"Since when...did Alyssa Marie Dalton ever wear makeup?" I quizzed loudly, making my best friend jolt to an abrupt stop. I raised an eyebrow at her.

This was bad. Very bad.

Her large doe eyes were surrounded by a border of long thick eyelashes lengthened by mascara so they stood out even more against her pasty complexion, perfected by a flawless sheet of concealer and foundation, her lips were lightly coated in rose tinted lip gloss and her hair fell over her shoulders in immaculate curls. She was almost unrecognisable compared to the usual wild carefree Alyssa. A false Alyssa.

The shy grin plastered on her face was all I needed as an answer - her extra effort was for none other than the tall, sickeningly smug male now strolling up behind her.

I didn't like it.

Alyssa always changed when she was around him.

He was living poison.

Josh snaked an arm around her waist as he flashed me an eerie smile that didn't reach his murky blue eyes half covered by black curls and I visibly grimaced, causing Alyssa to give me a cautioning look. I took a slow deep breath to keep myself civil. That man whore always brought out the worst in me and boy did he know it.

"I wanted a change." Alyssa responded casually...too casual.

I wasn't buying any of it.

I resisted the urge to voice my thoughts and instead pushed myself to smile. "You look lovely." I complimented her.

"It's nice to see a girl who makes the effort." Josh grinned at me, a sly glint in his eye before kissing Alyssa lightly. I ignored his obvious dig at me but my blood practically bubbled beneath my skin as I watched them together. Pink tinted Alyssa's cheeks, clearly embarrassed by the public show of affection and she cleared her throat, and gestured to Noah, who was staring at Josh expectantly.

"This is my boyfriend Josh." she introduced proudly, causing Josh to shoot me a haughty grin and I tensed up as I struggled not to punch him. "And this is Noah, he works with Lou."

"Hey." Noah smiled warmly, but his ash coloured eyes were cool and distant, informing me that I wasn't the only one who knew how much of a slimy creep Josh really was.

"Hi." Josh acknowledged him before turning on Alyssa. "Are we still going to your house?"

I frowned.

"I thought we were going to the cinema?" I questioned, my eyes flickering between Alyssa and Josh warily.

Josh looked at me distastefully, like I'd just announced I had eaten vomit for breakfast.

"No." he stated slowly, his voice low and firm, almost threatening. "It's too expensive, we can just hang out at Lyssa's."

I glanced at Alyssa, who was stood beside Josh in silence. As always, she wasn't going to say anything. Before I could even say anything to do with how much of a control freak he was, Noah spoke up.

"You're probably right. I'll drive, if you want?" he offered lightly, his tanned features beaming warmly, contradicting the coldness of his eyes.

Josh grinned, obviously pleased he'd gotten his own way, despite my obvious objection, and nodded. "Yeah, that's great, thanks."

"No problem." Noah smiled, glancing at me. I forced myself to mirror his expression and we all made our way to his car.

We weren't even two steps towards it before Alyssa yanked my arm back, making Josh turn around with a frown but she waved her hand at him to continue walking on with Noah. I sighed, knowing what she was going to say.

"Do you really have to make it so obvious?" she asked, her tone clipped with irritation.

"I can't just act like I like him." I answered honestly, pulling my arm away abruptly.

"I know you don't like him, but I do and I really don't want my boyfriend and my best friend at each other's throats constantly." she told me sadly, looking defeated.

"Shotgun!" Noah suddenly yelled excitedly, interrupting our serious conversation before pausing and swivelling around with a perplexed expression. "...wait, I forgot I automatically get shotgun, I'm driving."

I raised an eyebrow and he gave me a goofy grin before climbing in the car.

Josh slid into the back like the slippery creep that he is and Alyssa whispered into my ear cheekily as she popped the car door open. "Noah really likes you, doesn't he?"

I choked on air, causing a horrible strangled noise to erupt from my throat.

"No!" I croaked.

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Of course he does." she flipped off my denial, before wiggling her eyebrows as she and I got into the car. "I told you we had ourselves a love triangle!"

Josh stared at her, his chilling eyes glazing over gravely. "Who has a love triangle?"

"Lou, who else?" she laughed but stopped as soon as I looked at her. Discretion was never one of Alyssa's strong points.

"Oh." Josh noticeably relaxed, hugging her close to him. Control freak.

Noah turned in his seat, his warm grey eyes fixed on mine for a few seconds before they switched to Alyssa. "You'll have to give me directions to your house, because I have no idea where you live." he chuckled.

"Okay!" Alyssa beamed as he pulled out onto the road. "Turn right here!"

I had never - ever - experienced such an awkward journey in my entire life. Unless you count travelling with Zach, but even that fell short to the tense atmosphere in the car on the way to Alyssa's. Both Noah and Alyssa rambled on as she gave him directions, but as she leaned forward, I could feel the unnerving stare of the creep beside her. I risked a glance to see the creep grinning flirtatiously at me, causing bile to rise in my throat from disgust.

"There, third house on the right." I heard Alyssa announce as she pointed along the row of houses to her own.

"Right." Noah smiled, pulling into her driveway.

As soon as he turned the engine off, I quickly clambered out of the car as fast as I could. I was thankful to have my personal space after being crammed in with that creep. I looked over to see him following Alyssa into her house, not without giving me a warped smirk as he closed the door, leaving Noah and I alone.

It was quiet for a moment before I heard Noah speak.

"I don't like him either." he declared suddenly from behind me, causing me to turn around to look at him as he dropped his car keys into his pocket.

Strolling over to me slowly, he sighed as he placed a comforting arm around me. He was warm and I leaned into his embrace subconsciously. He gave me a reassuring squeeze before looking down at me with his calm grey gaze.

"But it's not our place to tell her what her boyfriend is or isn't like. You need to let her make her own mind up, okay?" he told me gently as he stared down into my eyes, a few stubborn strands of his flaxen hair falling across his brows.

I pressed my lips together tightly, stopping myself from ranting and instead let out a sigh. "I know." I admitted meekly.

"We should probably go inside." he suggested.

"Probably." I agreed, making my way towards the house.

"I'm sure you don't want Alyssa gossiping about this apparent love triangle anymore than she already has, right?" he teased, his steel eyes fixed on me.

My face scorched with embarrassment.

He knows.

He knows she was referring to him earlier.

Panicking, I ignored his comment and rushed into the house as he chuckled behind me. When I entered, Alyssa was sat on the couch with Josh who had one of his lanky arms over her shoulders. He sneered at me, knowing that Alyssa couldn't see his expression from where she was sitting. I was tempted to glare at him, but I remembered what Noah had told me and I did the impossible - I genuinely smiled at him.

This seemed to confuse Josh quite a bit.

His expression was priceless.

Lou - 1

Josh - 0

Alyssa seemed to take this as a peace offering, which was good enough for me. I wasn't surprised that Josh seemed wary of the change in my opinion of him - he had every right to be. I wasn't backing down like Alyssa thought I was. I was biding my time. When Josh messed up, I'd be there to show Alyssa exactly how much of a creep he really was.

"Why don't we watch a film?" she proposed as Noah and I sat down on the other couch.

I quirked an eyebrow. "So, we didn't go to the cinemas to watch a film so we could come here and watch a film?"

Josh tensed and shot me a warning look. "Yes."

Noah gave me a small nudge and I sighed. "Fine."

"Okay then, what do you want to watch? I have Leap Year, Iron Man, The Lord of the Rings-" she began listing films and before I could even suggest anything Josh interrupted me.

"Haven't you got any horrors? Or popcorn?" he questioned in a bored tone.

"I've got Saw." Alyssa replied. "And I think there's some popcorn in the kitchen."

"Nice one." he grinned, leaning in and kissing her.

Revolted, I averted my gaze and looked at Noah who seemed uncomfortable. I rose from my seat and forced myself to be civil.

"We can make the popcorn." I offered with a smile.

Josh got up quickly. "I'll help and you two can sort out the film."

Alyssa seemed to think this was a great idea because she beamed at us both, obviously believing that I was actually attempting to get along with him. She couldn't have been more wrong. Noah looked between us warily, his brows lowering slightly before agreeing.

"Sounds good to me."

"We won't be long." Josh stated before walking into the kitchen.

Following him, I walked over to the cupboards straight away to search for the popcorn, ignoring Josh's presence completely. He laughed darkly and I saw him walk over to me out of the corner of my eye.

"You're never going to make her break it off with me, you know." he gloated coldly.

I shrugged as I opened another cupboard. "I know."

A pause. He clearly didn't expect that.

I inwardly revelled in my silent glory as I spotted the popcorn and scooped it up into my grasp before closing the cupboard. When I turned around Josh was leering above me, his eyes bitter and unsettling.

"What?" I finally snapped.

His chapped lips formed a crooked wily grin. "Nothing."

"Right." I responded dryly as I pushed past him and grabbed a bowl.

As I poured the popcorn out, he leaned against the counter and smirked. Choosing to ignore him, I shoved the bowl into the microwave and tapped a few buttons before the dull humming sound filled the room. It was silent for a few minutes, only the sound of the microwave and the popcorn popping audible. Until Josh's mobile phone rang out.

He swiftly lifted it to his ear. "Hello baby." he answered flirtatiously, his mocking eyes looking over at me as he spoke.

"Yeah, I'll be round later. Are you going to wear that thing I bought you for me? Good. See you later babe." he spoke shamelessly before hanging up and smirking at me proudly.

I was livid. Struggling to keep my cool, I stood there boiling over in silent fury. He was still sniggering at me. He knew I didn't have any proof so I couldn't do anything. It was my word against his and we both knew who Alyssa would choose to believe.

When the microwave chimed, signalling the popcorn was done I took the bowl out and began to storm out of the room when a hand clamped down painfully on my arm. I shrieked but it was muffled by another hand over my mouth. Josh chuckled sinisterly into my ear, his cold breath on my neck making my skin crawl. His chapped lips scraped against my ear as he spoke and I almost vomited.

"If you try to fuck this up. I swear I will kill you." he whispered threateningly, his eerily calm voice haunting me. "You think your ankle is bad? I'll break your fucking legs if you tell anyone anything. And don't even think about running to that boyfriend of yours, I have friends that will do much worse to him if you go running your pretty little mouth off. Alyssa and I have a nice thing going on and she's never going to know about the other girls. Tell anyone and I'll fucking kill you and her, do you understand?" he spat venomously as he let go of me.

Gasping for air, I fell back against the counter in a cold sweat. My heart had lodged itself in my throat and I began choking on my own silent sobs. Tears dribbled down my face and I sniffled, cradling my arm that throbbed with pain. He crouched down in front of my, gripping my face in his hands, forcing me to look at him.

"You're fucking pathetic." he told me scornfully before getting up and grabbing the popcorn before he exited the kitchen.

I stood up shakily, his words still firmly imprinted into my mind as I wiped my tears away with trembling hands and took a deep breath before walking into the living room. I had to act like nothing had happened. I had to pretend I didn't hate Josh and that he hadn't just threatened me.

I had to stay quiet.

________________________________________________________________

Okay, so I haven't updated in a while but it's finally here!

I have edited this chapter but if I've made any silly mistakes feel free to point them out.

Did you like it? I know there wasn't any of Zach in here, but we shall see more of him soon!

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I love reading your opinions. (:

Or if you're feeling especially generous, why not vote? ;)

Sweets xxx