Falling For The Playboy

EVA

I looked around and saw that Axel was watching me. When he saw that I caught him, he looked away. I absolutely hated how it made me feel when he looked away.

It hurt. Way worse than it should have because somehow, I knew that was how it was going to be between us henceforth. And I had no-one to blame but myself.

Five minutes had passed.

Alexander walked through the door, and a second later, followed by Zoe. The both of them did not look happy at all. They had probably ignored each other all through, I thought as they resumed their places on the floor. Dexter looked like he wanted to talk to her but probably knew this wouldn’t be a good time.

Nevertheless, the game went on. It was really an enjoyable experience. I actually had fun. It was starting to get late and a lot of people were yawning discreetly. A few curled up on their spaces on the ground and just dozed off. Zoe and Dexter had retired already.

I tapped Laura, “Do you think we should go?”

She looked around and shrugged, “Yeah, definitely. The game is over anyway.”

In one swift move, she rose from her cross-legged crouch and didn’t even lose her balance. She told me one time that she took ballet classes when she was younger. Apparently, they paid off. I rose along with her and as I saw her shoving her phone into her back pocket, I remembered that my phone was still with Axel.

Why hadnt I collected it in the first place? What had I been thinking?

Definetly not how he looked in those briefs, that was for sure.

“How who looked in briefs?”

I turned to Laura and saw her watching me with a confused frown on her face. Shit. Had I said that out loud?

“Nothing.” I hurriedly said, “I need to go get my phone from Axel. I’ll be back in a bit.” And before she could say anything, I dashed off.

I had seen Axel go into the other room, but Henri and Alex had gone into the kitchen where they seemed to be having a heated argument. We could hear and see them from here, but we couldn’t quite tell what they were talking about. Vaughn, on the other hand, I didn’t know where he had gone into.

When I opened the door and walked in, the question of where Vaughn had gone into, was answered. He was in the room, sitting on the floor with his back against the foot of the bed. He had a pen and what seemed to be a sketchpad in his hands and his head lifted when I came in. He didn’t try to cover what he was doing, but I kept my eyes carefully averted. Knowing these boys, it was a trick to get me to look. I didn’t want to see anything that would get me in trouble.

I padded over to the bed-to where Axel was seated watching me-and motioned for him to come close. He seemed surprised at my bold approach, and to be honest, I was surprising myself a lot too. I tended to get bolder when I was pissed. And I was. Pissed, that is.

He was giving me attitude, and what for? Simply because I suggested we stay friends? What right did he have to be angry?

“Where’s my phone?” I asked him when he was close enough that I didn’t have to raise my voice and draw Vaughn’s attention. Not that I had to draw his attention though, because he was already watching us. Avidly.

Sometimes, I wondered what went on in his head. But most times, I just wanted to run the other way. He was just that creepy.

“Charging.” Axel pointed to a charger plugged into an outlet on the other side of the room.

My lie to Laura that I had left it to charge, actually turned into a truth. I gave it a baleful look. To go get it, I would have to walk past Vaughn. I didn’t want to. So, I decided, since I was already acting bold, why not continue?

“Go get it then.” I told him and it was almost comical the way his eyes widened. He looked me over, up to down, probably wondering if I had switched personalities with Laura. I guess she was starting to rub off on me. And I had reason to believe it was a good thing.

Surprisingly, he got up and walked to the other side of the room to unplug my phone, turn the switch off and then bring it(my phone) back to me.

“Thanks.” I chirped when he slid it into my hands, and turned around to leave.

“Wait.” He called.

I paused and turned to him. In my periphery, I noticed that Vaughn was still watching us, albeit without interest. But if he wasn’t interested, why was he watching us?

Maybe he just had vacant eyes.

Still. It didn’t explain why he was watching us.

“I’ll uh…….. text you later.” He finally said.

Why did I feel like that wasn’t what he had been about to say?

Channelling my inner Laura, I shrugged and said, “Sure.”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Then I walked out.