Perfect Opposite (6 page)

Reaching my bedroom, I quickly turned the key in the door behind me just a second before he
got to it and brought the palm of his hand down with a thud. Backing away, I eventually felt the edge of the bed behind my legs and collapsed in a heap.

You idiot, who knows how many people he’s killed just for looking at him the wrong way, and here you’ve just bitten the guy.

“Tomorrow morning, Princess...” I heard Alex’s voice from the other side of the door, “...we’re going straight to the pet store to buy you a nice muzzle.”

“Hah!
Very funny!”

“We'll choose a pink one. It’ll match your outfit.”

“Get lost!” I took a pillow from the bed and launched it at the door with all my strength.

Given the way things were going, I decided it was best to stay locked in my room, so I stretched out and reached over for my laptop. I started going over the
some essay that was due the next week, when the sound of Beth giggling came through from the living room. For a while I tried in vain to concentrate, but then I squeezed the laptop shut, changed into an old shirt of Tyler’s and went to sleep on an empty stomach.

Chapter
3 - An Important Lesson

The alarm had been ringing for a full five minutes when I finally reached out a hand, felt around for the phone and tossed it across the bed. It was time to face another day in hell.

Sliding out from under the quilt, I dragged myself to the bathroom, turned on the shower and stepped in. Slowly turning the faucet from hot over to cold and letting the water flow over me, I felt myself growing more alert.

Oh, it would be so good to imagine all my problems somehow disappearing with the water.

Riding this wave of optimism
, I remembered that once there would have been three goons following me, but now there was only Alex.

I mean, how much mess could one
person actually make? I’ll just pretend that he’s not even there. He’ll be gone soon, anyway.

Lifted by these positive thoughts on leaving the bathroom and heading down the hall, I’ve almost convinced myself that things might soon go back to normal. That bubble burst the second I entered the kitchen.

Reality hit me in form of a huge tattooed guy dressed only in baggy cargo pants, kicking back in my home, drinking my coffee and, it seemed from his face, planning new ways of disrupting my life. Looking like he’d really made himself at home, Alex was sitting at the kitchen table, flicking through a newspaper. Though the room was actually pretty big, he seemed to fill it, and the once familiar space felt suddenly cramped and hostile. It was obvious he’d heard me enter when he turned his cold gray eyes in my direction.

It seemed so strange that someone could make you want to hot tail it and run just by glancing over, while at the same time part of you felt like jumping right into his lap. That was really annoying feeling.

Maybe you should stop staring at his chest, like you’ve never seen shirtless man before!

I
quickly looked over at a box of cereal on the counter, but then only shook my head and poured some milk into a glass. Even though I’d felt like I could eat a horse a few minutes earlier, my appetite was suddenly gone.

“Is that what you call breakfast?”

”You have a problem with that?” I turned and found Alex studying me over the top of his newspaper

“You can’t just have milk for breakfast. Make a sandwich or eat some fruit.”

“And when did I hire you as my nutritionist?”

Hands on hips, I lowered my eyebrows and gave him a seriously dark look. Ignoring the sarcasm in my voice, he only shrugged and went back to reading the news.

“You're not getting out of here till you eat some real food.”

“Really?
Just watch me.”

I brought the
glass down on the counter with a bang and turned to leave, but Alex was too fast and in two strides he filled the doorway, barring my way with both hands on the frame.

“Get out of my way or you'll regret it
.” I hissed, remotely aware of how dumb it must sound.

When he only shook his head and gestured with his eyes towards the table, I made an angry grab for one of his arms and pulled with all my strength. It w
as no good, of course. Alex only stood there, towering over me as usual.

“
Back off!”

“
No.”

“I can’t believe this.
”

I took a step back, let out a cry and grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl on the counter.

“Satisfied?” I started waving the banana under his nose

Saying
nothing, Alex just nodded once, returned to his chair and continued reading his paper. It was as though nothing had happened.

“Control freak
!” I shouted in his direction and marched off to my room.

Muttering under
my breath, I picked up the books that lay strewn across the floor and stuffed them into the bag. I didn’t lose much time in quickly making up my face, tying back my hair and putting some silver hoops in my ears. Still in the process of fastening the left one, I stormed back out of the bedroom.

“You ready?” Alex asked me when I walked into the hall.

Although he’d managed to get fully dressed this time, he obviously hadn’t seen fit to find anything decent to wear. Despite what lay in store, he’d just put on a black t-shirt with the name of some band printed on the back. I thought he’d have at least covered up his tattoos, but no, and I really hoped that they won’t let him in the university building in that outfit.

“That’s interesting...” he muttered and leaned toward me.

Reaching out, he took the heavy silver pendant hanging around my neck in his hand and started studying its engravings from different angles.

“Don’t touch that!
”

Frowning at him with menace, I quickly snatched it from his hand and tucked it under my
shirt. The pendant was the last gift my mother had given to me, and I was never without it, except when I slept, and then it was on my bedside table.

Sighing, Alex picke
d his keys up from the dresser and left the apartment in silence, apparently expecting me to follow.

Coming out of the dark building, bright sunlight hurt my eyes and I had to lift one hand to shield them. It took a few moments to adjust to the light, but when I did I could only stand there, stunned.

“You
gotta be kidding me...”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked
, kicking the stand up on a big black motorcycle parked close by.

“You don’t think we’re going on that?”

“That’s exactly what I had in mind. Why? Are you scared, maybe?”

I sized up the huge machine and decided it didn’t look safe at all. Was I scared? No, I was terrified
.

“
Don’t be ridiculous.” I smirked, feeling a lump forming in my throat.

Stubborn to the last, I cautiously climbed behind him and started looking around for something to hold on to, but there seemed to be nothing.

“Here...” Alex grabbed my wrists, drew my arms around his waist and without any warning, started the engine.

Frightened of the noise and the jolt that
came, I grabbed his waist and cursed under my breath, squeezing with all my might. As he accelerated my stomach seemed to flip over, so I shut my eyes tight and felt the air rush past my head, trying to imagine being someplace else. With my head resting against Alex’s back, somewhere between his shoulder blades, and my thighs pressed firmly against his, the feelings I experienced were a world away from the disgust I wanted to feel.

The bike slowed and came to a stop, but I was still too afraid to open my eyes. When I finally did, I found we’d arrived in the parking lot. Jumping off the back like a scorched cat, I moved away from the damn thing and nervously brought my hands to the task of restoring order to my now chaotic hair.

“
The bloody Academy of Art University.” I heard Alex’s voice “Oh, I’ll kill him!”

Looking up, I saw him leaning forward slightly in his seat, one arm resting on the tank, watching me curiously.

“What?”

The corners of his lips seemed to curl up slightly, forming an amused expression, but not a smile as such. Interesting... at that moment he looked almost human to me.
Almost.

“Nothing... you just r
eminded me of a plucked chicken.”

Shocked by his statement and outraged by how hurt I felt by it, I turned around without a word an
d made a dash for the entrance.

Striding through the halls, I didn’t need to turn around to see if Alex was following; the expressions on the faces of the girls passing by told their own story. Wondering what was wrong with the floozies who fell so fast for tattooed bad boy types, I entered the lecture hall and purposefully moved back towards the last row of seats, where only one was empty. I put my bag down with a smack on the tiny desk in front of me and sat down heavily.

Entering the hall, Alex glanced over the heads of other students down at the front, until he caught sight of me and moved towards an empty seat in the third row. The professor walked in soon afterwards and began his lecture, ignoring those students who continued to whisper amongst themselves.

I made an effort to concentrate and make some notes about Roman architecture, but my eyes continually wandered in Alex’s direction. He was leaning back in his chair, one leg bent at the knee, looking totally bored all while the girl to his right was whispering something in his ear, twisting one of her curls between her fingers. Disgusted by this movie cliché, I rolled my eyes and went back to my notes, forcing myself not to look again until the lecture was over. I was probably the only female in the room who wasn’t staring wide eyed in his direction, drooling.

As soon as the professor left the room, I grabbed my books and was one of the first to get out into the hallway, hoping that if I was fast enough I might somehow escape my nemesis. I didn’t rate my chances highly, though.

“Sasha!" I heard someone calling my name and felt the twist in my gut.

Oh shit! Why today?

Resigning myself quickly to the situation, I turned around slowly.

With the seductive smile that was almost his trademark, Tyler pushed away from the wall he was leaning against and started towards me. It wasn’t really any wonder that I’d fallen for him. Looking like an improved version of Channing Tatum, all sky blue eyes and innocent lips, any girl he looked at just had to melt on the spot. The white shirt he was wearing brought out his broad shoulders, and in a pair of dark jeans he looked even better than ever. I wished the ground would just swallow me up.

“You don’t answer my calls. Why, honey?”

“Why do you think?” I
asked, wishing my voice weren’t starting to tremble.

It was too much to bear, seeing his perfect face and the blue eyes I’d once dreamed about, so I pretended to look for something in my bag and directed my attention there.

“Come on, don’t be like that. I made a mistake, I admit that. I wanted to explain everything, but you’ve been avoiding me all week.”

“I don’t need your explanations, Ty. Everything’s totally clear.” I bit back and was turning to leave when he grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him.

“Don’t turn your back like that.” he whispered and stroked my cheek. “You know she’s not the one I care about. It was just a… weak moment, that's all. We shouldn’t let one stupid mistake ruin what we had. Can’t we just try to forget everything and start over?”

I looked at him with shining eyes, appalled that he could even suggest it.

“Go to hell.” I leveled at him as coolly as I could manage and tried to wrench my arm free, but he wasn’t letting go.

“Sweetie...”

“Let go of my arm. Right now!”

“
Oh, come on Sasha. I know you still care about me and...”

“Y
ou'd better listen to her.” a deep, gravelly voice came from behind me.

The bustling hall, which had ec
hoed with noise a moment before, fell silent in an instant and I was sure that if a fly batted its wings, everyone would hear it. The fingers gripping my arm relented a little, so I twisted free, took a step back and felt Alex move his arm around my waist protectively.

“Who the hell are you? What makes you think you can butt in here? We’re talking
.” Tyler snapped at Alex.

People had stopp
ed by the walls of the corridor and some were whispering excitedly, clearly expecting some action. When Alex didn’t bother to answer and just went on staring at him ferociously, Tyler turned his stunned face to me.

“
What’s going on? I didn’t know you’d started hanging around with this kind.” he scanned Alex up and down, a sour, surprised look on his face.

“Get lost
pretty boy, or I'll mop the floor up with you.”