Chapter Nineteen

I rolled to the side and groaned. Slapping my hand on my night stand, I found my phone but before I could answer it the ringing stopped.

I was in my room but how did I get here?

I was still wearing the clothes I wore to school and all I remembered was the whole thing with Ace, the drive and going to the club and taking a few shots and that was it, I didn't remember anything else.

My head was pounding and I touched my forehead as if that would stop the throbbing.

I heard a light thud on my window making my gaze shift to it. I heard another thud and I stood up, rolling the sheets off of me.

I groaned again when the pad of my feet hit the wooded floor. Dragging myself to the window, I pulled my curtains to the side. It took the squinting of my eyes for me to see who it was.

Callum was standing there, a small stone in his hand obviously ready to throw it at my window. I opened the window and stepped aside for him to climb in.

A moment after he was standing in front of me. "What happened to you? We've been worried."

I rolled my eyes which of course caused the pounding in my head to increase. I winced, "what are you doing here?"

"Didn't you hear me? I said we were worried, where did you go all day?" He raised his voice but honestly I didn't have the strength to tell him to keep his voice down.

"Somewhere," I said sitting on my bed and unlocking my phone.

Sure enough I had messages from almost everyone, Chloe, Jane, the Sterling's and even Eli. They were all the same messages. 'where are you?' 'are you okay?' 'call me back'

I tossed my phone to the side and looked up at Callum. He was looking at me in a weird way.

"You're not going to tell me are you?" His voice dropped.

"No," I was being completely sincere.

"If I was your boyfriend would you tell me?" He sat beside me.

I thought about it. If I had a boyfriend, then I wouldn't be thinking of Ace the way I was. And even if I was, it wouldn't be nice to tell my boyfriend that I was thinking of another guy when he was around.

It would be crazy. How would I even tell him?

'Hey babe so I was thinking about fucking another guy that isn't you.'?

He'll probably yell and eat my head off before warning Ace to stay the hell away from me. And if that boyfriend was Callum, he'd find a way to get Ace out of North Wind High just so I wouldn't see him enough to harbor such thoughts again.

But maybe if I dated Callum, I'd get over the fact that I wanted to fuck Ace. Or maybe just having Callum around me all the time because whatever was going on that was turning me to a fool needed to stop. I couldn't afford to feel anything for Ace, my reputation and everything I'd done to stay at the top was all going to go away and I was not having that, not on my watch.

"No," I answered Callum's question.

His face fell. What was he expecting me to say?

He let out a breath, "but really what happened to you? You look hung over."

"Nice observational skills Cal," I clapped. "And yes I'm hung over."

"Wait here," he said before standing up and leaving my room.

A moment after he came back with a pill and a bottle of water which I gladly took from his hands.

"Why didn't you tell me your brother was still around? I nearly ran into him." He was basically panting.

"Shit, I'm sorry. I forgot," I gave him a tight smile.

He just nodded and I went ahead to take the pill and drank half of the water in the bottle.

He sat back down on the bed and silence followed.

"You're really not going to tell me?" He was obviously avoiding looking at me.

"Nope," I popped the 'p'.

He sighed and stood up, "I tried. I have to go now, I'll see you tomorrow." He turned to leave.

"Cal," I stopped him, gripping his wrist and standing up. "Look I'm sorry okay? It's just hard to explain."

He didn't speak and neither did I. Slowly trailing my hands up his arm and to his chest I felt him stiffen. My hands went back down to his waist and with the look on his face he knew what was coming next.

My hand trailed over his belt for a moment, slowly teasing him. "I can make it up to you," I said in a low voice.

I palmed him and he sucked in a breath, "Liv, we can't do this, it's a school night."

"And when has that ever stopped us?" I began to undo his belt.

He grabbed my wrists, "Liv."

"Cal," I pried my hands from his grip before pushing him down on my bed. Kneeling down in front of him I undid his belt and zipped down his trouser. "Do you want this or not?"

He didn't reply so I palmed him through his boxers. The fabric was starting to give way to the sudden growth underneath and I smiled at that.

Pulling down his boxers and letting his cock spring free I licked my lips before letting my hands get to work. He groaned.

I ran my tongue over the top of his cock and he sucked in a breath at that. Looking up at him through my lashes he was looking at me.

"Fuck," he swore before pushing my hair from my face and fisting it at the back of my head before pushing my face down to his cock.

It was a long night.

The next day wasn't that bad, Ace and I completely ignored each other as usual but the tension could be smelt from a mile away.

On Wednesday, I wasn't excited to talk to Ace at the end of the day. But I knew it was necessary if I didn't want to fail.

At the final bell I found myself getting two cups of iced tea as usual and by the time my brain had registered what I was doing it was too late.

I anxiously tapped my foot on the wooden floor as I waited for Ace to answer the door.

The door swung open a moment later and Ace was standing there. He wasn't covering his arms today and deep down I was happy about it.

"Here," I gave him the cup which he accepted, ushering me into the house.

The hour went by and when we were done Ace spoke. "You can ask only two questions and I will answer you honestly."

My eyes widened, "you're serious?"

"Yeah," he nodded and folded his arms.

"How did you know I race?"

"My brother loves racing so he asked around for the best and well it turns out it was you," he shrugged.

I sucked in a breath for my next question. "Why did you look at me that way that night?"

He stared into my eyes, "I don't like the idea of Cal all over you."

My heart skipped a beat and I couldn't look away. I didn't know what to say because I wasn't expecting this answer.

He looked at my lips and back up to my eyes and I did my best not to look at his lips but I failed miserably. I stared at his lips for longer than necessary before looking up at his eyes.

I cleared my throat and stood up, "I have to go. See you tomorrow." I rushed out of the room and out of the house.

I bumped into Alex on the way out and I held my already throbbing nose. I hadn't seen him since the night of the race.

"Shit sorry," he placed his hands on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, "yeah, sorry." My voice came out muffled, "I have to go," I walked away and as fast as possible into my car and out of their driveway.

When I got home I met my brother throwing his duffel bag into the back seat of a car, his eyes were trained on his phone. He looked up when he heard my car.

"You're lucky you got here now, I was just about to leave," he said and opened his arms for a hug.

I hugged him, "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too but I'll also miss my flight if I don't leave now." His words got me untangling myself from him.

I watched him get into the car and just before he closed the door, he poked his head out. "And tell Callum to be more discreet when sneaking into our kitchen at night!"

I felt my cheeks flush at that but before I could say anything he had closed the door and was disappearing into the distance. We had hung out during the week but he didn't say anything about it, at least until now.

With a heavy sigh I dragged myself into my house, making sure to lock the door behind me.

"I'm home," I said to myself and plopped down on the couch.

My life was miserable