Chapter 16
*****
*Corey’s POV*
“I miss you so much, Baby.”
“Yeah? Well, hold on for a few more days. I’ll see you when we get back.” I smiled, trying to ignore the argument happening in my head.
The call with Samantha had lasted about five minutes so far, it was dragging out and everyone could hear it because we were all in the kitchen. I liked her, but I wasn’t in the mood to talk to her at the moment.
“I love you.”
My brows creased. I only met her a few months ago and had not even seen her much since. Oh, well. What did it matter? Soon she would be my chosen mate. I didn’t really care to find another after the whole Jayden fiasco. I was just going to be glad to be rid of my increasingly ridiculous connection to him.
“You too, Hon,” I hung up.
“‘You too, Hon’.” Sean gave me a disgusted glance. “You shame us all! You are indeed no longer worthy of Playerhood.”
I scrunched my nose at that. Playerhood? What the hell was that?
“Playerhood?” Hayley frowned.
“So, you’re a player now?” I smirked as Sean’s smile dropped when Izabella spoke.
“No, no, no. I love you,” he said quickly, his eyes wide.
“So weak.” Trent shook his head. “Thou art a shame to Playerhood as well!” He pointed at Sean, making us laugh.
“Where’s Jay?” Hayley asked.
“Probably sleeping,” Kaden said.
“Or trying to pull on his skinny jeans.” I frowned at my breakfast, pushing away the memory that so desperately wanted to force itself into my mind every time I even caught a whiff of his scent or heard his name. Being able to fight off the recollection did not equate to calming my body as just the mention of him made a warmth swell into my chest.
“Nah, I doubt he has any trouble getting into those,” Trent chuckled.
I rolled my eyes.
It was probably true though, because Jayden was skinny, tiny… cute and handsome.
I groaned, lifting my fingers to my temples. What the fuck?! Every thought that came to my mind about him now ended in shit. Why couldn’t I stop thinking about him?!
“Are you okay?” Hayley asked me.
Oh, I had groaned out loud.
“Yeah, I… I’m clearing my throat.” I cleared my throat to add to it.
She narrowed her eyes before shrugging and returning to breakfast as if to her, it was normal behaviour coming from me. I felt offended.
“How are you still with Samantha? Haven’t you made out with like a dozen women since we left?” Kaden asked me, his face showing he was truly sickened as he thought about it.
“It’s an open relationship,” I smirked, taking a bite of my toast.
It wasn’t officially open, but I assumed she would know. We had never decided it wasn’t. Perhaps after we mated, I would stop making out with other women. Or we could decide to keep things as is.
“Very open indeed.” Trent nodded.
I chuckled.
“Jay! Morning!” Izabella sounded like she was so glad to see him, I was annoyed they liked him so much.
That was my cue.
“Anyone want anything from the store?” I asked, getting up.
“Yeah, food,” Trent replied.
“We have food,” Hayley said.
Sean snorted and she glared at him.
“I’ll come with you,” Izabella said. “Jay, you wanna come?” she asked him.
“I’m pretty sure he’s fine staying here,” I answered for Jayden without looking over at him.
It was my way of telling them to shut up about him and telling him to forget about whatever the fuck had happened the previous evening within my moment of complete madness.
I felt an ache in my chest that made me clench my fist around the spoon in my hand as I fought not to look over at him.
“Uh… Yeah. I-I’m good,” Jayden said, his voice soft.
I washed the bowl and spoon before walking by him, still not even glancing at him and I could practically feel Izabella’s annoyance as she followed me.
I swung the front door open but paused when I almost walked into someone.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I asked.
He let his hand fall to his side, having lifted it to knock before I had opened the door, and looked up at me confused. He had very bright, almost white eyes which his straight black hair emphasised very well. Was that striking feature what caught Jayden’s attention? I wanted to punch him…
“Uh… Good morning. I’m… Uh… Here for Jayden…” he said slowly, cautiously studying my movements as if he thought I was about to attack him. He had good intuition. Of course, since he was human, his intuition meant absolutely nothing against me.
“Jayden died,” I spat.
“Corey!” Izabella shoved me aside. “Sorry, he’s not usually like this,” she mumbled, glaring at me.
I frowned, glancing away from her.
“Oh, it’s alright. I get it. You’re his ex?”
I wanted so badly to punch the smirk off his damn face when he asked me that, but knew it would probably result in his death because of my strength, so I held back.
“No, I don’t do men. I’m not one of you weirdos.” I immediately regretted speaking and bit my tongue.
I despised him so much. I hated that he was clearly into Jayden, hated even more that my mate liked him back. I despised that I even cared because the stupid mate bond made me. I wasn’t attracted to men. The emotions Jayden made me feel were not my own.
The boy looked taken aback as Izabella’s jaw dropped, her face of utter disbelief making me feel ashamed of myself. I immediately convinced myself all of it was Jayden’s fault. I wouldn’t be lashing out if it wasn’t for him.
“Corey!” Hayley snapped, outraged.Â
Continuing to go against my better judgement, I ignored her.
“Your lover’s in the kitchen. Wear protection; wouldn’t want either of you getting pregnant,” I said, shoving by the guy that was currently too shocked to speak.
I felt Jayden’s anger and hurt and almost hesitated. The negative emotions from him made it hard to inhale as my chest tightened.
“Uh… I’ll come with,” Trent followed Izabella, Hayley and me out.
I glanced back, but regretted seeing Jayden’s face as he shut the door.
He was staring directly at me; the boy having already entered the house. By the pained look in his eyes, I knew he was thinking about the kiss.
‘It was a mistake. One fucked up mistake,’ I linked him hoping to solidify what he probably already knew.
Still, as I said it, I found my brain finally replaying the moment in my head.Â
A part of me wanted so badly to shoot myself with life-ending platinum bullets just to silence my head. So badly.Â
The other part wanted to return to that moment. Especially now, because there was no hurt last night. It had been the first time in a while that things seemed natural; I felt at ease and felt that from him too. It wasn’t real though. It was forced.
I shut my eyes and sighed as I walked beside Trent while running my hands through my hair. We were quiet for a while, but through the silence I could feel his judgement.
“Why come if you’re just going to fucking judge me?” I hissed eventually.
“I didn’t say anything,” Trent replied.
I glared at him. He didn’t have to.
“You’re just feeling guilty because you know that was fucking rude,” Trent said before he sighed. “Now everyone’s angry at you… again.” He motioned to the two girls who were just a few feet from us.
I knew they were linking because they were moving their hands and looking at each other while they walked without saying a word. They were talking about me.
Trent stopped walking as he caught hold of my arm and I held back the instinct to rip out of his grip as I stopped beside him.
“You know we all came along to make sure you didn’t go overboard, hoping somewhere along the line you would reach your senses as you dive toward this decision you’ll undoubtedly regret. I know this is hard for you; he isn’t what you expected. I’m cool with you going through with this: it’s your decision, albeit stupid.
“But you’re making it hard for any of us to stand or even respect you right now, Corey. There’s only so much leeway we can give you… It’s becoming tiring, and hard to justify being around you. This… isn’t the person I met last year, and I’m sure it’s not who they consider their best friend either.”
Trent let go of my arm as the girls stopped walking to look back at us.
I felt a knot in my throat as they stared at me while he caught up to them before they all began walking again, leaving me standing there on my own.
I bit the inside of my cheek watching them. He didn’t understand. No one understood. I wasn’t gay. I wasn’t going to be the gay Beta from Galaxy. I did not want to be with Jayden no matter what I already felt.
Ever since I met him, everything just turned to shit. Now even my friends were against me.
It was all his fault.
Why was this happening to me?
—–
*Jayden’s POV*
“You should probably get that,” Sean said.
“Get what?” Finn asked.
Sean and Kaden kept forgetting that Finn was human and couldn’t hear all the way through the house to notice my phone vibrate on the bed upstairs.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, getting up from the couch and running to my room, which I shared with Kaden.
I shut the door to prevent any more eavesdropping before grabbing my phone from under the pillow.
“Hello?” I answered it without glancing at the screen.
“Jay Jay.”
My breath caught as my body went rigid, my blood running cold.
They didn’t say anything else even though I did not respond.
I tried to shake it off, convince myself I didn’t know who was calling. I couldn’t have been sure, right? Maybe I had heard the voice wrong. The nickname though…
“Who-who is this?” I barely whispered.
“You know exactly who it is, Jayden. I’m not angry anymore… I’ll come see you. Soon. Both of you. I promise I will, very soon and then we’ll catch up… Like old times.” A chuckle sounded into my ear before the call ended but his voice still rang in my mind.
I couldn’t move, my blood felt like ice cutting through my veins and I couldn’t even breathe. That couldn’t be him. I had to be dreaming.
*****
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