Enjoy guys!🤍

"Live life to the fullest, and focus on the positive."—Matt Cameron
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Chapter 23
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I peered behind the oblivious girl, who was too busy eye-fucking Kade to notice me.

"Nine tattoos?" she asked in disbelief, leaning over the counter to get a closer look at Kade.

Kade flicked his eyes over to my stiff being, nodding once. My body jump-started at the signal he gave off, and I bit my lip in anticipation.

We had formed a quick, sloppy plan that seemed to make sense, though I was still nervous. There was no security in the front of the building, which made it all possible.

The plan consisted of Kade walking in through the front door, while I came from the exit, and snuck behind the front desk receptionist to get the keys. We agreed on going to the roof of the building, where no one could possibly spot us. 

His attention redirected to the girl. "Yep, nine," he responded.

She wrapped a couple strands around her finger, slightly pushing her breast out as she smiled. "Wow, and your name was Kade, right?"

She leaned forward, and placed a manicured, pale hand on top of his. Immediately, I felt that tug urging me to remove her hand. I erased it in a heartbeat, let the damned girl deal with him.

Kade's eyes fell to the girl's hand on top of his, his disgust poorly hidden on his face. I had to bite back a chuckle at his expression.

I scanned the title of the keys carefully, overlooking too many to count. I had to be careful and quiet, but I did have the advantage. It was far easier than anticipated since she was too engulfed in Kade to notice me.

I reached for the key, and once I pulled it off the hook, the remaining keys rang out in retaliation. My eyes widened, my heart skipping a beat at the sound.

Yep, game over. I'm going to get caught, I'm going to jail, dad is going to—

Kade caught notice of my mistake, and quickly came to my rescue. Hooded eyes jumped from me and back to the audit. His fingers tipped the girl's chin toward him, a dimple coming into play.

From what I could see, the girl was practically melting in his hands. "You have real pretty eyes, you know," he said to her, leaning closer to her lust-stricken face.

"Really?" She beamed, obviously liking the attention. Her hand curled up one of his arms, squeezing. "You know, I don't get off until later, maybe we can hang out—"

I raised the key to show him that I had finished my part in the mission. Discreetly, I shoved myself behind the corner in order to hide myself from the employee.

His eyes caught mine immediately, nodding once. "Shit. You know what, I'm really not into blonds anyway," he mumbled, lifting himself from the counter.

I saw her shake her head. "Oh, but it-it's not natural—" she began before Kade walked from around the counter to meet me.

I held my breath on the way up the stars of the hotel. Security could pop out any minute if we weren't careful, and that was the last thing I wanted.

We both were as silent as possible, despite our footsteps. Once we finally made it to the top, I nearly fell onto the surface. But the sight caught me first.

Artificial grass littered the quiet roof of the building, and despite the fake appearance, it still seemed to fit in. There was nothing but the grass to sit on, but I could care less.

I glanced up at the same time the cold, nightly breeze came at me. It pecked at my skin, slowly wrapping me in its embrace, but I happily accepted it.

I sat down, still staring up at the moon. It peeked at me, a bright, glistening smile hidden behind the blanket of darkness.

My head tilted, a smile grazing my lips. "Beautiful."

"Not really."

I turned toward Kade, who had taken a seat beside me. "What do you mean?"

He pulled his knees to his chest, wrapping an arm around them as he gazed up to the sky. "What I said. We've seen this sight a million of times, now it's not even beautiful, it's just...there," he responded bluntly.

"That's not true." I shook my head, leaning back on my arms. "You never know. It could go away at any minute, and then what? We would be stuck in darkness, forever." I shuddered at the thought.

When he didn't respond, I took a look at him. He was already staring at me, eyes carefully adjusted on my face. My cheeks heated to the highest degree, so I moved my gaze back to the portrait.

A moment of silence passed. "Is darkness a bad thing?" he murmured.

"It depends."

"On?"

I tugged at the strand hanging from my blouse. "How one looks at it. You either can try and control it, or just...remain in it."

"I'm pretty sure you can't control darkness, sweetheart," he chuckled, the sound so dark, I felt my stomach twist.

I tilted my head. "Of course you can. You can either look over the darkness, and try to find a light, or you can sit, stuck in it forever."

I watched as he propped his head on his knees, right on top of a hand. "If only it were that easy." I knew he wouldn't elaborate, so instead, I turned my attention back to the moon.

"What do you think her backstory is?" I murmured to no one in particular.

His eyebrows knitted together as he glanced at me. "Huh?"

I pointed toward the moon, a small smile building on my lips. "Her backstory, what do you think it is?"

"Are you serious?" he asked, sighing.

I nodded.

"How is it a 'her' anyway?" he asked me.

I gave him a weird look, but his own beat mine by a milestone. "Because the sun is a 'he'. I don't know, I just feel it."

Kade sighed, and went to massage his temples. I watched him in silence, my smile falling a little.

I was trying to have fun with him, but he wasn't letting up. It seemed that he was doing everything in his power to not have a good time with me.

I stared down at the grass underneath my body, and wished to be the artificial figures. So independent, yet so together.

"The sun hates his life," he mumbled.

My head rose at his voice. "And?"

"And, he hates his parents," he added.

Hooded brown eyes shifted over to me, nodding his head once. "Well, your turn."

I bit my lip in thought, and upturned my gaze to the moon. "The moon and the sun have a complicated relationship."

"And?" he mocked, slightly bumping my shoulder.

I plucked a piece of the grass as I dared myself to continue. It was just a story, just a story. "And, the moon likes him...likes being around him, a lot, she thinks."

I expected some type of retort, but at his silence, I said, "Your turn."

"Okay..." he trailed off, looking to his intertwined hands for help. One hand stroked the other.

"The sun knows there's too much shit between them to be together," he sighed out. "Way too much."

I waited for him to continue, despite my wishes to interrupt. We were talking, so I guess that was a small step.

Kade's hand raked through his black hair, and I melted to nothingness at the sight. He definitely wasn't the nicest guy, but god knows his looks were pretty heavenly.

He released a breath, then dropped his knees. "The sun tries to stay away from her...because the more he is around her, the more he wants to stay there. All that soft shit." He laid back on the grass, two hands on his stomach.

His neck craned to glance at me. "You go," he said to me.

I forced myself to speak, despite the dryness of my throat. "The moon hates her boss, like you said, and quits her job." Slowly, I lowered  myself to my back, right next to him. We were so close, it would only take a slight twitch to touch one another. "She talks with the sun now, and they find out that they have more things in common than different."

Cautiously, I looked to a silent Kade, whose squinted eyes were concentrated on the moon. His chest sucked in with a sigh. "The sun, he doesn't mean to, but he hurts her. And everyone who is around him."

"I guess, once a fuck up, always a fuck up," he mumbled past a long sigh.

I shifted until we were aligned. "She doesn't care." My breathing fell into labored patches as we made eye contact.

I dared myself to continue, despite the loud roar of blood in my ears. "The moon is willing to face it in order to be with the sun. He provides her so much light, and with light comes hope," I whispered, my hand itching to touch him. To remove those worried creases from his face, to soothe him.

Kade searched me over before his eyes fell. He placed one hand under his head, an almost painful expression dawning upon his face. "The sun doesn't want to burn her," his voice was terribly small as he met my awaiting gaze again.

I stared into his brown orbs, forcing all of my attention toward this moment. Contoured by confusion, a soft look settled in Kade's eyes. Past it, I felt my stomach tighten with...something.

No. I needed to stop this. I was here for my diary, and that was it. That was my main priority.

"You lied."

His head tilted at me, snapping out of our unspoken trance. "What?"

"You lied." A small smile settled on my lips. "You are into blondes."

His eyebrows were still drawn together at my words. I chuckled at it. It was strange to see Kade Ryder, one of the most confident men there were, so estranged.

"You told that girl in the lobby that you weren't into blondes, you lied. You and Amber, you know..." I trailed off, not quite wanting to say the words.

I couldn't forget that he had a girlfriend. But, why would it matter? We were friends, and even though that was complicated, I knew he had no feelings toward me. Nor did I him, I believe.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, craning his neck to get a better look at me.

I bit my lip, and even though it was dark out here, I still felt as if my red skin were exposed to the public. "I saw you and Amber having sex." The words came out in a single puff of air, but I had gotten them out.

He blinked. "Oh, so you were the one who snuck into my house."

"What?" My eyes widened as I raised myself up. "How did you know?"

"You left my front door open," Kade stated, following my moves and sitting up. "Not very subtle of you, sweetheart."

His eyes never left his tattoo marked wrists. "But...yeah, I did fuck her, so what?"

My body became flushed at his words. I had watched movies, and read too many books for my own good, so wasn't he supposed to apologize by now?

Then again, this wasn't a romance book. Kade wasn't some protagonist, and there damn sure wouldn't be a sweet story between us.

I had to fight back the clear image of Kade and Amber together. A distasteful feeling rose in the back of my throat at the thought of them together. I tried to shove it down so far, my mind pained. We weren't together, nor would we ever be.

His eyes examined me over before nodding once. "And, I fucked her best friend, too," he said bluntly.

My eyebrow rose along with my curiosity. "You cheated with her best friend?"

Kade chuckled, shaking his head. "Fuck no, I can't cheat, because we aren't together. The girl opens her legs for the entire school, just to try and get under my skin when she was never there in the first place. She's just delusional." He paused to shrug, then added, "They're both an easy lay, so why not? I make shit as clear as day when I fuck, it's not my fault if they make it more."

I said nothing at that. I didn't like neither of the girls, but no one deserved to be cheated on. Though, Kade did say they weren't dating, so I guess nothing really mattered.

Instead of focusing on it, my gaze jumped over to his bruised knuckles. "Are you going to tell me why you got into a fight, now?"

His eyes lingered on them for a minute before responding, "I was at a friends. A couple of drinks turned into a bottle, then a couple more," he exclaimed, nibbling on the inside of his cheek. "Some girl came over to my table to try and get laid, and her boyfriend didn't like it. Wasn't my fault he couldn't fuck her good, but to him, it was. Instead of being mad at her, he was mad at me. Got his nose broken for it though, so whatever."

"Oh," I nodded slowly, dawning on the information. "So, you didn't start it?"

"Nah, sweetheart, I didn't start it." A small chuckle, only audible enough for me, left his lips. He passed me a look. "Always trying to see the good in people, huh?"

I shrugged my shoulders, the material of the blouse suddenly becoming too heavy for my liking. "Is that a bad thing?"

"It could get you hurt one day," he answered quietly.

"Well, then." I started with a small smile. "I can at least say I tried."

He tried to cover his smile with a scowl, but it was too late. I caught hold of his pearly white smile, and held it more closely than I'd like to admit.

I bit back my own grin, instead looking to the dark canvas. "You know, I think the moon's friend," I paused to point at the stars. "Is an absolute drama queen."

A laugh bubbled up in his chest, and I smiled. It was a masterpiece, deep and subtle so that you'd miss it, but I didn't. His laughs were too rare for the ear, so when I heard it, a part of me wanted to cherish it as long as possible.

My stomach brought it's own accretion to the table by growling. I wished I would have just made a sandwich.

Kade took notice of it, his eyes bouncing between me and the source. "You didn't eat?"

"I didn't think we'd be here this long," I mumbled to the both of us.

"Mhm." He pulled himself up in a swift motion, and offered a hand out to me. "Let's go."

My brows knitted in confusion. "Where?"

"To get something to eat," he responded.

I knew it was a common courtesy, but there was something so conflicting. People who claimed to hate you didn't do the things he did, like taking you out to eat. I knew better than to read more into it, because this was Kade.

"Oh." I took his hand, and pulled myself up. I smiled as a thank you, and his face remained as blank as a piece of paper.

We were enclosed by a comfortable silence, though so many words could be spoken. I knew that others felt the need to talk in order to avoid the awkward, but I liked it this way. It was odd, since he was the only one I could have a million conversations with, without so much as a single word between us.

Kade opened the door for me we had entered to the roof through, and our silence was soon interrupted.

A man's voice sent me into shock. "What are you two doing here?!"