Make You Love

Chapter 23

Fast forward.

"I love you," he said, cupping Isla's face in his palms, turning her world upside down with that stare of his that was choked. Full of lust and whatever else was running through his mind.

Press pause. Replay.

"I love you," Craig purred, setting Isla on liquid fire blazing into some attraction that she wasn't capable of handling.

You know that moment when someone tells you something which sends you spiraling into shock? You turn your brain into a video player and watch the moment over and over in your head. Did he just say... No. Of course not. No one in his right senses would give his heart away to Isla Dehler. Not the queen bee's sister who'd given BJ's to almost half of the billionaire guys in Bright Wood High.

She closed her eyes in a wrinkle in time, fighting her inner demons as he came clean to her there in the courtroom. Before the judge, God and everybody. There was a delicious moment where her face washed blank with confusion, like her brain cogs couldn't turn  fast enough to take in information from her wide eyes. He saw the shock register on her face before she could hide it.

A small smile played on his lips. She guessed he got that a lot. For perhaps a few seconds, her grief was suspended until it shattered like glass. Love. The one word she hated to the moon and back in the entire universe. Why love? Why him? And, why now?

"You're kidding." Yes, it was a statement, not a question.

He knew her disdain for that feeling. Her skin paled and froze under his touch. She became stiff like a dummy. Gradually, he got the message she was trying to pass across and released her that selfsame instant.
What had he been thinking? No matter how much he tried, she'd never change. She'd always be the cold, unfeeling Isla. Damn her to Hades.

"Let me go." She sniffed.

"Not anymore. I can't. Can't pretend to mask my feelings for you. Can't let you slip through my fingers again, bestie. I love you, and you'd better learn to put up with that cause I'm tired of chasing you. It's getting boring, don't you know?"

Her stomach jizzed and buzzed and settled. He was right. She knew it, but she wasn't ready to face his truth. He just wanted to mess with her.

"I don't do love," she seethed. "Stop trying to win me. I'll never be yours. Scratch that, I belong to  no one, least of all, you."

"I love___"

"Just stop!" She roared.

Her body vibrated with rage building up and spilling over.

"No, you stop!" He countered her.

Best friend to best friend. Time for a showdown, eh?

She poked out her arm at his chest, intending to shove him away and get the hell out of there, but he clutched it, using it to draw her closer.

"Just... Relax, okay? You don't have to be strong all the time. Let me in, Isla." He placed her palm over his throbbing heart. "Let me in. I swear, I won't hurt you. I know your dad did a number on you but I'm not him. You have the most beautiful soul I know, and you deserve all the love in the world."

Though uninvited, a tear slid down her cheek. The realization of what he said was like a punch to her guts. She was staggering. He saw straight through her facade. Her fears. Her doubts. Her passion for him. All of those, masked beneath her facade of hatred and disgust.

She'd shut everyone out because she believed her dad. She'd allowed him to overcome her mindset with his harshness towards her, and eventually settled for a loveless life. To love now was like a crime.

"Craig," she lisped.

He maneuvered her body into a bear hug, caressing her back.
"I love you." He'd say it again and again, regardless of whether she liked it or not.

The judge cleared her throat. "I guess this is where we leave off today, Mr Mason. The court shall reconvene tomorrow. Nine o'clock sharp." She peered down her glasses at the jury men. "Don't be late. And remember to not run your mouths about this trial."

"Yes, your Honor." The foreman nodded.
He was a rather little guy, clad in black slacks and a grey coat.

The judge proceeded to arrange for the guards to whisk Craig away to his cell before she dismissed the hearing.

"Get the fuck away from me. I need to see my son." A petite woman looking fortyish, hair pulled up in a tight bun. She wore a green full-sleeve shirt, black pants, matched with black stilettos. Squirmed and kicked as four guards fought to haul her out of the premises.

"Contempt!" Someone yelled from the backseats.

"Slander!" Another offered.

Neither helped the situation though. The woman proved too stubborn for the guards. Craig wondered if they'd done their security sweep of the courthouse at all before the trial began.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry!" She yelled above the noise brewing in the room.

"Wait, Mom?" He scrutinized her appearance.

She'd lost more weight than when he last saw her. Her cheekbones were sunken, and her face was white like a ghost's.

"I'm sorry!" She sobbed.

The guards surmised she was just another weirdo and dragged her away. Chaos broke out. Some fellows were screaming out loud. Others grabbed their sisters, wives, whomever accompanied them to watch the trial and made a beeline for the door. In the midst of the confusion, the prison guards managed to find Craig. They rushed him inside their van for fear of him escaping. On instinct, he looked behind him. Once. Isla was right there; an ethereal vision. Up until then, he was stunned speechless by her beauty. How much more stunned was he when she mouthed the words:

I love you.