"You're going to have to talk to me sooner or later babe" Brad taunted.

"Maybe if you stopped calling me 'Babe' I might consider it." I snapped

"Not happening, the nickname has already stuck." He said, stubbornly.

I crossed my arms and slumped downwards in the passenger seat, refusing to talk to him.

"Alright then Cranky-pants , how bout I tell you a story!"

'Oh great' I thought as I rolled my eyes and prepared for the worst.

"Where should I start, well this story is about a girl, a smoking hot girl I might add. So anyway, first she came to our house claiming to be returning a dress to my brother and refused to leave when I didn't let her in. Then she 'technically-didnt-break-in' with a keypass and argued with me while simultaneously checking me out. She thought I didn't notice. But nothing gets past Brad Haywood.”

My jaw tightened at that last comment.

Then my little brother, whom she denied being in love with, came back home with jealousy written all over his face, he got a phone call from our mother and the next thing I know, I come downstairs to find this girl peeping in on said little brother taking his clothes off.
Can you imagine the horror I experienced?"

I felt an angry nerve pulsing at my temple.

"Brad your abounding sarcasm amazes me to no end." I said, my own tone of voice sarcastic.

And of course he ignored me.

"But seriously, what motive did this girl have? What was the purpose of her wasting precious time, effort and gas money on coming all the way out to return a dress to a boy she has no feelings towards?"

"Cut the crap!" I finally burst out.
"Ok I like him I really like Ryan a lot. But I'm fine with just being friends as long as I can still be around him." I said exasperatedly.

Seeing Ryan as much as possible didn't do anything to help me get over him, it did the complete opposite and made me feel even more miserable that I was stupid enough to think it would work.

"HAH I knew it!" He rejoiced, more happy that he was right than the fact that I admitted I had feelings for Ryan. Even if I wasn't exactly sure what kind of feelings they were myself...

Needless to say, he was smiling like an idiot for the rest of the drive. I refused to look anywhere but out the window because my cheeks were blazing. Apparently I have no control over my body when it comes to Ryan...

When we got to the dress shop, Anastasia wasn't there. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't thank her in person, but at the same time I was still pretty mad that she'd changed Ryan from the goody-two shoes I knew so well.  

Instead we handed the dress to the shop assistant.
However I noticed the way her body language indicated she was desperate for Brad to show an interest in her.

And knowing Brad for a grand total of 1 hour so far, I could tell he wasn't going to turn down the option of messing around a little. He made generous eye contact, complimented her professionalism and winked at her as we left. She all but swooned.

Brad had devastating effect on people. But I'm not particularly fond of his charismatic bullshit.

"Why couldn't you have just left that poor girl alone, she didn't need you to lead her on." I chided.

"For your information, what I did there was just being polite and in fact, if someone showed an interest in you, especially a handsome stranger like myself, wouldn't you feel flattered? I like to make people feel that they're appreciated." He responded indignantly.

What he said was not entirely untrue, and the shop assistant had been glowing with the attention she was getting from Brad.

Maybe he's not such a bad guy after all...

______________________________________________________

"So what's this psychology essay you're supposed to be writing about?" I asked curiously as we drove back to the house.

"It's supplementary assessment that I have to complete because of all the lectures I'm missing while on medical leave. It's a socio-behavioural study and I can choose whatever topic I like."

"Socio-behavioural?" I probed.

"It means I get to watch people and record what they do in their natural habitat" he explained

I laughed at that last part, "you make it sound like an animal documentary."

"Well from what I've seen, you're quite the wildcat." He smirked at me.

I would have come up with a good comeback, but I was too busy having a flashback to the memory of Ryan beating me at the test of strength game and winning me that stuffed wildcat toy, telling me the same thing Brad just said...

"What's wrong, did I offend you? Is wildcat an insult nowadays with you kids and your slang?" Brad said, breaking me out of my reverie.

"Huh? No, it's not." I mumbled distractedly

"Then why the sudden long face? Your eyes went blank like you were remembering something, care to tell me?"

"I couldn't care less, so I won't be telling you anything." And I proceeded to continue my silent treatment.

"Please?" He asked
I stayed silent.
"Pleaaase?" He asked again like a little kid wanting hid Mom to buy candy at the grocery store.
"Pleaaaaase!" He whined one final time.
I covered my ears. If he planned on breaking me by irritation, the he'd be disappointed; he wasn't going to get anything out of me.

"Fine." He sighed loudly as we pulled into the driveway.

I removed my fingers from my ears as I prepared to get out.

Strange, even though Ryan was supposed to have gone, his car was in the driveway and turning to look to Brad for answers, I could see the exact moment when the lightbulb lit up above his head and I knew he had thought of some scheme.

"Well, if I can't get an answer out of you," he said, his tone unreliabily innocuous, "then I guess I'll just have to ask Ryan about your reaction to the word 'wildcat'" he grinned as he jumped out of the car and sprinted for the front door.

"Don't you dare, BRAD HAYWOOD YOU MOTHERF*CKER" I yelled as I tumbled out of the car and raced after him.

I almost caught up to him along the long paved driveway but he managed to open the door just before I got to him, laughing and promptly slamming the security screen door in my face.

"Ryan! Ryan!" I heard him call out enthusiastically, the sound echoing throughout the house.

I wrenched the door back open and gripped the end of the long hallway rug, yanking it hard so that Brad tripped and face planted hilariously on the hardwood floor.

"Minx…" he muttered as he pushed his upper body off the floor and rubbed his bruised nose.

"Old man" I ricocheted back, smirking with glee as I manoeuvred my way around him agilely.

I ran through the house trying to find Ryan before Brad could catch up, hopefully I could convince him his brother was insane.

I heard muffled voices coming from the formal sitting room (Yeah they had 2; as if their 'non-formal' one wasn't fancy enough!)

But just as I was about to turn the corner, a powerful arm shot out from nowhere and clamped around my waist. I felt my body being lurched backwards as Brad scooped me up by my stomach in the same way you'd pick up a kitten, and held me tight to his side as I dangled just above the ground

But if I was a kitten, I definitely had claws.

"Let me go you old jerk!" I yelled, thrashing around as he laughed arrogantly and dragged me round the corner with him.

But he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, “What the F*ck?”

And when I stopped struggling against him enough to brush the hair out of my face, I saw why.

One very topless Melissa Proud was standing frozen in shock in the middle of the sitting room, her disgusting pink lycra push-up bra doing its best to boost her barely B-cup breasts while an equally frozen Ryan alternated between staring at her then at us then back to her, then back at us.

His mouth gaped awkwardly, obviously at a loss for words. This situation looked bad, but I felt worse.

I felt as if acid was churning in my stomach and I stiffened as Brad set me back down.  “Ava, look at her skirt.” Brad said to me quietly, carefully as if he was aware of the way I was feeling.

My gaze flickered to the darkened wet patch of water splattered all over the fabric, then to the dry men’s t-shirt in Ryan’s hands, and finally up to Ryan’s paralysed face, seeing something swirling in the deep blue.

What was it? Anger? Fear?...guilt? Guilt over what?

“Our apologies miss, Ryan.” Said Brad, all traces of mischievousness in him replaced with a stern professionalism, “we’ll leave you in privacy.” He continued curtly, standing a little taller. His chest puffed out protectively as he ushered me back into the other room.

But while Brad was cool and collected, Ryan still failed to get any explanation out. Though it’s not like there was any reason he owed me one or anything…

I too, remained silent as I let Brad lead me out of the room, but one last glance back at the scene and I caught Melissa glaring daggers at me before she grinned and stepped closer to Ryan.

____________________________________________________

Brad walked me to my car, more silent than I’d ever known him to be. But his silence made me all the more suspicious about the things that were going on in his head.

“So, how would you like to get back at that Red-haired bitch?” He suddenly asked as I got into the driver’s seat, still feeling a little put out.

“Excuse me?”

“Oh come on, I saw the way she looked at you. Man, if looks could kill…” He chuckled.

“Hah, it’s no secret that Melissa Proud and I are not the best of friends,” I said, rolling my eyes as far back into my head as possible.

He laughed louder, the master of sass clearly appreciating my sarcasm.

“And how exactly would we get back at her?” I asked curiously, laughing softly along with him.

“By participating in my psychology experiment.” He grinned.

My eyes widened fearfully.
 “…are you going to hook electrodes up to my brain or something?” I asked, dead serious, “Because I don’t see how that’s going to help me.”

“Babe, I have no interest in the neurons in your brain, only in helping you and protecting my brother from that viper.” He stated with a matter of fact tone.

“And what’s in it for you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I mentally commended him on his creative name for my enemy.

“Oh, you don’t need to know that yet.” He said deviously, winking at me. And I wasn’t sure that I even wanted to know what was in that twisted mind.

“Ok, I’ll do it.” I said, hoping to god that I wasn’t going to regret this.

“Great!” He exclaimed, his eyes twinkling with mirth and excitement, “Can you come round here every day next week then? We don’t have much time.”

“I can, but what do you mean we don’t have much time?” I asked, more confused than ever.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” He replied cryptically, trying to supress a grin. “Now how much experience do you have with charity fetes?”

Just what have I gotten myself into now?

*******************************************************
SORRY SORRY SORRY this is so late (I keep blaming Uni but it's the absolute truth! I do have a life haha) but prepare for more hopefully very soon!

Don't forget to comment and vote if you like the story so far! I'm desperate to know what you guys think and I PROMISE you there will be some Ryan+Ava action coming up so please be patient ;)

Cerise xx :)