Filmed_ An Alpha Bad Boy Romance(51)

That took me off guard. Was Chuck asking me out? I hadn’t seen anyone in a while, and wasn’t really ready to try again. Chuck was cute and I liked spending time with him, but I wasn’t sure I was ready for something like that. Still, I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

“I’m not sure,” I said softly, feeling awkward.

He grinned and put his hands up. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it. Just a friendly gesture to try and break your bored-spell.”

I smiled back. That could have been true, but I doubted it. I could tell Chuck had a crush on me if I was going to be completely honest. It was obvious from the way he constantly flirted with me. And truthfully, I liked the attention, though I never gave him the impression that I felt the same way. I needed Chuck as a friend to help me get rid of the bad memories associated with the theater, but I just wasn’t ready to get close to anyone.

“Thanks, I’m just exhausted, you know?”

“Say no more. I’m sure Mikey will be more than willing to get a little hammered with me.”

I laughed and he headed back over to the concession stand. I felt guilty turning him down, but I knew it wouldn’t have been fair to push it with him. He knew I was in a bad place, but that didn’t mean I could take advantage of him.

I thought everything had been complicated when he was around. But when he was gone, nothing had gotten better. That weird hole in my heart that throbbed every night, sick to death with worry over what he was getting himself involved with, only continued to grow with every gasping breath.

It had been a month since I last heard from Noah Carterson. Four weeks since the night of his party. Four weeks since he drove me home, the weather perfect, sunlight in our hair, smiles in our faces. Four weeks since I was last happy and content. I kept remembering what he said to me when he dropped me off that day.

He grabbed me by the wrist as I started to climb my stoop, his car still idling in the road. I turned, and there was this heavy grin on his face. He pulled me down to him, and I stumbled against his body, his strong arms steadying me against his sculpted chest.

I felt his lips brush against mine, along my cheek, and stop against my ear.

“When you’re up there, think about me,” he whispered.

“What do you mean?” I asked, even though I knew.

“Go into your room, slip your pretty hand down onto your perfect pussy, and think about me while you make yourself come.”

“Noah,” I said, surprised.

“Picture my thick cock deep inside of you, and the way it felt when I got you off over and over last night. Think about how much I love your soaked cunt.”

He pulled away and grinned, and I felt color come to my cheeks.

“You’re such an asshole,” I muttered, embarrassed at how turned on I was.

“Have a good day, dots.”

He gave me a quick but rough kiss on the mouth, our lips pressed hard together, and then hurried over to his car. I was breathing deeply, trying to calm myself down, as he drove away down the block.

That was a month ago. I had gone up into my room after that and run my fingers between my thighs, thinking about how his cock felt like it fit me perfectly, and how strong his arms were wrapped around my sweating body.

Exasperated, I let out a huff of air. I walked into the supply closet, grabbed the right trash bags, and then I moved over toward the trashcans Selena had messed up. I figured, if anything could get the image of Noah out of my head, dealing with trash could.

Four weeks was a long time not to hear from someone. At first, I was worried out of my mind, and called him a bunch of times. In retrospect, I regretted that, but part of me thought he had died or something horrible like that. Eventually, I got the picture when I saw that he had updated his Facebook status. Chill night downtown was all it said, but that spoke louder than my answered calls: he was fine, and he was even going out with friends.

I stopped calling after that, but the hurt only bit deeper. I thought we had something, but I realized that I was just another one of Noah’s conquests. He got what he wanted, and he tossed me to the side. It broke me more than I ever thought it would.

He stopped showing up to our class, and I guessed he dropped it. I had no clue why he would do that; it wasn’t like I would have screamed at him in class. If anything, I would have awkwardly ran away from him every day, avoiding him the best that I could. Instead, he essentially disappeared, quit his job and dropped our class and stopped responding to me. After the first week, he even blocked me on Facebook.

I had no idea why Noah had decided to go full nuclear and wipe me completely out of his life, but that was his choice. He wanted me gone and he went to any length he could to make that happen. It might not have been so bad if he had simply told me he wasn’t interested, or maybe just stopped hitting on me all together. But the way he so ruthlessly removed me from his life spoke volumes.