Untouchable(10)

A faint smile touches her lips as she leans into my hand some more. “Thank you...I appreciate it. Even when you say stupid crap, I still appreciate the friendship we have developing between us now. It’s really weird—I’ll admit that—but still nice.”

We spend the next half-hour sitting on the couch together in silence, just simply enjoying one another’s company without needing a word spoken between us. A little while after her show ends, I hear her breathing become soft and slow. Peering down at her, I see that she’s fallen asleep beside me. She’s curled up against a throw pillow, with her hands curled up against her chest. I glance at the large clock on the wall and see it’s a little after eleven. We have to get up in a few hours to head to the airport, so I should probably head to bed myself. I packed everything this morning, so all I have to do is roll out of bed tomorrow and go.

Standing, I lean over, scooping Raven into my arms, holding her firmly against my chest. She immediately snuggles into my torso as I make my way around the sofa and toward the large staircase. The smell of her shampoo fills my nose, making my body burn hot for her once again. I find myself pressing my nose to her head, breathing in deeply as I slowly climb the stairs.

I finally make it to her door and quickly swing it open before kicking it shut with my foot as soon as I step into her room.

As I look around her room, a million thoughts crash around in my head, some good, some bad, as I head towards her bed and set her down gently. Raven moans softly as I grab her throw blanket folded at the end of her bed and cover her with it. I stand there for a few moments, watching her, fighting the urge to strip and climb into bed beside her. It’s too risky with our parents here; plus, it would break my whole ‘behave myself’ rule I made when I knew Raven was coming back to town.

Leaning down, I brush her hair away from her face, gently tucking it behind her ear, and crouch down beside her to slowly bring my lips to her temple, giving her a kiss goodnight. I’m about to climb to my feet and walk away, when I feel her hand reach out and grab mine as I begin to pull it away from her face.

“Why does loving you hurt so much?” she mumbles in her sleep before releasing my hand, rolling to face her wall, and falling back into a deep sleep.

With shaky legs, I climb to my feet.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I bring my hands to my face and scrub my eyes with my fists as I try to erase what I just heard, but fail miserably. This is bad—so fucking bad.

My stomach suddenly feels as if there’s a swarm of bees invading it. I get out of there as fast as my feet can carry me and quickly bolt into my room. Shutting the door, I slam my forehead against it and let out a shaky breath I’ve been holding since I heard that word come from her mouth.

Love.

She can’t love me.

I’m bad for her.

Us together is like an airplane slowly descending towards the Pacific Ocean with the engines completely shut down. No matter how hard you may pray and try to keep it in the air, you can’t stop the inevitable. Soon enough, you’re going to crash and burn, destroying yourselves, everyone, and everything around you.

Why her?

Why me?

Why now?

I feel as if I’ve asked these same fucking questions a million times since the first time things shifted between us up in her bathroom, the day after that stupid house party. If I hadn’t called the fucking police and reported my own fricking party, I never would’ve broken up what was about to happen between her and Nate that night, and I know we never would’ve happened. I let my feelings for her cloud my judgment, and now, because of it, we’re about to go to a wedding where we’ll have to watch our parents say their vows, binding them and us all legally to one another as one big, happy fucking family.

I should’ve let her keep on hating me, and it would’ve saved her from the heartache she’s sure to feel once this stupid wedding concludes.





Since the moment the plane landed, I’ve been here on the golf course, trying to avoid both my dad and Vivian, but mostly Raven. She has no idea what she said last night, but I do, and because of that, I’m officially freaking out.

Taylor flew down with us, thankfully, and of course Tessa, who made sure I noticed every glare she casted my way during the entire flight. We just had to have our seats right beside each other, with the two of us in aisle seats.

Hopefully, since Raven and I have smoothed things over, she’ll talk with Tessa and get her to simmer down the whole ‘evil bitch’ thing she has going on right now.

“So how’s it been having Raven back? You haven’t really talked about her too much since you guys got together Tuesday.”

I’m going crazy replaying last night in my head, and I really want to talk to someone about it to help me figure out what the hell I should do about it all. “It’s been better. She doesn’t look like she wants to chop my balls off whenever we’re in the same room now. But the same can’t be said for her friend Tessa. That chick sure can hold a fucking grudge. Crazy thing is I didn’t do shit. They did, but because I’m the one with a penis, bam! I’m immediately the bad guy.”

Throwing my golf bag on my back, I follow Taylor over to our golf cart. Tossing my clubs into the back, I climb into the driver’s seat and wait for him to climb in.

“That’s why I’m single, bro. Chicks are fucking crazy.”

As I drive to our last hole, I decide that maybe if I tell him what happened, he can give me some outside advice about what the hell I should do.

“Last night, something pretty crazy happened, actually. I’ve been stewing on it all day. Hell, I don’t think I even slept a fucking wink last night, because my head just wouldn’t stop spinning.”

Taylor shifts slightly in his seat, facing me more now, looking all too intrigued with what I’m about to tell him. It’s fantastic how all these assholes thrive on the daily drama that is my life. I sure know how to keep life interesting, that’s for sure.

“Last night, I was watching TV with Raven. It was that new Outlander show on Starz, the one all over the internet, with chicks swooning over that dude in a fucking kilt. Let me say…when I walked in last night, I was sure as fuck that she was watching a goddamn porn. That show has some hot ass scenes in it.”

Taylor lets out a sigh of annoyance and furrows his brows at me. “Bro, seriously. Focus. Get to the crazy part. What happened? She watch that show then jump your bones right there on the couch?”

Laughing, I grip the brim of my hat, lifting it off of my head. I tip my head back, shaking my hair, damp with sweat from golfing under the hot California sun all day, before sliding my hat back on. I glance at him before turning my eyes toward the small paved road, and pull the cart up to a spot to park at the eighteenth hole. There are two more people ahead of us, so we still have time to hang out here while we wait.

“When her show ended, she fell asleep beside me on the couch. I was going to leave her there sleeping, but then I thought maybe I should just wake her up and head to bed. I ended up carrying her to bed instead. After I laid her onto her bed and covered her up, I went to leave, and she reached out to me while still sleeping, grabbed my arm, and I kid you not, asked me, ‘Why does loving you hurt so much?’”

Taylor lets out a long whistle while shaking his head, as his eyes grow as big as saucers. “Holy shit, bro. That is the fucking danger zone right there. What the hell did you do after she said that?”

My stomach flip-flops as I replay that moment in my. I don’t even want to think about what I would’ve done had she truly woken up and said that to me. Our entire situation is totally fucked.

“She rolled over and passed back out—thank God. I don’t think she even remembers saying it, or if she does, she is pretending it never happened. This whole situation is so fucked up. How the hell did I let this happen?”

Taylor spots one of the bottle girls wheeling a cooler cart towards our hole and slaps me on the shoulder. “Hold that thought. We need another beer before we dive any deeper into this conversation.”

Climbing out of the golf cart, he runs over to her, grabbing us each a beer. As soon as my beer is in my hands and we both take a long pull from them, Taylor finally turns back to me again. “Fuck. I think we need something stronger than beer to deal with this mess.” He laughs as he takes another drink of his beer.

He’s got the right idea. I down my beer in record time and find myself wishing I could drown in a bottle of whiskey and not have to wake up again until this weekend is over. “Believe me; that’s my plan for the entire weekend. I need to be drunk every single second of the day if I’m going to get through this wedding.”

“The only thing I can say to that is I’m glad I’m not you, because this is just too crazy to deal with. I really don’t know what to tell you. It’s a messy situation for the both of you.”

Well, a lot of help he is. I already figured that out the second I slept with her and wasn’t able to move on with my life as usual.





The sky, which was once bright blue and filled with sunlight, is now darkening as the sun slowly begins to set. We’ve spent the last three hours here, and right now, I’m feeling pretty good. Of course I just got a text from my dad asking me to meet them at the restaurant here at the resort for dinner. We skipped the whole wedding rehearsal and are going straight to the rehearsal dinner, I guess. Which makes sense, seeing as they’ve both been married before.