Falling For The Playboy

EVA

“Everything about you is inappropriate. ”

“I warned you. ” He cocked a brow. “You told me to continue anyway. ”

I attempted to protest. “Because I didn’t-”

“Don’t lie and say you didn’t know I was going to say something like that. ”

I stared blankly, unable to argue.

“Ach, you might just be as dirty as I am, Cg. ”

“I didn’t. ” I voiced weakly, starting as I heard the bell go off for the Arts students. Abi, being the promptest person I knew, would be out soon and I still hadn’t apologized to Axel because he was distracting me.

I couldn’t explain why I felt the need to apologize so strongly. Maybe because he had been nothing but nice to me since I met him and I didn’t want a one day thing to ruin what could possibly be the start a great friendship.

But again, I could be making this apology into something bigger than it needed to be. He didn’t seem to care anymore. That was Axel after all, switching breezily from one mood to the other with astonishing ease. He had definitely forgotten about the whole thing.

Apologize. You’d want him to if the case was reversed, wouldn’t you?

Blowing out a breath, I conceded to myself that the voice was right. Of all things I was, I wasn’t a hypocrite.

“Listen, Axel. I… I-”

“Axel! ” The high-pitched, feminine voice came from a tiny girl running towards where we were seated with a wide smile on her face. She looked genuinely delighted and surprised to see him, all but pushing my bag to the ground to make room for herself on his lap. “Were you waiting for me? ”

As her voice sifted into my ears, I realized that it was familiar. She was one of the girls that sat at Axel’s table -almost all girls in the school really, but she frequented that table more than the others. It was only now that it occurred to me that she was closer to him than the other girls were. Stupid of me to assume he would be unattached, especially considering how much of a player -and how good-looking- he was.

He fumbled to catch my bag as it toppled to the ground, causing him to lean into her and she giggled excitedly, throwing her hands around his neck to steady herself.

People were starting to come out now and seeing them made me think of how stupid I must look right now. My body angled towards Axel, his angled towards mine while she sat on his lap. Although now it looked like he was angling towards her and not me.

My urge to apologize, now totally waned, I got up from my seat with as much dignity I could muster, walking around the girl to collect my bag from Axel. She didn’t even seem to notice my presence.

“Wait, you’re leaving? ” His tightened his hold on my bad and I had to force it out of his hand. What was wrong with him? He still hadn’t pushed her off his lap -a huge part of me had hoped he would- and he wanted me to stay? Why on earth?

“I am. ” I forced out, trying to tamp down my rising anger. How could he act like he didn’t know what was happening? Was he that obtuse?

“Wait. Why? ” His eyes darted to the girl on his lap, playing with his hair as I always wanted to do but couldn’t, then to mine. “Oh, no. This is-”

He didn’t get to finish because I was already waking away, swinging my bag around my shoulders. Abi and Laura were standing in the car park, just beside Laura’s car. How had I not seen them when they came out?

Because you had your focus solely on Axel, you idiot.

Given the narrowed-eyed look Laura was giving me and Abi’s carefully blank face, I knew that they had definitely seen me sitting with Axel. I was so in for it with Laura.

“What were you doing? ” She asked, not even waiting for me to reach them before attacking.

“I was waiting for you guys to close. ”Text © 2024 NôvelDrama.Org.

“And the only seat you could find to wait on was the one closest to Axel? ”

“He wasn’t sitting there when I got there! ” She must have thought I was just being defensive because she sighed.

“Bloody hell, Eva. ” She pinched her forehead. “What are you trying to get yourself into? ”

“Nothing. There’s nothing-”

“That’s what everyone says at first, until you’re already in too deep and there’s no way for you to come back out unscathed. ”

I blanched. Laura was exaggerating again. I knew where I was with Axel. I didn’t expect anything other than friendship from him. The thought of a relationship happening between us hadn’t even crossed my mind in the slightest.

All these were true. But it contradicted the pain and betrayal I had felt when the girl sat on his lap and he let her.

Was I lying to myself?

“I can see the look on your face. ” Laura’s voice softened. “You know I’m right. ”

I glanced at Abi, seeing her leaning on Laura’s car. She was taking everything in without uttering a single word, not like I had expected her to, but she didn’t seem surprised to be hearing about Axel. And seeing as she wasn’t correcting anything Laura said, she agreed with her. Abi wasn’t one to make wrong judgement.

Good God, could everyone see what I couldn’t already?