Always You

Chapter Two

Axel Carter. Fucking Axel Carter. He was right here, standing right in front of my face in the flesh. I had to blink a couple of times to make sure that I wasn't just seeing things.

No. It was definitely him.

"Vanessa?" he gasped, him just in complete shock as I was. I stared at him briefly, taking in his appearance. His hair was still the same, short, dark brown and cleaned up well. He wore a dark navy, almost black suit and I noticed a gold Rolex watch on his right wrist. Even though he was fully dressed from head to toe in a rather expensive looking suit and it was covering a lot of skin, it was very obvious that he still went to the gym often. Maybe even more than he usually did when we dated. And not to mention that he was still two or three inches taller than me. That hasn't changed.

"I—I, I need to go." I stated immediately. Not wanting to be near him much longer, I bolted up the stairs as fast as my heels could carry me. I was quite surprised that I didn't trip in them.

When I got upstairs, I searched for my friends until I spotted them near a different corner, still dancing the night away to the upbeat music. I needed some air. Or to leave. Either way, I needed to get out of this building.

"El?" I called out to her, who doesn't hear me. "Hey, Ellie!" I repeated. This time, I saw her head whip towards me when she heard her name. Excusing herself from Brayden and Jackson, she shoved her way through the crowd until she was face to face with me.

"Where have you been? You took quite a while." she said to me.

"I think we should leave." I said to her, lowering her voice so that only she heard me.

She frowned at me. "Why? What's going on?" she asked.

"Please. I'll explain it later." I begged, yanking on her arm. Ellie, looking even more worried, nodded her head in agreement. This is why I loved her. She just knew that something was wrong.

"Alright, let's go," she said. "Yo, Brayden! Jackson! Let's call it a night!" she called out to them.

"El! Why? I'm not even done with my drink yet." Jackson cried.

"Dude, you can drink unlimited whatever you want at your place. I think I'm ready to leave too." Brayden told him.

Jackson huffed. "Fine. But we're coming back here when we can and that's an order." he declared. The boys nodded their heads and we all made our way down the stairs. Well, they took their time. I wanted out of that club fast.

As we passed through the crowd, I saw Axel in a corner with a few other sharply dressed men and some waitresses, deep in conversation. He glanced away from the men, sighing before his eyes locked on mine. I swallowed, but I still stared back at him stupidly. He tilted his head at me, analyzing my features and even after not seeing him for so long, I still couldn't figure out what he was thinking about.

"Okay, the entrance is there and our—holy shit. Is that Axel??" Ellie gasped. Well, more like, snapped.

I grabbed her arm. "Let's just go, please." I pleaded. I led her out of the club and quickly spotted the same limousine off to the side in the same spot where we were dropped off hours ago. I quickly hopped in, strapping myself in before the rest followed suit. Brayden requested our driver to take Jackson home first before he nodded his head in the rear view mirror and slowly pulled away from the curb and into the busy traffic.

Ellie turned to face me. "Okay. Now, talk." she demanded.

"Huh?" I gave her a weird look.

"I'm not stupid. I may be tipsy and or slightly drunk, but I saw who I saw. Why was your ex boyfriend at Roxannes?" Ellie asked me, crossing her arms.