❝I don't care what they say about you, baby❞

❦

I had a feeling I'd see him again.

I have never seen him in the bar before, but I had a feeling he'll be back. Just an intuition.

And I was right.

It took him a week and a half to show up again. I'm at my usual spot and I doubt I'd even see him if he hadn't sat down next to me. It's not like I was waiting for him to come.

I eye him, but I don't give him my full attention just right away. I wait a few seconds before I speak because I see it won't be him who'll start a conversation. "My hero on a white horse. Who spiked my drink this time? Who are you getting thrown out today?"

His mouth lifts into a half-grin. I see Harper is already giving me warning glances. "I don't see any potential candidates right now. Have anyone you want out?"

I lift my eyebrow. "Yeah, you."

"Ouch, princess. You've been sharpening your claws, huh?" He shakes his head. He's amused.

Harper comes to us, stopping right in front of him and giving him a full-on glare. "Order or go away," she snaps. I have to squeeze my lips together so I don't burst out laughing. My cousin learned a few things from me, I see.

The guy looks at her in surprise. He looks her up and down and then his eyes are on me again for a few moments. He looks back at Harper, now serious as ever. "Jack, then. With extra ice."

Harper narrows her eyes first at him and then at me. He doesn't speak until the drink is in front of him. He pays for it immediately. I notice Harper looking at his tattooed hands as he gives her the money. "Keep the change," he says with a raspy, I'm-so-fucking-sexy-you-can't-resist-me voice.

I pretend to give my notebook my full attention.

"It seems like you know about me, but I know nothing about you."

I huff. "Don't flatter yourself, buddy. I don't even know your name." I don't look at him.

"I'm Fai," he says flatly.

"Cool. I didn't ask," I match his enthusiasm.

He's suddenly right beside me. And I mean right beside me. "I just wanted to let you know for later when you're going to moan it in pleasure."

I look up from the notebook, looking right ahead of me. Seriously? Seriously? Can anything else make a guy more unattractive? I turn to him, giving him my sweetest smile. I pat his knee with one hand, putting my other one on his cheek, leaning into him so my lips are close to his ear. "Fai, baby, assholes like you don't make me spread my legs for them."

I lean back, removing my hands from him. That doesn't shock him enough, apparently, because he gets brave, putting his hand high on my thigh. "I might be a bad guy, but I save the good for bed."

I slap his hand away from my thigh. "If you have to say that, you most certainly aren't good in bed. And you haven't even offered to buy me a drink first before trying to get me in bed." I shake my head. "Try better the next time. Maybe with someone else, too."

"Oh, wow." He seems stunned. "You're actually going to play hard to get today? Maybe I should've taken you up for your offer that time when you were all over my dick outside to take you home."

He stands up from the chair.

"You completely misinterpreted me and now you're mad at me for rejecting you. So I stand correct. Your ego is more fragile than glass."

He rolls his bottom lip into his mouth, playing with his lip ring for a second. He doesn't say anything. He stares at me for a few moments and I take a moment to admire his unusual eyes, before he turns on his heel and just walks away. I shake my head to myself. What a disappointment.

Harper suddenly appears in front of me, slapping her hands hard down on the counter. I give her a boring look. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What the hell isn't, Harp?"

She just rolls her eyes at me. "Your self-destructive behaviour isn't something to be proud of. If you need to talk to a specialist, just say so. Please, Kadie, don't do stupid things just because you think they'll make you look cool. You worry everyone."

"No, Harper, I worry you. No one else gives a shit about what I do." I slam the notebook shut and stand up. "I need five minutes out in the fresh air. I won't go anywhere and I won't do anything, don't worry."

I know she's worried about me, but I'm such a bitter person when it comes to that. I'm not used to people expressing their feelings around me, especially when it comes to me. I've always been good on my own, but Harper is desperately trying to change that for me.

I've been into a few situations where I had to defend myself. I know how to do that. I'm literally not afraid of anyone because no one can hurt me more than I've already been hurt. They can't even come close. And I know that if I was able to survive that and get out of that mess, I can get through anything.

I take in some fresh air, walking on the abandoned, all too familiar street. This street would've been probably creepy to any other person. It creeps the hell out of Harper, especially at night. There's not a single person around. And that's precisely why I like it so much.

It's not that long and I usually take this route when I need to calm down before I come onto more busy streets where there are all kinds of people walking past me now. To be honest, this creeps me out more than walking on the lonely street. You never know who passes you on the street.

When I turn into a little less busy street to go back to the bar, I hear the sound of motorcycles behind me. I sigh to myself. I hope it's not who I think it is. I mean; what are the chances?

There are five of them, flying past me as fast as they can, it seems. I put the jacket tighter around me when the strong wind hits me, caused by them. Four of them continue forward, while one of them stops. That causes the other four to stop as well.

The one who stopped first turns around and slowly starts riding towards me.

I look up into the dark sky, annoyed. "Why the hell can't I just live in peace for ten fucking minutes without someone disturbing me?" I mutter to no one particular.

"Going somewhere?" Fai asks.

I look at him like he has twelve heads. Yes, twelve. "Yeah, preferably somewhere where there are not assholes around. Full offence."

Fai chuckles. "Wouldn't expect anything else from you, Kadience Myers."

My eyebrows rise on their own. "Wow, really? I didn't know you were so interested in me that you went and asked about me around. Sweetheart! You could just ask me instead."

"I did, but you're not willing to give answers. But other people are." He makes it sound like a threat. But I'm a long way away from getting scared of threats. I classify them as empty promises.

"Then I won't stop you from finding out about my business from them." I shrug and walk forward. I don't like people disturbing my time. This is the time I like to take to myself to just calm down and breathe some fresh air. I don't know why some people just want to pollute it.

Fai has the nerve to turn his motorcycle off and step off it, walking after me. I sharply turn around because I already sense what he's going to do, and that is confirmed when I see his stretched arm, waiting for his hand to grab me. "Touch me and I'm going to break your fingers one by one."

His head tilts to the side. "The fuck's your problem?"

I let out a sarcastic laugh. "Boy, I've got a lot of problems, but you're not my psychotherapist so you're not hearing about not even one of them." I give him a wink. "Look, babe, I think you mistook me trying to be nice and make a conversation for something that's not and I'm sorry to let you down, but I'm really not interested in you. Or any of you. You just don't do it for me, you know?" I scrunch my nose up at him, giving him a fake cute smile.

Fai gives me a half-smirk. The street light is illuminating his face so I can see his expressions clearly. "Princess, I'm not here to ask you out, alright?" He chuckles, shaking his head.

"Then what the hell do you want?" I become serious now.

"Your cousin – Harper, right?"

I instantly straighten up, my eyes narrowing. "What about her?" I ask him in a tone that says he should be careful at how he proceeds.

"I heard she's been asking around about me. And – now, I usually don't mind when hotties like her do it, but she's doing it for all the wrong reasons. She's looking for trouble and she may not even know it, you know?"

I step closer to him. "It's one thing threatening me, but threatening her?" I shake my head. "I don't think so. Stay the hell away from her. Do you hear me?" I'm so angry right now. I feel the temperature in my body rising by just the thought of anything happening to Harper because of him. And partly because of me because I can't keep my mouth in check.

"I wasn't talking about me, tigress. But she might stumble upon people who aren't exactly my friends and they might get a wrong inside idea in their heads. Do you get me now?"

"No worries, Fai. We're not interested enough to ask about you anymore. You're good if you were scared that we would find anything bad."

Fai laughs, closing his eyes. "Princess. I'm not even trying to hide my bad from anyone."

"Mmm. I can see that," I say, forcing a smile again.

Fai flicks my nose with his pointer. "You're hot, too."

I want to roll my eyes so hard they'd fall out. He's so cringe-y that it's hard to believe these lines would work on any girl. Or maybe he's just picking the dumb ones; the ones more like him. "Yeah, boo, I know."

Fai's eyebrows raise. "O-kay then?" he says, unsure of what to say further.

I lick my lips. "Look, Fai, sweetheart. I know how I look. I see myself in the mirror every day. The thing about looks is - I can't change it. That's genes; I got it from my parents and that's it. But when you're able to look inside me and tell me I'm pretty – then we're going to talk." I'm not trying to sound full of myself. I'm far from that. But my looks isn't something I'm proud of and I don't accept compliments about it. That's just about it. I'm tired of hearing things about my appearance. "This is just a heads up if you ever mature enough to realise that hot isn't the thing that's going to be there for you through life. You know what I'm saying?" I sugar-coat my voice.

I think I made him speechless because he really doesn't know what to say back. Mission accomplished. I salute him in farewell. "Take care, buddy." I manage to successfully walk away this time.

I still have a few minutes to calm down before I reach the bar. This guy really is something else. I've dealt with men like him. Worse than him, actually. And if he thinks he's scaring me with his wanna-be dangerous vibe he's trying to give off, he's wrong. Dangerous people don't have to try hard to be dangerous. Dangerous people don't show they're dangerous. You won't know how dangerous they are until you let them get close to you, see your vulnerable side and then strike.

This is the real danger. The emotional one. The threats of physically hurting me don't really phase me. I experienced that. The bruises and scars on my body healed. But it's the mind that really needed a band-aid. And no one offers you help with that.

When I sit in my usual place in the bar, Harper rushes towards me. "I'm getting really tired of you worrying me!"

"I don't worry you, you worry yourself because of me. I'm fine. But, Harp, this time it's actually you I'm starting to get worried about."

Harper pauses for a second. She looks confused and then a little scared. "Why?" She knows I don't worry about a lot of things. I hardly ever worry about anything.

"You need to stop asking around about that guy. People will start to notice and you'll get yourself into a mess. You already figured he's dangerous. Let it rest."

"Did he threaten you?"

Smart girl.

"Not me, you. He knows you've been snooping around. And I swear to God, Harp, I don't want to know any information about him anymore. You don't have to worry, I won't associate myself with him."

I see fear settling into Harper. Good. This will really make her reconsider. I want her to be scared. Because if she is, then she'll be more careful. And I want her to be more careful.

"That guy is really messed up," she tells me. As if I didn't know.

"We all are, Harp. We all are." Well, maybe not as much as him, but we're all on different levels. 

*

Okay, so I posted this story on radish as well and all the new chapters are posted there first and a few days later, I update on wattpad. It's completely free, just in case you're not keen on waiting longer. 

Anyways, I hope you enjoy it so far :D