CHAPTER FIVE: HELL-FIRE

The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people worse than they are. 
-Karl Kraus

The Devil was mad at Emma Carter and she didn't understand why, not at all.

After the party, the next time Emma saw Xavier, he was sitting at their desk but this time when she walked in, he grabbed his bag and stomped out of the room, ultramarine blue eyes blazing with anger.

She didn't know why, but seeing that as her skin remembered his warm lips over her body made her flinch. His skin felt like hell fire and now he acted the part.

The Wolf boy didn't come to school the next day, which only made Emma question everything more. When she saw him next he was scowling while shifting through his locker three days later and before she could even do anything, the Devil glanced down at her, scoffed and said, "I regret it."

Which, honestly, took her by surprise.

"Aren't you used to sleeping around?" She managed to ask, voice tight.

Xavier sends her a small glare. "Not with girls like you."

With that, he turns on his heel and stomps his way out the school doors, right past a security officer who didn't bother to stop him and sighed as they passed him.

"Hey!" Emma snaps, scrambling after him, but has to run to even get close. "What the fuck does that mean? Xavier-"

"Will you fucking stop?" He snaps, throwing his backpack in the back of Cal's car before slamming the door, brushing past the heavily confused Emma to make his way over to his motorcycle.

She had no clue what she did wrong, why he regretted it. It was just a hookup—and they weren't even friends, or at least, not good enough friends to make it this overwhelmingly awkward.

Emma huffed, following him still, more than aware that at this point, he wasn't going to hurt her. "Why are you making a big deal about this? It was just sex."

The Wolf boy growls at her, sending her an ultramarine-tinted glare. "You seriously have no fucking clue, do you?" Then, he lets out a cruel laugh. "That's fucking great."

He climbed off his bike, towering over her and it made Emma step back, only for her back to hit Cal's car and trap her. Xavier's hands almost roughly pull Emma's backpack from her, dropping it to the ground to press a thumb against the crook of her neck, over a sensitive bite mark that still hadn't healed.

"You want to know why I'm mad about this?"

She can only nod, pearl-grey eyes wide. Emma could see the anger behind his eyes, the snarl on his lips all too upset every time he had to look at her. It didn't make sense to her at all, and the Devil was the only one who could change that.

"It's because it didn't feel like a fucking drunk hook up at some stupid party," Xavier's voice is a rough growl, hands coming down to press against the car on either side of her head, leaning into her. "That felt like we cared. It felt like making love, not just having sex."

It felt like making love.

Emma... didn't know what to say. 

She was still confused. Confused because she didn't know why she couldn't argue against that, confused because she still didn't know why that made him mad, confused why he avoided her, confused why he couldn't just say that in the first place.

"And you don't understand that, that's why I'm mad." He finished explaining, pushing himself away from her. "I don't want to—I can't be around you, not until I get this stupid thought out of my head."

Emma Carter was the problem.

That was something she was told her entire life, by her mother, by the people around her, teachers, coaches, peers. Even when she knew that she was correct about something, or on the right side on an argument she was still told she was wrong.

In fact, it seemed like the more she thought she was right, the more she was convinced she wasn't. It was like she had to be perfect even though they all knew everything she did got messed up.

Right now, she didn't care about perfect.

This was only one problem she could solve—that she wanted to solve.

So, as he walked away from her and sat on his bike, tugging his jacket higher on himself with his helmet in hand, Emma snapped out of her frozen state and stomped over to him—grabbed him by the lapels of his leather jacket—pulled the Devil down to her level—

And pressed her lips against his in a rushed, hard kiss.

Xavier, at least, had the decency to act surprised as he grunted, hands ghosting her sides as he kissed her back.

The sound of his helmet dropped to the ground was barely comprehended, but Emma definitely noticed when his hands gripped the outside of her thighs before slipping down to her ass. She didn't expect it when he he lifted her up and placed her on the center-bar between the handlebars, head tilted down for better access.

Parting his lips with hers, she deepened the kiss as her tongue curled around his, hand gripping his classical black hair.

"Princess," He breathes out. "What are we doing?"

"I don't know." Emma replies truthfully, not even fully knowing what she wanted either.

Before she could figure it out though, she wasn't willing to give this up. He hums, blinking his eyes open to find Emma already looking at him, hands wrapped tightly around the handlebars due to the awkward sitting position he put her in.

"What are you looking for, I mean," The Devil bites his lip, frowning lightly. "From me. What do you want from me?"

Xavier Wolf was someone who worries you until you know him and then he worries you even more. He wasn't someone that Emma could see people being happy that he's in her life, that, if she told them, they'd react well.

It was a good fucking thing she didn't care about that. But it wasn't fair—not at all—to get into something with someone when you know that you continually hurt yourself, when you could kill yourself on a bad weekend without warning.

That fact wasn't something that Emma dismissed.

"Just... be there? For whatever, whenever. Nothing, nothing serious, Xavier." She told him, thumb raising to run over his jaw. "It's like friends with benefits, I guess, without being friends and without using each other for our bodies."

Xavier raises an eyebrow, a slight smirk on his lips. "We're not friends, Princess?"

She hesitates before shaking her head. "Friends don't... um-"

"Give each other orgasms?"

"Yeah," Emma says, flushing slightly. "That."

His smirk widens and his hands tighten on her thighs as Xavier stands, pressing closer to her. "Want me to give you more?"

Pearl-grey eyes narrow at him, Emma's hand moving from his jaw to push him back onto the seat. "Not at the moment."

Accepting this, he sits back down with a shrug. "Then either get off my bike, or get on the back. Me and Cal are getting lunch, you could join."

"Wouldn't that be weird?" Nose wrinkling, Emma grabs onto his arm to help herself down. "Me just showing up out of no where?"

Xavier scoffs. "Do you think that hyper-ass best friend of yours won't be there?"

That, admittedly, was a good point.

↞♡↠

When Emma Carter walked into the diner with the Devil smirking behind her, it caught people's attention.

Emma was never really popular or played sports, or had many other friends or generally cared about the shit heads at her school.  Jessamine was little different, she knew everyone and everyone knew (and liked) her, she just very selectively kept her inner circle small.

Calum Hilton, of course, as the best goalie and defensive sweeper their school has as well as a general fuck boy and people person, was popular.

Insanely so—in their smaller town, it felt like he knew everyone.

Then again, his father was the Mayor's closest friend, so the thought wasn't too far off. 

Xavier was popular for different reasons, but hey, at least he knew all the cops in town too. The Wolf boy was one of those people that people, at first glance, knew they should be scared of. And the boys, often after getting to know him, were even more scared, not wanting to be on his bad side—or on his radar at all—but the women usually realized that more than often, if they needed him to, he'd be a protector instead of a menace.

Both of them however, found a strange attraction to him.

The 'aha' moment for guys, when they questioned how straight they actually are, was something the Devil loved to watch first hand. And destroy later on.

Now, to be a part of that, Emma didn't really know how to think.

She'd be boosted in 'social status' and would probably have people recognize her more, ask her questions. With recognition, came drama. In Emma's life, even the thought of potential drama felt a little overwhelming.

But for the moment she was able to slip into the diner booth across from her best friend and boy toy, order fries and get into a small food fight that made her laugh.

It felt good to laugh.

Emma throws a fry at Jessie, but she did it the same time Xavier did the same, so it bounces off his hand and into Cal's drink. The Angel didn't notice that or the way his table froze and stared at him, for some reason, and picked up the coffee to drink without hesitation.

"Argh!" Calum exclaims, gagging slightly before coughing, making everyone wince away from him as coffee spews from his nose. "Ow! What the fuck?"

Emma, feeling the wheeze coming up, holds both hands over her mouth, bending over the table as Xavier sinks in his chair beside her, deep laugh echoing around the room as Jessie silently wheezes between her occasional vocal half-giggle, half-snort.

Cal, apparently, felt bullied.

It was the only time Emma could imagine someone looked at the beautiful, built over-six-foot Angel in front of her, and let him choke without there being any double meaning.

"You just—you just drank a fry!" Emma wheezed out, fist banging on the table. It sent a sharp pang down her wrist, but she ignored that. "Oh my god, coffee came out of your nose. Your nose."

Jessie giggled, taking a few deep breaths. "Oh fuck, I don't know how I can ever make out with you again."

Sending her a glare, Cal continues to wipe his face with napkins. "I don't know if I want to make out with you after you let that happened.

The blonde scoffed, them both knowing that was far from true.

After getting cleaned—and making Xavier eat all the rest of the fries in less than a minute after threatening to throw them away—Emma found Cal smiling at her, finding her the least guilty of the group, not knowing she was the one who threw the fry in the first place.

"It's nice to see you out of school, Emma." Calum says, nobody interrupting to mention it was still school hours. "I don't think I've ever heard you laugh before."

"Oh." Emma had to admit, that wiped the smile off her face a bit. "Yeah it's... it's been fun." Not mentioning her making out with his best friend an hour before.

Cal continued to smile, "I'm glad."

Jessie, making an alarmed sound at the back of her throat, smacks the table. "We should all have a giant sleep over together this weekend! It would be so much fun."

"We can invite Nolan." Emma adds, regretting it when it just made her best friend twice as hyper. The crazy girl continued to ramble, hyping up Cal for the weekend that both their best friends knew they were getting dragging into whether they'd like it or not.

Who knows, maybe Emma could learn to actually have fun with the Devil around.