Fireworks 1 and 2

Jungle: Chapter Seventy-Nine

    Mia leaned into Drake, smiling excitedly. The smile on her face froze when she saw his facial expression. Time slowed down as she followed his gaze. Immediately, her body went rigid.

    Trevor was speaking to an entertainment news reporter, all smiles as if close to a year and a half ago, he wasn't fighting just to stay alive.

    How is he not in jail right now, for what he did? Memories she'd attempted for forget came rushing to the surface. She could still remember how hot his breath was, as he was attempting to kiss her after the date he'd taken her on. It had been a horrible date, one where he'd talked mostly about himself. He hadn't been interested enough in her to ask many questions. Their conversation that evening had been extremely one-sided; he talked, she listened. After a night of talking about himself, he'd made a pass at her in his car before dropping her off to Drake's Calabasas estate. When she refused his advances, he'd turned violent.

    She wished that her memories of Trevor had ended there, but sadly there had been another altercation. He'd attempted to kidnap her in the parking garage of her hotel, and had brutally attacked her when she resisted. Thankfully, Drake had arrived just in time to save her - but not before Trevor had caused her a significant amount of physical and emotional damage.

    "He hasn't noticed us," Drake told her. "We can probably move around him."

    Vanessa's cat-like eyes scanned the crowd. She wore a shimmering gold knee-length dress that showed off medium brown skin and a slender frame. Her short hair had grown longer since Mia had last seen it. She turned her head and a look of recognition flashed in her eyes. A smirk formed on her lips as she tugged on Trevor's arm.

    Trevor stopped speaking to the entertainment news reporter in mid-sentence and bent his head down, listening to whatever Vanessa had to say.

    Mia's grip on Drake's arm tightened.

    Beyonce turned and angled a glance at both of them. "Are you coming?"

    Mia nodded, and followed Drake's lead when he started walking.

    "Hold on, hold on, hold on," Mia heard Trevor say as she and Drake walked past him. "Mia?"

    "Keep walking," Drake instructed. "Don't even look at him."

    "Oh, so you're just going to ignore me?"

    Cameras flashed. Photographers were screaming at the top of their lungs, trying to get the attention of the celebrities walking towards the theater entrance. The shouting from the photographers was mind-numbingly loud and yet somehow still didn't compare to the fans yelling from the sidelines. The scene was chaos.

    Mia felt someone tugging on her upper arm and from that moment, time seemed to slow down. She stopped and whirled on the person who was doing the tugging.

    Trevor grinned at her. "Long time no see."

    Beyonce and Jay stood near the entrance to the theater, watching the scene unfold while wearing identical expressions of confusion.

    Drake pulled Mia behind him. "Your face seems to be healing nicely," he commented.

    "No thanks to you," Trevor muttered, gingerly touching the slightly crooked bridge of his nose. He flashed a dazzling grin at Mia. "How have you been?"

    "She doesn't have anything to say to you," Drake told him. "And if you were smart, you would go back over there to Vanessa, who happens to be just about the only woman willing to be within fifty feet of you."

    Trevor cast an obligatory glance at Vanessa, who was still speaking to the entertainment news reporter. "She just got cast in this reality show. Hip Hop Stars and the Women Who Love Them, or something corny like that. I believe she got cast because of what she had going with you." He grinned at Drake. "How does it feel, knowing that she's getting paid off of you?"

    "It feels fine, knowing that I'm not the one who has to deal with her bullshit," Drake said smoothly.

    "She can be quite a handful sometimes," Trevor admitted. "Half the time I can't stand her, and I'm sure she'd say the same about me. But...whenever we're together, it tends to get us a ton of press, which leads to opportunity. So...in the end, it works out."

    "You seem to be under the inaccurate impression that I give a damn about whatever it is you have with Vanessa." Drake's tone was deceptively polite, deceptively cordial. There was nothing threatening on the surface. The underlying edge to his voice was buried so deep, that Trevor would have had to strain to hear it. Mia was conscious of the anger boiling beneath the surface, mainly because of how tense his body was. It was as if he was willing to pounce at any moment, like a coiled snake ready to strike.

    Trevor's eyes were fixed on the small sliver of Mia that was actually visible to him. "You really don't have anything to say to me?" he asked her. "Because there's so much I have to say to you. I feel like...I feel like our first date didn't go so well. I feel like we should have a do-over."

    He's crazy. Certifiably crazy. Mia turned her head and leaned the side of her face against Drake's back.

    "Oh, it's like that, Mia?"

    "The only question she would have for you," Drake said, "is how were you able to escape criminal charges for the beating you gave her in that garage?"

    "My legal team is one of the best," Trevor replied, taking a step closer to Drake. "But don't think that I forgot that both of you almost landed me in jail."

    "Both of us?" Mia demanded, moving from around Drake.

    Drake grabbed her by the hand and pulled her beside him. "Mia."

    "You belong in jail," Mia spat at Trevor. "And if you had gone there, it would have been no one's fault but your own, because you're fucking crazy. You're mentally unstable."

    A cold smile curved Trevor's lips.

    "We should have a do-over? As if I would ever go anywhere with you." Her hands balled into fists at her side. "You're lucky to be alive. Aubrey almost killed you. He almost put you in the ground."

    "And if you don't back the fuck up, I'll be glad to finish the job," Drake said, and the look in his eyes said that his words weren't just a cute punch line, but a promise to cause bodily harm if his words weren't heeded.