“You’ve got to understand that none of this was my fault. I wanted to spend Christmas with you so badly and when you said no, when you turned me away, that was really the last straw. I call, you don’t answer. Trent treats me as if I’m a leper, and I’m done. I would do anything for either you or Trent, and now it seems like I don’t even exist.”
She was whimpering, and crying, the same thing that she used to do when we first met her. She cried when we kissed her, claiming that she liked it, but she knew that we wanted more. We did want more, but we acted as if we weren’t vultures as we waited for her to be ready, biding our time until she gave in. Behind closed doors, we would mock her tears, we would laugh at her weakness, because it made us even more determined to break her. Looking at her now I saw that we’d changed her from an innocent into a sultry vixen that turned into a mess once she realized that she’d been playing with fire and didn’t know how to put that fire out.
“Shit Claire, you knew that we were shits. We know that what we did was wrong, but that’s all in the past now. Don’t fucking cry on me. Not today. I need a clear head, and right now my headache has gone from a low buzz to a mall-sized fire alarm, and I can’t be the person that you want me to be right now. Not today,” I said like a fucking egotistical shit.
She wrapped her arms around me, and I knew desire drove her as her breathing changed and the look in her eyes grew racier.
Didn’t she get it? Couldn’t she take the hint? Or maybe it was just me and I was being too polite? That thought almost made me laugh, but I choked it back because I needed to tell her that she had to move on. The problem was, it was clear she had other plans.
“Claire, just don’t,” I snarled as he her hands moved from my back to slide down the length of my chest. My cock was reacting, and I hated myself for my body’s physical reaction to her touch. I hated her for trying to tease it, for trying to tempt me back into her arms.
“We can do it anal, right now. You can bend me over the table and fuck me, James, like we’ve done so many times before. Remember, you liked doing it that way, you said that it…”
She was pulling my hand, and I knew that I had to get away from her. I couldn’t do what she wanted us to do. Sex of any kind was the furthest thing from my mind right now. I couldn’t do this shit anymore. As much as I loved having sex, this just had to fucking stop.
“Claire, no. No, we can’t do this. Not anymore.”
She ignored me, and started tugging my belt, “Ok. We don’t need to do it on the table, we can do it right here on the bench.”
“You’re not listening, we cannot do this anymore. You said that you wanted to talk so just talk. We don’t need to do this all the time. We can talk, I told you that, but I really need to fucking sober up. It’s too early for all this shit.”
Before the idea would have excited me, I would have done it without hesitation, now the whole idea of it, made me feel sick. We’d turned Claire from a beautiful flower into a cactus, and I hated her for it, but myself even more. I watched her face change as my words registered in her brain and I knew the headache was about to get so much worse.
It was as if I’d set a firework off by telling her that we weren’t going to fuck in the cafeteria.
“It’s because of her, isn’t it?” The words came out as a snarl from her twisted mouth, her pretty face now a mask of ugly anger.
She stopped wrestling to get at the buttons of my pants and glared at me with anger that was so hot I could almost feel it.. As soon as she gave up, I pushed her away I stood up to moved back from her.
One thing that I hated about Monday’s was the fact that Trent and I didn’t have any classes together. He was as much to blame for all this drama as I was, but I was the one that was suffering for it.
“It’s fucking her. That fucking orphan slut.”
“Don’t call her that,” I said calmly, trying not to raise my voice while trying to calm Claire the fuck down at the same time.
“Fuck, I want her out of our lives. I made sure that happens, too, James. Soon, she’ll be gone, and you’ll be back with me all the time. I miss you so much, James. I love you…”
I shook my head, confused by what she'd said, “What do you mean that you made sure that she will be out of our lives?”
Deep down, I knew what she was talking about, but I needed her to clarify it for me, prove to me that I was wrong. Claire was capable of a lot of things, but surely she wouldn’t do something as drastic as what she’d just implied?
Fear made my heart thump in my chest as I watched her face twist from wheedling need to fury all over again. The fury then changed to a triumphant smirk and her blue eyes gleamed with malice that I knew was directed at Vicki.
“Someone’s looking for her. I made sure that they find her!” She hissed at me viciously, her face full of menace, then she grabbed her bag and headed towards the door.
“Claire!” I chased after her and grabbed a hold of her arm and her blond hair jumped up as I made her stop, before she could make a swift exit.
I only wanted to stop her but Claire dropped her bag on the floor as I pulled her back into the café and leaned into my chest with a pleased purr. “Answer me, Claire, what does that mean, someone’s looking for her? What have you done?”
“When you have money, it’s not hard. I dug up her past with the help of a PI and found out that her stepdad wants her out of the picture as much as I do. He told me that he wanted to know where she was and I was happy to give him that information.”
I laughed, thinking that Claire had been watching one too many Bourne Identity movies, and that this was all one big fucking sick joke. Somehow Claire had managed to convince herself that she was one of the bad guys and had found a way to deal with her problem, as sick as it may sound. I knew that she had money, but I didn’t think that she had that type of power. Then again, the two did seem to go hand-in-hand.
She repeated herself because it was obvious that I couldn’t believe what I was hearing from the way I stared at her as she smiled at me, because she was pleased with herself.
“What? What is wrong with you? Why the fuck would you do that?”
I wanted to tell her that if she wanted Vicki out of the picture, then why not do it herself, but that would just give her ideas. I was searching her now cold and lifeless eyes for answers. I could have defended the way Trent and I treated her, the actions we’d taken, and told her that this was the reason that we didn’t want to be with her, but that would be a blatant lie. I wasn’t in the mood for playing games, but I knew one thing for sure, this fire that Claire had started had to be put out.
Claire didn’t answer because Goldie pushed the door to come into the cafe. No doubt that she was looking for Claire. All of us froze as if we were in a trance. I couldn’t believe that Claire was such a monster. She didn’t want Vicki out of the picture, she wanted her dead, and she’d found the person to do her dirty work.
“Goldie let’s get out of here. I don’t want to be near James any longer!” Claire said with an acidic tone as she picked her bag up from the floor, and I moved away from her. That tone chilled me so much more than a scream would have, it was a threat, a final warning that I’d fucked up and was about to pay for it.