Undone: A New Adult College Bad Boy Romance (Mature Young Adult Fun Contemporary Romance) (51 page)

Chapter 2

I bit my lip as I looked around. She’d already left as I grabbed the handle and pulled the door open. My heart skipped a beat as he turned to face me.

“Hello.” He was in the process of sweeping the floor. “What can I do for you?”

“I um, just needed a place to wait a little longer until my car is ready to be picked up.” I lied. I just wanted to know if Kat was right.

“You’re welcome to stay here as long as you like.” He went back to sweeping and I made my way over to a table, pulled my laptop out of my bag and pretended to be busy. I checked my mail; bad choice. I was left facing my failing grades. How the hell am I going to do it if I fail?

I blew out a deep breath trying not to have a meltdown in the middle of a coffee shop. Somehow that seemed like a bad idea. So I closed my email and scrolled through Facebook aimlessly.

“Here,” I looked up just in time to see him place a cup down in front of me. “It’s a little old but it’s free.” He sat down beside me holding his own cup of coffee.

“How old?” My brow furrowed as I reached for the cup.

“Four hours. You’re supposed to throw it out, or my manager said I could keep it for me to drink, as long as I kept it somewhere the customers wouldn’t see it.”

“Well, thank you.” I took a sip, and although I’d just been told it was old it didn’t taste it.

“You’re welcome…. I was wondering, would you like to grab a bite to eat sometime, or something.”

Crap. I was so not going to tell Kat she was right.

“Yes. Sure, I mean…” I swallowed dryly trailing off, not willing to make that much a fool of myself.

“Good.” He grinned.

“But, I should go. I mean I’ve got to pick my car up.”

“Is it around here?”

“No, it’s close to my place.”

“Let me drive you.” He jumped to his feet. “I finish work in half an hour, I mean if you want to wait that long, I’d be happy to give you a ride.” A blush touched his cheeks.

“Sure,” I said it before even realizing I had.

“Perfect.”

We spent the next half hour just relaxing. I drank my coffee and tried to ignore the pit in my stomach that I’d gotten when I saw my grades.

I bit my lip trying to ignore it. Instead I looked at him.

He looked up from his phone, caught me staring at him and quickly put it away. “Almost quitting time, are you ready to get going?”

“Yea.”

As if on cue the door opened and I turned to see another guy step in. He looked at me before shifting his gaze to Adan.

“How’d it go?”

“Fine. I don’t think there were any issues. Need me to stick around until the official end of my shift, or mind if I slip out early? I’ve got to get my friend to the mechanic so she can pick up her car.”

“Go on,” the guy grinned. “I won’t tell on you.”

“Thanks man, I’ll see you tomorrow. I think we actually have a shift together.”

“Yea, unless they change it on us.”

The two men exchanged a bro hug and then Adan turned his attention to me. “You ready?”

“Um, yea.” I jumped up closing my laptop and stuffing it into my bag. “Sure, let’s go.”

I let him lead the way out of the café and towards an old black Camaro.

“Nice car.”

“Thanks.” His eyes sparkled as he led me over to it and grabbed the passenger door for me.

“Thank you.” I’d never expected him to be a gentleman. It kinda made me want to get to know him more. My cheeks flushed just thinking it.
I slid into the car, he closed the door behind me and I watched as he circled around the front to the driver’s side.

“Are you very far into your law program?” He asked as we set off towards the author shop. I brought the address up on my cell phone and made sure the speakers were loud enough for him to hear the directions.

“Just a year.” Though it will probably be a lot longer than it was supposed to be if I kept failing. I stared out my window as I thought about it. “Do you go to school?” It would make sense, he was working at a place right across from campus but I’d never seen him around.

“Nope.” He said flatly. “I… I’m too busy for that, which is fine with me. School was never something I wanted to do anyways.” 

What was he too busy with? I couldn’t bring myself to ask; after all we hardly knew each other really.

***

It didn’t take us long to get to the auto shop. I unbuckled as he shifted into park and pulled the keys from the ignition.

“Thank you for the ride.” As I turned to look at him I realized how close we were. With both of us facing each other it felt like we were only inches away from each other. I took a deep breath, I was sure I could smell coffee on him.

My heart skipped a beat as his eyes locked on mine and he smiled. “Anytime.” He said so quietly I was amazed I’d heard him.

I forced myself to tear my eyes away from his; instead they rested on his lips as the curved into a soft smile. “I’d be happy to give you a ride anywhere you need.”

My cheeks flushed and I looked away, my heart racing. “Thank you.” Should I kiss him? I wanted to. I just… I risked a quick glance up at him. Dammit.

He pocketed his keys and grabbed his wallet before reaching for his door. Alright, I guess the moment had passed. I swallowed dryly, licked my lips trying to restore some moisture to my skin and opened the door. My heart still racing.

“You don’t have to walk in with me if you don’t want.”

“That’s alright. I want to make sure they aren’t going to leave you here without a car. I’d feel like an ass hole if I left you here without a way to get home.”

He reached for the door, pulled it open and motioned for me to go first.

“Thanks.” I stepped inside and we fell into pace with each other as I headed for the counter. A man standing behind it looked us up and down before turning his full attention to Adan.

“I dropped a car off here this morning.” I said, my eyes locking on the man.  He stared at me. “To get tires changed. It’s a 1998 Jetta.”

“Okay… just let me check…” He turned his attention to a computer.

“Adan?”

Her voice was soft, sweet and most of all sounded young. I spun at the hips to see who had spoken to him.

Adan’s eyes were wide as he stared at her. “Hi Natalie.” He said softly.

Natalie had long mousy brown hair that fell to her navel. She wore a black tank top and well fitted jeans. Her shoes, a pair of black pumps, looked like they had seen better days but were still in good condition. I glanced at her purse. Gucci.

Who was she? More than anything who was she to Adan? An ex-girlfriend? She glanced at me, her eyes narrowing.

“Where’s Amanda?”

“She’s… at home.” I could hear the defensiveness in his voice. “You’re welcome to go see her if you like.” He snapped.

“No.” She tore her eyes away from me, a snide smile spreading across her lips. “Just tell her I said hi. Did you just come from work?” It was his turn to get a once over from her, and I noticed a blush creep onto his cheeks.

“Yes.” He said, his eyes locking on her.

“Interesting place to pick up a date.” Again, she glanced at me for a fraction of a second then spun on her heel. “Josh and I will see you on the weekend.”

Without another word she walked away. I turned to Adan but he didn’t say anything. He looked lost in thought, and a little sad.

I turned my attention back to the counter. The man stood there staring at us. He cleared his throat looking down at his screen. “Your car is ready to be taken home.” He said reaching for a folder that had my keys in it. He handed me the keys and I paid for the new tires.
God I hope this goes through
. I thought as I watched the debit machine process the payment. I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders as the little machine told me it had been approved and I could remove my card.

“Thank you again for the ride.” I thought about the girl we had just met. Who was Amanda?

Adan pulled his phone from his pocket and glanced down at it. After a couple seconds he looked back up at me. “You’re welcome.”

“I…” What was I supposed to say? “I’ll see you around, I guess.” I wanted to see him later. I wanted to invite him to grab pizza sometime, but clearly Amanda was someone he should be getting home to. I bit my lip.

“Yea, I’ll see you around Melina.”

The way he said my name sent my heart a flutter, but I tried to ignore it as I turned on my heel and headed for my car.

***

“Where have you been?” Kat asked as soon as I stepped into the house.

“I…” I couldn’t bring myself to look at her. “I went to the café.”

“And he asked you out, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

I kicked my shoes off and dropped my school bag on the couch right beside the door. I didn’t say anything else as I headed for the kitchen, trying to figure out what there was in the house to eat, ideally something that I could pretend to pass off as sort of healthy.

Kat followed me into the kitchen as I pulled the fridge door open and grabbed a tub of yogurt. I padded over to the sink and grabbed what I was pretty sure was a clean spoon.

“And, how did your date go?”

“We didn’t have one. He took me to pick up my car and then…” I trailed off thinking about the girl in the auto shop. The way she looked at me….

I took a bite of my food, deciding if I would tell Kat about it not. Of course, I did.

“When we were in the auto shop we ran into this girl…”

“Uh-huh.”

“She asked him where ‘Amanda’ was.” My brow furrowed. “He didn’t say anything to me about it, and the girl seemed like a bit of a bitch- the one we were talking to. I just…. I don’t know. I mean, why would it matter where ‘Amanda’ is unless there would be an issue with him being out with me?” I cut myself off before I started rambling even more.  I paid attention to my food instead,

“And he didn’t say anything about it?”

“Nope.”

“Hmmm. Odd, but you don’t know it’s a bad thing. It could be…. I don’t know his sister.”

“Why would it matter where his sister is?” I looked up at my best friend.

She shrugged. “No clue, maybe they are super close and don’t go out without each other normally. All I’m saying is that you don’t know it’s a girlfriend.”

“I’m more worried about it being a wife than a girlfriend.” I admitted. I really didn’t know anything about him. I hadn’t even bothered to look for a wedding ring. Dammit. “Anyways, it doesn’t matter. There is clearly something about him that I don’t want to get into.”

We both fell silent as her phone went off. She stared down at the screen, her head tilting to the left.

“You lost something.” She said matter-of-factly.

“What?” I snapped, my hand reaching for my back pocket. I groaned as I felt inside my empty pocket. “Fuck.” I muttered. “What’s it say?”

Hey, it’s Adan. Melina forgot her phone in my car; it looked like you two live together? Could you let her know for me? Will bring it to work with me. I work from 8-3. Thank you.”

She read it off then looked up at me. “I guess you have to see him at least once more.”

“I don’t have to.” I said deep in thought.

“I’m not going to get it for you!”

“Well… I could buy a new one if I really needed to.”  Oh who was I kidding? I hardly had the money for dinner each week. I couldn’t spend unneeded money on a new phone. I was going to need to save as much of it as I could in order to pay for next year. My parents couldn’t help out half as much as they’d promised me and that wasn’t even very much to begin with.

I let out a deep breath as I glanced at Kat. The look on her face made it clear she knew exactly what I was thinking.

“I can come with you if you want.”

“I’d really like that.” I wasn’t willing to admit that I needed it. That would have only proved how upset I was over all of this.

You know someone like him isn’t worth getting involved with.

Chapter 3

I took a deep breath trying to convince myself that everything would be alright. I just go in there get my phone back and leave. It’s that simple. Really, not hard at all. But no matter how many times I told myself that I just couldn’t bring myself to believe it. I bit my lip reaching for the handle.

“It will be fine.” Kat muttered.

My best friend had driven with me today and spent the entire time trying to ease my nerves but it was no use. I shouldn’t be so nervous and I knew that but I’d spent the entire night dreaming about him.

Most of the dreams started out really good, until that girl appeared and she always did. She always reminded me about Amanda. Whoever Amanda was.

As Kat and I stepped into the café his eyes locked on me. My gaze dropped to the floor, refusing to look at him as I made my way over to the counter. I took a deep breath and forced myself to look at him. “Hi.” I managed.

“Hey.” He pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to me. “I um, charged it but that was all I did with it- other than texting you of course.” He glanced at Kat.

“Thanks.” I took it from him, our fingers touching for a fraction of a second. A warm shiver ran down my spine, not unwelcome but my brain reminded my heart it was a bad idea. A stupid idea.

I tucked it into my back pocket.

“I was wondering… are you busy tonight, Melina?”

“Yes.” I said right away, Kat shot me a glare. “I’ve got to study.” I said pulling the first lie I could think of out of my head. “Sorry. You know how it is.”

“Yea…” He paused. “What about the weekend?”

“Maybe, I’ll have to check my schedule.” I forced a smile over my lips and motioned to Kat that it was time to get going.

“Wait.” He said as if he’d read my mind. I stopped and stared at him as he turned around and reached under the counter for a coffee pot.

“Oh, don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry, it’s on the house. It’s past its ‘serving time’ anyways, so it will just get thrown out anyways.” He poured us each a large up and held a cup out to each of us. “Here.” He smiled.

“T-thank.” I took it from him, this time being careful not to touch his hands and turned on my heel, too desperate to get out of here to bother even looking at Kat.

My mind raced as I focused on not running out of the café. Why was he still trying to be nice to me? Was he going to tell me who Amanda was if he wanted to keep hanging out with me?

I stepped out into the warm sunlight and looked behind me. At first, I couldn’t see Kat. My brow furrowed as I looked in through the window. She held her hand out to him as he gave her a small brown bag.

I didn’t want to sit there and watch them; I wanted to make it look like I wanted nothing to do with him again.

Why did he have to ask me out?! I let out a deep breath, trying to figure my feelings out. I knew it wasn’t a good idea. He was bad news. I stole a glance at them. His lip ring still wasn’t in and today his black hair was tied back. He didn’t smile as he spoke to my friend.

She handed money over to him and turned towards me.

I turned quickly, hoping he hadn’t seen me watching them.
I can’t be with someone who has something to hide.
I told myself. And I was right. I didn’t have the time to deal with that kind of crap. But I hadn’t even asked about Amanda… maybe if I did he would tell me who she was, and then it wouldn’t be a secret. Then I could handle it- whatever it was. Maybe.

“What were you guys talking about in there?” I almost snapped.

“Why, jealous?”

“No.” I said a little too quickly. I just really wanted to know what they were talking about. It wasn’t that I was jealous. “Just nosey.” I said with a bit of a smile.

Kat laughed. “Don’t worry, we just talked about cookies.” She held up the cookie she’d been eating. “That’s it.” Her eyes sparkled as we made our way towards campus.  Of course, why would I think my friend was lying to me? There was no point in it.

We walked in silence most of the way to our first class. “You know, I think he really likes you.”

“Good for him.” I tried to ignore the feeling in my stomach that was really happy about her words. My heart skipped a beat and I felt butterflies in my stomach as I thought about him, about the kiss we almost shared.  Soon we joined the crowd of people making their way into our classroom and to their seats. As Kat and I sat down I glanced at her. She grinned, winked and turned her attention to her school bag.

The entire class was boring. For once it was actually a subject I knew a lot about, which was nice but I also felt like I wasn’t learning anything new. I took three notes, but it was more of a reminder than anything else. Kat and I shared a couple glances that told me she was having the same issue- on the plus side I wouldn’t be failing next week’s assignment.

I waited until most of the people around me had left. “I’ll see you at lunch, right?” I turned to Kat; this was the only class we had together today.

“Yup. At the usual place.”

“Where else would it be?”

When we first started coming here we’d picked out a ‘usual place’ for us to meet, just outside of the cafe but far away enough that most people wouldn’t bother sitting near us, that way we could be as loud as we wanted or talk about whatever we wanted.

“I’ll see you later.” I gave her a smile before scooping up my bag and heading off to my next class, hoping it would be half as easy as this one had been, then I might actually have a chance at passing some classes this year.

***

Thankfully, it had been a pretty easy class, which let me feeling pretty good about the day so far as I grabbed my bag and rushed out the door behind everyone, eager to see my best friend. I hadn’t forgotten about the morning and seeing Adan, or any of the crap with him, but I was feeling better overall and that in turn left me dealing with that crap a lot better than I’d expected to be. After not getting much sleep because of my dreams I’d expected the day to be downright dreadful. I walked as fast as I could without running towards our meeting spot, even though it had only been an hour since I saw Kat I was looking forward to seeing her again and I couldn’t wait to just chat. My fast pace must have gotten me there before her because when I dropped down on the grass she was nowhere to be seen. I kicked my shoes off and let my feet play in the green grass for a couple seconds before I reached into my bag, looking for a snack.

“Why is it that most of the time when I see you, you’re not wearing shoes?”

My heart skipped a beat as I heard his voice. Make that several beats.

I turned to face him, not sure what I would say. He had changed out of his work uniform and carried a plastic bag in one hand. I took a deep breath of the Chinese food. My stomach grumbled.

“I brought lemon chicken; Kat said it was your favorite.”

My jaw dropped. Why had Kat been talking to him about my favorite kind of Chinese food? My eyes narrowed as I realized she hadn’t just been buying a cookie.

“So, what do you want?” I asked reaching for the bag of goodies he had with him.

“To have lunch with you, is that a problem?”

No. But what kind of lunch is it going to be?

He sat down across from me as I pulled the lemon chicken out of the bag and opened it. I took a deep breath reaching for one of the plastic spoons in the bad.

“How’s school going?”

“Alright. How’s your day?” I had to be sort of nice if I was going to keep the man around for his food.

“It’s been long…” and that was where he left that. He didn’t say anything else. Nothing about Amanda.

Is she his wife? I’d asked myself that question hundreds of times already.

I frowned taking a huge bite of chicken as I watched him start on the sweet and sour chicken balls.
Fuck this, I can’t stand it.

“Who’s Amanda?”

“What?” He stared at me, half a chicken ball hanging out of his mouth.

“Amanda, who is she?” I couldn’t stand not knowing and I couldn’t sit here and keep wondering. “Is she your wife?”

Adan laughed, spitting his chicken ball out by mistake. “No!”

“Then why would she care so much about you being out with me?” My eyes narrowed.

“Is this about last night?” I opened my mouth but he cut me off before I could say anything. “Don’t worry about what Jessica said, she’s just being a drama queen and trying to start unneeded shit. Amanda is… won’t care about who I see or if you hang out with me, or if I ask you out on a date. So, would you go on a date with me Melina?”

“Who. Is. Amanda?”

“No one.”

But he refused to look at me.

“Fine.” I grabbed my bag and pushed myself to my feet. “If you don’t want to tell me that’s fine.”

I held the lemon chicken in one hand as I hooked my bag over my shoulder and slipped my shoes on.

“What are you doing?”

“Leaving.” I said over my shoulder as I walked away from him. Anger boiled inside me.

If he wouldn’t tell me who she was then fine, but I wasn’t going to sit around and let him treat me like that. My body flushed, I was so angry I began to get warmer. I felt a tear prick the corner of my eye. No. I wasn’t going to cry over him.

I gasped as I hit something solid. God dammit I should have been watching where I was going.

He was tall, muscular and wearing a black shirt. Those were the first things I noticed. I had to crane my neck to look into his blue eyes. He stood in a group of guys- all of whom stared at me.

“Sorry.”

“Watch where you’re going.”

I didn’t say anything as I stepped away from him and kept on my way, resisting the urge to cry.

“Dumb bitch.”

Without a word I spun to face him. His friends laughed as I took a step closer.

“I’m sorry; do you want to say that again?” I raised an eyebrow, my eyes locking on his unblinkingly.

He looked down for a fraction of a second. I smirked as he looked back up, most likely realizing he had to impress his friends.

He grabbed my arm and pulled me close to him. I winced but refused to show how much his fingers hurt as they tightened around my arm. I struggled to get him off me but it was no use.

“Not so strong now, are you?” He hissed in my ear. “You dumb bitch. You better watch where you’re going or next time it won’t be broad daylight with a crowded around us.”

My heart raced as my body reacted the only way it could. My arm flung the contents it was holding at him.

He let go of me, pushing me back as he stared down at the yellow sauce that had begun to stain his shirt. Chicken fell to the ground around him.

His friends gasped, muttering. How the hell was I going to get out of this? I hadn’t really wanted to start shit with anyone but what was I supposed to do really?

The second he looked up at me I knew I was in shit. I swallowed dryly.

Someone grabbed my wrist and yanked me back. I stumbled. His black hair was still tied back, and for the first time since I’d seen him I realized just how muscular he looked.

“Something wrong?” He said, staring at the group of guys.

The one who had just been holding me looked Adan up and down. “Your girlfriends getting into trouble.”

“And now she’s out of it.”

“You really think it’s going to be that eas-”

Before he could finish his sentence Adan moved. I gasped as I watched his fist connect with the other guys face.

“If you ever touch her again, I will send you to the ER.”

It sounded more like a promise than anything else. I swallowed dryly as I watched them. The group of guys behind the asshole who had just grabbed me bent down to check on them. One of them stood, advancing towards Adan.

I stepped forward, ready to offer my services if they were needed. There was no way I was going to let him get into a fight over me and not help him out.

“Let’s get out of here.” Asshole pushed himself up; still staring at Adan he backed away. “Before someone really gets hurt.” His eyes flicked to me for a fraction of a second. “Later, bitch.”

Adan stepped forward; I caught his arm and stopped him as the other guys walked away, quickly. None of them refused to look away from us for more than a couple seconds.

Adan turned to me.

“I’m still mad at you.” I said flatly.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s all that matters.” He gave me a smile. “I’ll see you around, Melina.”

I opened my mouth to protest but he walked away before I could. I stared after him and for a fraction of a second I wanted to go after him and ask him to sit with me while we ate. I looked down at the empty box in my hands as I realized I didn’t have anything to eat anymore.

Dammit.

My brow furrowed as I let out a deep breath and headed towards the closets garbage.
On to the next class I guess.