Forever Burn Read online

  “Let’s dance,” he smugly said. He pulled me closer to him, slowly moving his hand down my backside as I pushed against his chest, trying my hardest to shove him away.

  Lucas’s focus shifted to beyond my shoulder. His grin fell as his demeanor went rigid, causing him to release his grip on me. Axel stepped between us, a look of pure anger in his eyes. His hands were in fists at his sides and it was impossible not to notice his heavy breathing.

  Lucas tried his best to hide his fear, but he wasn’t doing a very good job. You could see by the look on his face that he was terrified of Axel. Were people really that afraid of him? Why? After hearing and seeing his softer side earlier, I couldn’t even imagine Axe hurting anyone at all.

  People around us stopped dancing, turning their attention towards the encounter. It was obvious that the spectators were hoping there would be a fight. I backed up until Gianna grabbed me, holding me next to her.

  “I suggest you leave, Lucas,” Axel’s tone was venomous. I could see his jaw working under his skin in anger as Lucas continued to stand there, glaring at Axe. “Now,” he added.

  Lucas hesitated for a second before slowly backing up and walking away. As his drunken steps made their way towards the door, Ash pushed through a crowd of people that had been observing the confrontation. He ran up to Axe and they began to start talking too quietly for us to hear over the music.

  Axe’s anger still radiated off of him, but Ash didn’t budge at the sight, looking displeased at what Axe was saying to him. It was clear that they were arguing. After a couple minutes of watching the two go at it, Axe turned on his heels, shaking his head as he exited out of the room through the back doors.

  “I’ll be right back,” I told Gianna, following in Axe’s footsteps out the back.

  Axel’s back rested against the brick building, standing under a single light. He brought a lit cigarette up to his mouth. My nose wrinkled at the smell, but I kept walking towards him anyways.

  “You smoke cigs?” I raised an eyebrow, slightly disgusted.

  He shook his head, avoiding eye contact with me. “Only when I’m pissed.”

  I took a deep breath as I wrapped my arms around his middle, resting the side of my cheek against his chest. His big frame went from rigid to relaxed at my touch. He switched the cigarette to his left hand to make sure it didn’t get too near to me as his free arm went around my shoulder, pulling me close. His body heat warmed me up in the cool mid-October air. I could hear his heartbeat through his black t-shirt and even though I loved that it was the only sound in the air, I spoke anyways.

  “Thanks for defending me,” I looked up at him.

  Axe dropped the cigarette on the ground, stepping on it quickly before retreating his attention back to me. His sparkling emerald eyes trailed down to my lips the same way they had when we were on the balcony. “You don’t have to thank me,” he whispered.

  Axel’s green irises didn’t stray away from me as his mouth slowly started to make its way towards mine. As bad of an idea as it was, I couldn’t resist. His soft lips lingered on mine for a moment, planting a fragile kiss.

  The back door opened. Gi and Ash emerged, hand in hand. I dropped my arms from Axe’s middle, hoping that neither of them saw our kiss.

  “Are you guys ready to go?” Ash called out.

  “We’re leaving already?” I glanced at Axe, then Ash, whose eyes were fixated on Axel.

  “Yeah,” Ashton responded, “you guys can come hang out still at the apartment if you want.” His eyes didn’t turn away from Axel as his smirk slowly rose.

  “I think I’m just gonna go back to my dorm and go to bed.” I was only a little tired, but a lot of feelings were swirling around in my head. The desire to spend more time with Axel was stronger than ever, but so was the desire to run.

  Gianna’s frown appeared at my response, but she definitely knew what was going through my mind. “I’ll go with you,” she cheerlessly offered.

  Chapter Six

  The Savior

  Over the next week, I dodged hanging out with Axel, but I made sure to respond to his texts this time to ensure that he wouldn’t show up at my door again.

  It was impossible to deny the sparks that flew between us during our kiss, but the issue was that I had no idea what those sparks meant. My feelings towards Axel were so complicated at this point that my mind was foggy. The battle between wanting to be around him and wanting to stay away was becoming overwhelming. All I knew for sure was that at the end of the day, I did enjoy spending time with him. He had shown me numerous different sides of him, including his soft side, and I felt special knowing that I was probably the only girl he’s ever done that for. But I also didn’t want to assume anything. I was more than okay with the idea of being just his friend, knowing that with the way my mind worked, we couldn’t be anything more. But I still didn’t even know how he felt. He hadn’t talked about his feelings at all since the second I met him, and it was both infuriating and relieving.

  Claire knocked on my door, opening it up to showcase her pretty smile. “Hey, you!”

  I giggled from my lofted bed. “Hi!” I hadn’t seen Claire in days. She had been spending every living, breathing moment with Jason. “What’s up?”

  “Well I haven’t seen you in a while, so I was wondering if you wanted to go grab pizza in town?”

  “Yeah, sure! I’m starving,” I responded, climbing down.

  I brushed my long hair as Claire sat on the futon, going on and on about how great Jason was. After a few minutes of her rambling, I stopped listening. Of course, I wanted her to update me on the things going on in her life, but I couldn’t handle hearing Jason’s name one more time. After all, Gi was starting to really like Ash, but she wasn’t mentioning him fifteen-hundred times a day.

  “Is Gi coming?” I asked as I ran the mascara wand over my lashes.

  “No, she said she’s at some study group or something.” She rolled her eyes. “She’s been studying so much lately. I don’t think she’s ever studied this much, like, ever.”

  I slowly nodded, pretending not to know about Gianna’s true whereabouts.

  I skimmed my menu when we got to the pizza parlor, trying to decide which personal pizza I wanted. Claire kept looking up at the door every ten seconds, and since my back was to the door, I couldn’t see why, but within a few minutes, I heard why.

  “Hey!” a voice called behind me. My eyes widened at the sound, spinning around to reveal Jason and Lucas striding over to our table. Jason leaned down, planting a kiss on Claire’s cheek before sitting beside her. “Hello, my beautiful.”

  I cringed watching, but cringed even more as Lucas slid into the seat next to me. I shifted my chair over a little, trying to get as much space between us as possible. Claire and Jason immediately zoned us out, only devoting their attention to each other, and leaving me to sit in awkward silence with Lucas.

  After what happened last weekend, seeing Lucas anywhere was the last thing I wanted to do. Gianna and I hadn’t told Claire about the whole ordeal due to the fact that it involved Axe and Ash, but I was still pissed that Claire invited them without asking. She didn’t need to know what recently happened in order to know that I didn’t like Lucas. I had expressed that to her numerous times.

  I pulled out my phone and held it under the table, making sure the brightness was low, before sending a text to Gianna.

  SOS, went out to get pizza with Claire and she invited Jason and Lucas without telling me.

  I sat there silently, hating my life, scanning everything in the room other than Lucas. I stared down at my lap, creating a curtain of my hair between the two of us. My phone buzzed in less than a minute.

  Oh, hellllll nahhhh, wtf! Can’t believe she would do that to u.

  “Tatum,” his voice caused me to jump, “I just wanted to say I’m really sorry for what happened last weekend.” When I didn’t respond and only looked down at my lap, he continued. “I don’t know what came over me. I—I guess I just got
too drunk and you looked so pretty, and I acted out. I disrespected you and I’m sorry.”

  I didn’t want to accept his apology, but I still did anyways. “It’s fine.”

  But even though I accepted his apology, I still didn’t like him. I simply didn’t want to cause more drama than there had to be.

  “No, it’s not. I’m really sorry,” he said again.

  “It’s fine.”

  “Let me make it up to you,” he offered. “Let me take you out to dinner.”

  I ran my fingers through my hair, uncomfortably. I took a deep breath before pressing my lips into a hard line.

  “Tate?” Lucas quietly added.

  The door chimed as it opened, and I didn’t think anything of it until two hands smacked down on the table. Axel leaned into his hands. His white tee and leather jacket spelled trouble, but the look on his face spelled pissed. He eyed Lucas closely, his jaw twitching in anger.

  Everyone at the table watched carefully in silence, afraid of what Axel’s next move was going to be. His focus broke from Lucas, anger melting away as he gazed at me.

  “You wanna leave, Tate? I’ll drive you home,” he spoke softly, almost in a whisper.

  I inspected everyone at the table, noting their rattled faces. Turning to Axel, I nodded and stood up.

  “Dude, what’s your problem?” Lucas shouted.

  The look of outrage reignited in Axel’s eyes and the table shook as he leaned in, until he was directly in Lucas’s face. “You’re my problem,” he hissed through his teeth.

  The petrified look in Lucas’s eyes didn’t stop him this time. “What are you gonna do about it? Beat me? So that you go to jail again?”

  I lightly touched Axel’s shoulder. His tense muscles faded under my touch. “Axe,” I quietly talked, “let’s just go.”

  He stayed an inch from Lucas’s face for a second, breathing heavily, then gripped my hand and led me out of the pizza parlor to the Mustang.

  Now I really couldn’t cut him off. He had saved me from Lucas more times than I could even count. At this point, I owed him.

  I sat in the passenger seat of the Mustang as Axel drove, blowing off his steam.

  “How did you know I was—”

  “Gianna told me,” he stated, not taking his eyes off the road.

  I gave a small nod, sitting in deafening silence for a moment before I got the courage to speak again.

  “Axe?”

  I could tell he was trying his hardest to drop his temper so that he didn’t take any of it out on me. “Yeah?”

  “Have you really been arrested?” It was a question that I had been wondering since Lucas originally mentioned it, but I didn’t have a good time to bring it up until now.

  He sighed. “Yeah.”

  I didn’t like being nosy towards him since I hated when people were nosy towards me, but I couldn’t resist. I needed to know why. “What happened?”

  Axe glanced at me with compassion in his eyes for a second, switching his attention back to the road. He shifted around in the driver’s seat, his grip on the wheel tightening and releasing in anxiousness. “There have just been a couple of times in the past where I got into arguments with some people and… just lost my temper for a second. But the charges have always gotten dropped.” His eyes peeked over at me again. “Tate, I don’t want you to be afraid of me. I’ve never, ever hit a woman and I never would.”

  “I’m not scared of you,” I delicately responded. But the truth was that I was scared of him, not physically, but emotionally. Every second he was around made my already reluctant feelings grow, and I was terrified of what the end would become. That was one of my worst habits. I always anticipated disaster.

  “Good, because I promise you have no reason to be scared of me. I wouldn’t ever lay a hand on you.” His hands gripped the wheel tightly, but his lips spoke softly.

  “I know.”

  “Good,” he repeated. His smirk appeared, along with his dimples. “I’m sorry I pulled you out of there before you could eat. You’re probably starving. Do you want me to stop and pick something up? Or if you want, you could come back to the apartment and I could make you something?”

  “Chocolate chip pancakes?”

  He revealed his perfect, pearly whites again. “You’ve got it.”

  A little while later, I picked at my fingernails as Axel flipped our pancakes. He peeked over at me every few minutes, but I kept my eyes on my nails, refusing to meet his gaze. Every time we locked eyes, butterflies swelled within me. He gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling and as nice as it was, I also hated it. Because it meant I had feelings, which was exactly what I didn’t want.

  “Can you flip these for a few minutes for me?” Axe asked.

  “Uh, sure,” I agreed, taking his place in front of the stove. I flipped away as Axe went over to the living room and turned on the tv, flipping through the channels until he found one that he liked.

  I bit my lip as I focused on the pancakes, jumping as I felt a hand graze mine. Axe’s hand rested on mine, guiding me as I flipped the next pancake. He stood so close that I could feel his chest against my back.

  “I can do it myself, you know,” I quietly said.

  “I know. Just figured I’d help you out.”

  I stood up taller, fidgeting a little from his touch. “How thoughtful,” I sarcastically said as I threw the final pancake onto a separate plate.

  Axe turned the stove off before tossing the pan into the sink. “You wanna watch a movie?”

  “Is that usually what you ask a girl before you make a move?”

  He chuckled, rinsing the pan off with cold water. “Tate, if I was just trying to sleep with you, I would’ve done it by now.”

  “I like how you’re so confident that I’d give into that.”

  His eyes scanned me, amused. “There you go again with that whole fake bitch thing.”

  “And?”

  “And you wanna know how I know it’s fake?”

  I sighed, rolling my eyes. “How?”

  He turned his back against the counter, leaning against it as he studied me. “Because if you really hated me, you wouldn’t hang out with me. And you most definitely wouldn’t have cared enough to calm me down earlier at the pizza parlor.”

  “Just because I don’t hate you doesn’t mean I wanna sleep with you.”

  “Didn’t say you did,” he smiled.

  “Glad we’re on the same page, then.”

  Axe tried to hold in laughter, but failed.

  “What?” I shot at him.

  “You’re cute when you’re defensive.”

  I looked down as my cheeks flushed, not wanting Axel to know how he truly made me feel.

  I laid in my bed after getting back from the apartment, drowning myself in thoughts about how pissed I still was at Claire. She knew that I didn’t like Lucas and the fact that she invited him to our dinner without asking for my permission didn’t just bother me, it infuriated me. The one and only thing she’s asked me to do with her in so long, she ruined. I had been excited to see her after she’d been up Jason’s ass for weeks on end, but now I didn’t want to see her at all. She hadn’t even bothered texting me since I left the pizza parlor, which only made me angrier.

  “Alright, what’s up? You’ve been silent since you’ve gotten back,” Penelope said from her desk.

  “I’m just… really fucking mad.”

  “Why? What happened?”

  I sat up in bed, sighing, “Claire asked me to get pizza with her earlier and invited Lucas without asking me and then Axel had to come to my rescue, once again.”

  “Lucas? Like, creepy Lucas? The one whose been hitting on you all year?”

  I nodded, pushing my lips together into a hard line.

  “Yikes, sounds like a nightmare.”

  There was a small knock on the door. As Penelope opened it to reveal Claire on the other side, her face twisted. “Oh… Claire,” Penelope awkwardly started, “hey.”

  “Hi,” she
said happily towards Penelope before dropping her smile into a frown at me. It was as if the tension in the air had taken a physical form, and all three of us felt it.

  “I’ll just go outside for a few minutes,” Penelope nervously walked out, leaving me to deal with the unnecessary wrath that I knew Claire was about to give me. She waited until Penelope was gone before she started.

  “What the hell, Tate! Axel? Really? Even after I specifically told you to stay away—”

  “I don’t give a shit right now what you told me, Claire! I really don’t!”

  “Well, you should, considering the fact that he’s a dick!”

  For some reason, her comment bothered me. A strange urge to defend Axe was swelling up inside of me.

  “You wanna know who’s a real dick?”

  She stifled a laugh as she gazed off. “Who?”

  “Lucas!”

  “Mhmm, okay, yeah, sure. And why the hell would you think that? He’s only ever been nice to you!”

  I raised my brows. “Yeah, that’s what you think. Little do you know his drunken ass showed up at ATA last weekend where he groped me against my will and Axel had to come to my rescue, once again!”

  “Oh, so now what? Axel is your knight in shining armor?”

  “Well, he keeps saving my ass from Lucas, so apparently, yeah! Me being friends with him has nothing to do with you, anyways. He’s been a better friend to me than you’ve been lately!” I yelled, still on top of my bed.

  She crossed her arms with a stunned look on her face. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that you’ve been with Jason every damn second of every damn day! Ditching Gi and I. Ignoring our texts. And now today, you invite him and Lucas to dinner with us after it being the first time you asked me to do anything with you in weeks? And even when you know that I do not fucking like Lucas at all?” I snapped. I wasn’t really the type to get super angry, but after bottling up my saltiness with Claire for a couple weeks now, I couldn’t help myself.