Kenzie said she’d walk me to class taking her job of being by my side seriously, which I genuinely appreciated.
“I’ll be fine. You don’t have to do this. I know you don’t have class for another hour.” Usually she was barely awake when I was walking out the door.
She gathered her backpack at the foot of her twin bed. “I don’t mind. Besides, I told Justin I’d meet him at the library to study.”
We left and made it down the three flights of stairs and breezed out the main door. As soon as I stepped outside in the bright sunlight, I saw Roman standing at the bottom of the steps leaning against the concrete wall. He was wearing a black hoodie with the word Falcons written in red across his chest and black track pants.
If I stopped to talk to him, I might punch him in the face. And I swore I wouldn’t cause myself any more embarrassment. Instead, I breezed past him, but he reached out, clasping my arm, pulling me back.
“Let go of me.”
“We need to talk.”
“No, we don’t.” I yanked my arm away from him.
“You have a lot of nerve doing what you did the other night,” Kenzie rushed out in a condescending voice and furiously clicked on her phone, trying to show him one of the posts. “Theo didn’t deserve that.”
“Who are you again?”
“I’m Kenzie, jerk, Justin’s girlfriend.” She kept swiping through her phone. Her forehead creased together. “Where are the pics?”
“They’re gone.” Roman stared at me without emotion. “All of them.”
“Really?” her voice squeaked in disbelief beside me.
He nodded once, still gazing at me. “Do you mind leaving us, Kennedy?”
She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Yes. I would mind. I don’t think she needs to be alone with you, and my name is Kenzie. K-e-n—”
“I’m not holding auditions for a spelling bee.”
“Well, I’m not leaving her side.”
“I just want to walk her to class and talk in private, not take her behind the building and fuck her.”
“Jeez,” my friend breathed out while I stared daggers at him.
“Come on.” I laced my arm in Kenzie’s and propelled her forward.
Roman followed beside us. “It’s okay if you really want Kenzie to hear our conversation. I don’t mind, but you might.”
I did mind since Roman was predictable in his unpredictability. I didn’t know exactly what he wanted to say, but I knew he would try to put me in my place when he thought he was losing any ground. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe talk is overrated. You sure as fuck were at a loss for words the other night when I touched—”
I slapped my palm over his mouth before he could elaborate. Kenzie made another shocked noise.
“I hate you.” I mouthed at him and felt his lips curl under my palm, and his eyes gleamed with something other than disinterest. Roman thrived on getting a rise out of me. Wetness pierced my skin as his tongue traced a path along a seam in my palm. His audacity knew no bounds.
“You know, you’re disrespecting Taylor by stalking my friend,” Kenzie had obviously put her shock aside and piped up. Which was a good thing, a reminder I needed to get my act together around him, not get caught up in this test of wills with him. I jerked my hand away, wiping it over my jeans. Wiping every trace of him away.
Roman twisted his head dispassionately at my friend. “You know, I don’t give a fuck what you think. You don’t know shit.”
Kenzie opened her mouth and closed it, glaring at Roman like he was a lowlife. Then Justin appeared miraculously at her side, kissing her on the cheek. “Hey, babe.” Her sour face turned sweet within seconds. He reached out his fist to Roman. “S’up?” He nodded at me.
We were standing on the sidewalk, blocking the other students who walked around us in the grass. I then heard, “Damn, stage five clinger with this girl, huh Roman?” I shot my head in the direction of the voice, and some guy with a decent build and light brown hair smirked as though he and Roman shared an inside joke. The douchebag held his hand close to his ear like he was holding a cell phone and said to me, “Call me. I ain’t ashamed to take sloppy seconds.” He made a show of scanning his eyes down my body. “Don’t blame you for tagging that ass on the side.”
Before I could respond, Roman had the guy in a chokehold shoved up high above him until he slammed him against a tree. His eyes bugged out as he gasped, “It was a joke, man.”
Roman’s face was lethal, as he continued squeezing and Justin, Kenzie, and I rushed to his side, trying to get him off this guy before he killed him. “Dude, stop. It’s not worth it.” Justin’s hands were prying at Roman’s wrists that weren’t budging. “Oh my God. He’s crazy!” Kenzie screamed out.
“Come on. You want to get kicked off the team? Go to jail?” Justin reasoned. “Don’t do this.”
The guy’s face was a deep shade of red, and the fear of Roman choking him to death was real.
I dug my fingers into his bulging bicep. “Roman, let him go!” I yanked with all my might, finally gaining his attention. “What did you expect when you tried to publicly embarrass me the other night? He was just following your lead.”
Roman’s eyes raised a fraction, his chest expanded and contracted, and his grip relented as the guy slid limply against the tree. He was fighting to suck in air. “What the fuck, bro?” He gasped, but my eyes were drawn to Roman who looked like he might kill a whole army. “I thought we were team mates. I didn’t know—”
“Get the fuck out of my sight. If I ever see you around her, I will kill you.”
The guy was still rubbing his neck and his breathing was labored.
“Go, Matt.” Justin led him off before something else happened. “I’ll see you at practice.”
Kenzie was still wide-eyed, looking at Roman as though he were insane, but she turned and followed Justin who I assumed was doing damage control for Roman. Because everyone seemed to fall in line wherever Mr. Eighty-Seven was concerned.
“I’m late for class.” I started off wanting to get away before more attention came around, but his hand was on my shoulder halting me.
“Fuck class.”
“Roman, please. You’ve already done enough.”
He reached out and touched my cheek. “I don’t know why I can’t control myself when I’m around you, Corazón. You said you hate me, but I don’t believe it.”
“Don’t.”
He tilted his head and his hand still lingered on my face; his thumb touched my lower lip. “I can’t stop.”
His words were simple and short, yet it hit me straight in the heart. But his actions left me bewildered. “What is it you want from me?”
“Everything,” he whispered, and there was something flashing in the depths of his eyes. “Every. Fucking. Thing.”
Theodora
A piercing yelp startled me as I stood with my hand on the industrial size refrigerator in the Martinez’s kitchen. I’d come downstairs to get a bottle of water after several hours spent studying in my room. Another muffled cry echoed in the near distance, outside, which definitely sounded more human than animal-like. Goose bumps pricked my skin like a sudden rash, and I released the handle and shuffled my way closer to the sliding back door that led out back. I peered through the glass, scanning the pool area shroud in deep hues of blackish periwinkle as the darkness threatened to take over until dawn.