Page 75 of Ink & Ambition

But when I look over at Alex, he’s gazing at me like he’s looking at a stranger. Like he has no idea who I am. I can feel Ryan’s eyes on me from the side and Alex’s glare from the front.

“Can we go talk inside?” I ask Alex, my voice annoyingly shaky.

Alex stays quiet, looking back and forth between Ryan and me, and I know he’s already made up his mind. He’s taking this at face value rather than listening to what I have to say.

“Forget it,” I say, looking up and shaking my head. I grab my bag from the chair and move away from the group to head inside. If I don’t find Danika and Sydney on my way out, I’ll just text them that I left, not wanting to linger any longer in this house.

Alex lets me walk past him, and I don’t look back to see how the rest of the group manages their staring contest. As I enter the kitchen, looking back and forth and not finding either one of my roommates, I decide enough is enough. I’m out of here.

I don’t let the first tear drop until I’m out the front door and away from the drunken revelry. I make it to the corner before the second tear falls and that’s when I hear the pounding footsteps behind me.

Whirling around, I see Alex running up the block, and I couldn’t move from my spot even if I wanted to. And trust me, I want to. I want to avoid this fight as much as possible because I know he’s not going to believe what Ryan told me about Kai. Hell, I’m not sure I believe it. But there was something so sincere about the way he spoke, something so apologetic, that he had me listening, against my better judgment. It just made sense.

I’m not sure what I expect him to say when he finally meets up with me but it’s not: “You’re not walking home alone, it’s almost midnight.”

He barely looks me in the eye, just continues past me toward the corner. My jaw drops and I’m stunned into silence. For about three seconds.

“You’re kidding me, right? After all that?” I whip around to see him standing at the corner, still not meeting my eyes.

“What do you want me to say, Margot?”

Finally gathering up the courage, I stalk toward him. “I want you to say ‘Hey, sunshine, I’m sorry I treated you like shit back there. Won’t happen again’,” I say, standing directly in front of him. My comment finally gets his attention, and his eyes whip to mine.

“Are you serious?” He steps impossibly closer to me. There’s an intimacy to it but this is not a romantic moment. “I leave you alone for five minutes to find you cozied up by the fire with the guy that beat the shit out of my friend andyou'remad atme?”

“He didn’t beat up Keith,” I say, quietly and against my better judgment. But just as I expected, Alex laughs directly in my face.

“And you believe the lies he’s telling you! What fucking else could go wrong right now.” Alex runs his hands through his hair, spinning around in exasperation. “Keith told us that he saw Ryan’s face in the fight. It was the last face he saw before he passed out.”

“Ryan said he came up on his brothers beating up Keith and he broke it up. He brought Keith to the house.” I know everything I’m saying is falling on deaf ears but I have to say it. The more I retell Ryan’s side, the more I believe it. There’s no way he could’ve beat up Keith, hardly ten minutes had passed since he had stormed out of my apartment and then Alex got that phone call.

Alex crosses the street, continuing the walk to my apartment even though he clearly wants nothing to do with me right now. “You are un-fucking-believable, sunshine.” His voice is like venom, but he still calls me sunshine and that fact has hope blossoming in my stomach.

I follow behind him a few paces, mostly because he’s walking too fast for me to keep up. When I see my apartment complex come into view, I know I only have a few more seconds to say my piece before he disappears.

Running up a few steps, I grab Alex’s arm, whipping him around. “You need to talk to Kai. He’s been keeping something from you.”

“Keeping what from me?”

I sigh. “Just…talk to him.”

Alex blinks a few times and then nods. Once.

I take my hand off his arm, but he grabs my wrist before it drops to my side. Clutching it tightly, he uses the contact to pull me closer to him, chest to chest. My breath catches at the suddencontact and my heart contracts as he snakes his free hand to the back of my neck, pulling my hair slightly to bring my eyes to his.

“I’m really fucking pissed at you,” he says, his words saying one thing but his eyes and touch say another.

“I’m not too fond of you either at the moment,” I mutter, trying and failing to hold onto my resolve from just moments ago.

Without another word, Alex reaches down and connects our lips in a scathing kiss. It’s not nice, it’s not loving. It’s hard and needy. It’s desperate and addictive. I reach up on my toes to match his fervor and he deepens the kiss, our hands clutching each other even closer.

After what felt like an eternity of this intimate torture, Alex pulls away, leaving me breathless and bereft.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says curtly, reminding me that we still need to film our podcast tomorrow. After all this.

I nod, shutting my mouth and lowering my heels to the ground. Alex lets me go and I feel every inch of untouched skin.

I don’t say anything as I walk around his tall frame and into the building. I don’t look back as the door closes and I walk up the stairs and into the apartment. But, the first thing I do is walk across the living room to peer out the window to see Alex still standing outside, just as I knew he would be.

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