He was only ever here on the weekends when the student body was sure to get themselves into more trouble. He was middle-aged, overweight, and wore headphones on patrol—so not smart. He was easy to trick and avoid.
I climbed the stairs to the second level like I was on autopilot for more privacy in a dark, closed library. I sat on the edge of the thick cherry wood table waiting to hear the door marking her arrival.
Me: Upstairs.
Arianna: Not creepy at all…
I smirked, pressing my tongue to the inside of my lip distorting it from growing bigger. She was a smart ass 24/7, in-person and in-text. Every time her attitude transferred to her tongue, I swear my dick jumped into action, reminding me my taste pool became smaller and smaller, down to one person, named Arianna.
She walked along the railing, letting her fingers slide behind her against the chunky wood banister, making me notice his journal in her hand. We were both armed with evidence, ready to throw it at each other, and eventually call a truce.
“So I’m here. You ready to spill some secrets, King of Arcadia Prep?”
Her fierce tone didn’t make me want to do anything but fuck her against the banister while she called me king.
I waved the folder in front of me, out from being rolled up in my back pocket of my jeans. “Why did you really leave your last school?”
Her composure shattered as soon as she saw the ugly blue folder that hid everything for her, sealed up and states away. She didn’t even have to carry it around unless her subconscious was weaker than she wanted to seem.
“Where did you get that?”
“That’s not an answer. Who’s the kid with the restraining order?”
She looked like she wanted to run away, but she forced herself still, shaking slightly, as her face tried to regain her normal composure again. “What are you? How does Henry Jon know about you?”
“I’m not answering anything until you do. Eye for an eye.”
Her eyes looked down, contemplating if I was tricking her. I wanted to, but Arianna was in even more danger now. The circle was ready to sacrifice her, and she was still in the dark.
I was being forced to show my hand before I was ready. I stepped closer to her, leaving the folder on the table and letting my hand take hers. She felt warm compared to my constant cold, and she tingled against my palm, trying to melt my heart in the process.
Her eyes snapped up to mine.
“I’m not tricking you. I can’t protect you if you aren’t honest with me,” I did my best to keep my tone even.
She scoffed, like everything I said was a lie that she couldn’t believe. “That’s rich, coming from the guy who's done nothing but lie to me.”
I searched my memories trying to find a lie in our timeline and came up empty. If anything, I was brutally honest.
She saw my confusion bubbling to the surface. She pushed past me to lean against one of the bookshelves, taking the warmth away from our interlaced fingers.
“I don’t need more lying, Bolton. My mom died when I was younger, and all I heard was nothing but lying: how it would get better, it’d hurt less, how I’d feel her with me no matter what... All lies. Then my dad said he’d be around more and take different positions for work. More lies. I don’t even know where he is in the world. Top secret, even from his daughter. I haven’t heard from him in weeks. So, don’t be another person lying to me.”
I watched her sit on the table and leave me by the banister like she took my upper hand from me. Crossing her legs, she looked comfortable, waiting for everything to unravel, and confident she’d get what she wanted.
I was about to storm her castle and claim her comfort and confidence as my rewards.
“I’m not just lying to you. I'm lying to myself, Arianna. Do you think I want to be this guy? Bound to a human form, soaked in hormones and angst, and chasing after you? I’m a fucking god. I don’t belong here.”
“Makes two of us, yet, here we are stuck together at Arcadia Prep.”
I let my hand manipulate her knee off the other and my palms held them apart long enough for me to push myself between them. I wasn’t just storming her castle; I was winning now. I pulled her knees towards me, forcing us closer. I could see her pulse quicken on her neck. Her lips collapsed, and her chest expanded and deflated quicker.
“What happened in Texas, Arianna?”
Her response sounded like a moan, breathy and low: “I can’t explain it. It’s not that easy…”
“Something happened to that boy because of you?” I made sure my hands smoothed up the outside of her thighs and stuck to her ass. She wasn’t fighting me; she had no reason to. She didn’t even see me winning the battle.
Everything about her hesitated, even her lungs expanding into my own chest. I was so close that I could smell her minty gum from her puffs of breath escaping. . She was pouring out the warmth of her heart against my cold.
“It happened so fast. I didn’t… he just started having a seizure. I didn’t give him anything. We weren’t drinking. He just grabbed my arm.”
She didn’t look at me while she spoke, like it’d change how I looked at her when I was sure the blood on my hands were going to trump whatever happened in Texas.
I pushed her obnoxious purple hair behind her ear, like I was pulling back the curtain to her glassy eyes, which welled up instantly as her sentence finished.
With my thumb catching her chin, I pulled her face up to mine, and she whispered between us, “I don’t want to hurt you. That’s all I do, hurt people, make them love me just to leave them.”
She wasn’t going to hurt me; she was going to be hurt by me.
“You aren’t going to hurt me. Impossible.”
“I hurt him without even trying.”
“I’m not him. I’m your king and—”
Arianna cut me off before I could finish when I realized she finished my thoughts for me. “…and I’m your queen.”
Without any answers, I pushed my lips onto her minty mouth, as my hand snaked up to her throat with a loose grip, waiting for her to react. Her tension melted into my hand as my grip got tighter, and I forced my tongue into her mouth. I wasn’t weak, and neither was she. We could endure the pain, the suffering, the chasing, even the hating, and still be bound to each other for lifetimes beyond this one.
Her legs wrapped around the back of my thighs pulling me closer and pushing my now obvious hard on into her accessible crotch. She was testing my self-control that was non-existent right now.
While my mouth opened for her tongue, my hands slipped between us and unzipped her hoodie to expose just a black bra under the fabric. She was prepared to storm my castle and hit me right in the hormones.
She arched her back, pushing herself further into me, when my fingers danced along her bra clasp. She was oozing a kind of experience I didn’t want to think about right now, even though it danced in the back of my mind, reminding me that our time apart was only getting more and more sinful with each lifetime.
“Bolton, I’m not… you don’t need to be so gentle.”
I pushed the hoodie down her arms and left her exposed in nothing but the small amount of fabric that covered her breasts. I produced a small switchblade between us. She begged me for anything but gentle, so that was exactly what I was going to give her.