Even In Pieces [Bxb] Chapter 16

Everett

“What’s that sound?” Zachary asks, confused.

“Jesus Christ. This is the best day of my life!” Vio says. She looks over her shoulder at Zachary with a huge smile and that is the reason why I wanted to bring her here.

“Well okay. Now can you tell me what that was?” Zachary sighs.

“I am gonna go ahead,” Vio rolls her eyes at Zachary before running off.

Zachary turns to me. He raises an eyebrow in question. I just shrug at him knowing that he is going to get agitated by that. “C’mon, you’ll know soon enough.”

We both walk towards the noise. The moment we reach and everything comes into view, I snap my attention towards Zachary. He stops moving, his lips part and for a moment I am not sure if he is breathing. He slowly turns to face me.

“Vio loves cars, she told me how she wants to do automotive designing. She loves the working of it and is obsessed with them. So when I heard about a car show happening here, the first thing I thought was that she would love it and hey, I got to bring you here too, didn’t I?” I shrug at him. He is still looking at me like he got amnesia and forgot who or where he was. This is not helping me with my nerves at all, I almost want to turn away from him. Turns out I don’t have to, since he turns away first. Guess he didn’t like my idea after all. Shit, my chest hurts.

He looks at me again, clearing his throat. “Thank you. I-” he comes closer “It means a lot. Mother doesn’t like Vio’s obsession with cars or her dreams, so it means a lot to her. Thank you.”

My head spins and I feel like I took an excessive amount of oxytocin. I look at Zachary, he is absolutely sincere and smiling. That vulnerable smile I have only gotten glimpses of. I want to feel that against my lips. “What about you? Do you like it?”

Just as I ask that a Ford Bronco speeds past us and people around us scream. Zachary looks around, taking in the scene. The cars lining one after the other with all of their lights on, giving the night brightness. A Tesla model S is starting to get ready to speed past the road across us.

“I don’t think anybody will hate this,” he grins at me. Typical Zachary. Never going to admit that he likes something to me. If that’s how he wants to play it, I guess I can go with it for today.

“Just admit it. You love it.”

He shrugs and gives me a smirk. I feel my blood rushing to my heart. All I want right this moment is to grip him by the back of his back and kiss that frustrating smirk away, but I am not going to do that. It would be too easy, I want him to be the one doing it this time. I want him to admit he wants it too.

Crushing my hope, he pulls away and as though he knows what was going in my mind, he smirks wider at me. Just as I am about to scowl at him, something cold press against my neck and I jump to look over my shoulder. Vio holds up a coke towards me with a grin. I narrow my eyes at her and grab the coke out of her hands. She hands another one over to Zachary, keeping one for herself.

We stare at the different cars doing all kinds of stunts around us. When something amazing happens, the crowd screams, and we scream with them. Soon enough we were completely crazy, jumping up and buying more stuff to eat. All three of us even let a lady paint on our cheek.

Even through all this, I constantly find myself looking at Zachary without even realizing it. More importantly, every time I looked I saw him looking back. It reminds me that law, that two oppositely-charged objects will attract each other. Jesus. Am I getting drunk on coke?

The time gets close to midnight and that’s when we decide that we need to drop Vio off at her house. She protests by saying that the show is not yet over, but Zachary firmly tells her that she is not staying till the end because it only ends at two in the morning.

“How about I buy you another coke, and then we head out?” I ask her.

She looks around longingly for a minute before finally giving in and nodding. I give her a sympathetic smile and head off to buy a coke for her.

Zachary

I watch as he walks off. Then I turn to look at Vio who is staring at me, trying to study me. I raise my eyebrows at her.

She grins at me. The red paint on the side of her face is a bit smudged, making her whole cheek look bloody. “Don’t mess it up.”

I stare at her when I don’t understand what she just said. So she keeps going, “Whatever is happening between you and Everett. Don’t mess it up.”

I blink at her, startled. “There’s nothing happening between us,” that sounds like a lie even to me. There’s definitely a great deal of physical attraction happening, but I just don’t want to acknowledge it. Not with Everett.

Vio crosses her arms against her chest, holding me in her excruciating gaze. “Jesus, Zach. You have no problem sleeping around with people who mean nothing to you but when you start to feel something you just back off and close down. Stop doing that.”

God, she knows me too well. I know that that is exactly what I am doing. Also, she is absolutely right when she subtly saying that I feel something for Everett. It’s terrifying.

“It’s not like that,” I sigh, “I really don’t want to involve anyone with my shit, Vio.”

Her eyes soften. “Don’t you think you should let them decide that because last time I checked you can’t make decisions for others. Especially because you are someone who shouldn’t even be trusted to make a decision for yourself.”

She smirks at me. Vio might be young, but sometimes I feel like she is older than her age. It’s frustrating. “Thank you, that helps.”

She rolls her eyes and opens her mouth to say something but stops. I look back to see that Everett is coming back with a coke in his hand. He hands it to Vio who immediately starts drinking it. We head off to where his car is parked, then drive off to drop Vio at her house. Mid-way to the place, Vio falls asleep.

“I am fucking exhausted but all that coke is making me restless,” Everett complains.

“Don’t you have morning practice tomorrow?” I ask.

“Nah, just after classes.”

I nod at him. We finally reach her place, I wake her up, and she goes inside, tiptoeing so that she doesn’t wake anybody up.

Without Vio’s presence in the car, it starts to feel smaller. Like there isn’t enough space between Everett and me.

“You know I am not going to force you to admit to anything right?” Everett breaks the silence. I don’t have to ask to know what he is referring to. Looking towards his hands on the gear, and then into his eyes, I begin to feel flipped out.

“Son of a bitch. You just want to make this difficult for me, don’t you?” I scoff.

“And you think it’s easy for me? Fucking annoying. Most of the time, all I want to do is put you under a truck but then suddenly I can’t stop thinking about having my hands under your shirt, tracing and tasting your skin. What it feels like to have your hands on me or your body pressed against me. You are the most infuriating piece of shit I have ever met.” he grits out.

He genuinely looks so distressed and exasperated while saying it that I can’t help but burst out laughing. My body though, definitely loves everything he said. He glares at me. I stop laughing, only to notice that we aren’t driving anymore. We are already near the dorms and the car is parked in the parking lot. I open the door and get out, Everett follows. I walk over towards Everett who is looking at me intently.

“You’re the one who wants it,” I tell him.

He smirks then. “We both know that’s a lie, and if you still aren’t going to admit it then I swear to God, I will drag you to your room to pin you against a wall till you admit it,”

Every cell in me feels like it got injected with drugs; I close the distance between us so fast, I don’t have the time to think about what I am going to do. I press his body against the car, locking him against it. My lips meet his in a ravenous kiss, destroying both of our senses completely.

It became just him and me. And if we are anything then that anything is wild.

He moves one of his hands behind my neck and the kiss becomes deeper, we press against each other more firmly. It feels like we are floating in a void where we have to kiss to stay alive instead of breathing. Every thought eradicates except for one. More.

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