.

"Oh," I breathe out. 

The physical contact is intoxicating. Every nerve in my body sits up in attention.

My heart is already in a frenzy and as if that is not enough, he brings his hand close to his mouth and sucks on his thumb, licking the chocolate in the process. 

And fuck me, if that isn't the sexiest thing I've ever seen. 

My heart races as the air around us is charged with energy. But the moment ends when his cell phone starts ringing. 

I thank the God above me for saving us before things got awkward. 

"I'll- I’ll take the call." He nods at his phone which is resting on the kitchen counter.

"Sure, I'll be back." I excuse myself and go to the bathroom.

I don't need to use the restroom. I just wanted to breathe, but he’s not letting me. He’s invading. I don’t think he means to. He’s just invading my thoughts and my stomach and my lungs and my world.

I close the lid of the toilet seat, sit on it, and take a deep breath.

What is wrong with me? I've never felt this way before. Technically, I have, when I thought I was in love with Will. But what I'm feeling right now is a hundred times more powerful. How can he make me feel like that? That's Roman for goodness sake! He can take me, crush me and make me end up like Kristen or some other slut begging for his attention.

Focus on your to-do list Avery. That's all that matters. Boys will come and go but your goals will remain with you throughout your life.

I take a deep breath, clear my head, and walk out of the bathroom, determined not to make things awkward. 

He's still in the living room, talking to whoever's on the phone. I make my way over to the kitchen counter, ready to ice the cake. 

I start spreading whipped cream over the cake, just as Roman enters the kitchen.

"Sorry about the phone." He sits on the stool behind the counter.

"Naah, that's okay. Who was on the phone anyway?" I smile and ask, trying to steer the topic away from whatever happened a few minutes ago. 

"You'll laugh if I tell you." He smiles and rolls his eyes. 

"I won't." I fake a chuckle. How is he smiling right now? Doesn't he feel something too? I mentally roll my eyes. This must be normal for him

"You're already laughing." He gives me a sly look.

"That's because you asked me not to… reverse psychology and all you know," I smirk, as I start sprinkling the cake with toffee bits. 

"It was from a girl Logan was hanging out with." He says so casually that I almost didn't catch his meaning by hanging out. 

"By hanging out you mean having sex," I state and a raised brow. 

"Yes."

"Then you could've said it straight that it was from a girl Logan was having sex with." I snicker and slap his hand away from the chocolate chips he is trying to steal. 

"Damn you! You eat like you've been starving for the last 100 years." I throw my hands in the air and then pick up the chocolate chips, and move them away from him before sprinkling them on the cake.

"I'm a grown man! I require a lot of food to feed my Texas-sized pit of a stomach. Anyway, what happened was, she just found out that she was adopted and kept asking 'why didn't they want me?' Logan comforted her and after a while, still crying she asked Logan to have sex with her which led to more tears when he declined. 

On reflection, banging her from behind and shouting, 'WHO'S YOUR DADDY?!' was a little insensitive." He speaks and I crackle out a shocked laugh, almost dropping the cake in the process. 

"OH MY GOD! HE DID NOT SAY THAT!" I laugh with wide eyes.

"He did and thought it was the last time he would ever see her because he was so positive she's going to kick his butt out of her house. Fortunately, she didn't do that but she did stop hanging out with him and now she's calling me to ask if I'm free tonight." He shakes his head and my heart immediately sinks. 

My insides feel like someone has shoved a chainsaw into my stomach.

He's going to have sex with some girl now? After that moment and the awesome day we shared? Why bother with me then? He could've asked that girl to bake the cake for him then.

What was I even thinking? I knew he was a manwhore. I shouldn't have expected anything different.

I turn away so he wouldn't see I am hurt. Picking up the cake and I place it carefully in the refrigerator.

"Damn, it looks delicious."  He says and makes a moaning sound in his throat.

"So you'll be going to this girl's house after this?" I casually ask and start cleaning up the mess I've made.

"Um, no. Why would I do that? I don't want anything to do with her." He frowns and comes around the kitchen counter and takes the dust cloth from my hand.

I frown and look at him, "What are you doing?" 

"Cleaning up the mess you made. I couldn't help you bake the cake because I was afraid I would mess something up. But the least I can do is clean after you. Now go away and let me clean everything." He replies and pushes me tenderly away from the counter. 

I smile and feel like I can finally breathe. He's not going anywhere. He's a manwhore but he's not insensitive. 

I watch him work across the counter, he bends down a little to wipe the counter with the cloth and that's when I notice something golden-ish peeking out from his white t-shirt. 

I quickly recall the night, when I spotted a girlish pendent in his locker when I was pulling a prank on him.

He's in a good mood. You will never get a better opportunity to find out about this pendant, Avery. Grab the opportunity.

I know I shouldn’t pry because I don't want him reciprocating with personal questions, but I can’t stop myself.

"What is this?" I point towards the chain.

"What?" He looks down and his eyes widen as he notices what I am pointing towards.

He quickly puts it back in his t-shirt, and utters a perfect, practiced lie, "Oh It's nothing, just a gold chain I wear." 

"It's not nothing, Mr. James. That's a gold pendant. And it's a girl's pendant." I fold my hands across my chest.

"How do you know?" He looks at me, skeptically.

"I saw it in your locker," I say as I roll my eyes.

"It's nothing." He speaks in a clipped voice.

"Come on, tell me." I take a step forward and make a move to touch the pendant. 

He quickly takes a step back and holds up his index finger, "That's personal, Avery. Do not try to get in my personal life."

All of my senses come to a halt as I hear him say my real name instead of Angel. 

I know I should stop, but I can't. He's dead serious, but I want to know who's pendant it is. It might belong to his mother, but maybe just maybe this may belong to someone special, who's close to his heart, and I want to know who this special person is. 

"Is it from someone special?" I ask.

Anyone would be a fool to try and push his buttons like this. But we've already established that I'm the biggest fool in this world, so I do what I'm exactly not supposed to do.

"No one you would want to know about." His expression hardens as he glares at the counter. 

Before I can even utter a word, he takes the cake out, packs it in the box he bought, and leaves the kitchen with an angry, "thanks for the cake." A few seconds later I hear the main door being slammed and I'm left sitting here dumbfounded.

He left. Just like that. 

Helloooo, you cutiesssss! How are y'all?
Hope you are having a good day.
Did y'all like this chapter? Tap that star if you did.
Teaser ~ Catfight
God, I love catfights!
Anyway, thank you for reading, and have a great day.
Until the next chapter.
Happy reading ;)
Kiara.🦋