Insouciant (The Billionaire With A Choice)

A Favour

A Favour

It's nearly midnight and there's knocking on my door.

I don't even need to guess who it is.

Niel needs to leave me alone-

"I'm sorry." He whispers.

He doesn't look well.

I pull him in.

"Hey, what's going on?" I ask him after I've got him seated with some tea.

"Do you and Cedric every just..." he trails off.

I sit next to him. "Dude. I can't help you if you don't talk to me. You are always there when I'm not myself. Let me have that opportunity for you."

"She makes me so angry!" He grabs his head.

I am so confused. "Who?"

He takes a couple of breaths. "My birthday... you said Cedric told you I was talking to a girl. I've been seeing someone."

"That's great. What's wrong with that?"

"We just aren't on the same page. The guys in the house won't listen. I don't want to talk to Cedric. I'm not that close to the ladies. I didn't know who else to go to."

"I'm listening." I give him my full attention.

"First let me just start from the beginning. She is half Italian and half French but she claims her French side more. I met her when Oscar decided to take me out because I'm apparently not sociable. Honestly it was just a race with a bunch of guys at some track in the middle of no where. There were a bunch of girls. And it wasn't a normal race. It was like you drink with each race so by the end of it all of us were blasted. I was tipsy. Oscar claimed I could down a couple more. He passed on another bottle of beer. Avryll took it away from me. Claiming I was different from the rest and it wouldn't be a good idea. I caught her accent immediately and we talked the rest of the night and it was great. We really clicked. She is a great girl, she is simple and enjoys the same things I do. But when we disagree it's a shitshow." He rubs his face.

"Niel you are opinionated but I don't think I've seen you this riled up before. What happened?"

"A video of me attacking Ryder was leaked. I had been in testing for 30 hours. And I snapped when he insulted my intelligence. And since we had spectators Ryder didn't have his tools. I slammed him into the one way mirror-window that blocked off the spectators and it shattered. And all those men pulled me away. The video cut before everyone can see Ryder holding my head in that damn hole."

I nod. "Now back to the girl?"

"Avryll said she can't imagine me like that and it scared her. I told her I understand that. But she kept talking about it. And the phrase that set me off was 'so you have a bit a savage in you?' She joked. It wasn't funny to me at all. My mother was often called that and a number of other slurs by my father and I ticked. And through our argument one of those other words were thrown in there, it just happened to be the one that sets me off the most. She said I was being a coon, and it's like the options flashed into my head before it happened. I stormed out of her apartment... Saffron, I-I thought about laying a hand on her. I feel so disgusted with myself. I called her before coming up here. I broke up with her and I am just not okay right now."

I know Niel would never lay a hand on someone who hasn't pushed him beyond his limits. But I can't completely be on his side not knowing this Avryll girl.

"Yeah. She was in the wrong. Especially if those are words she uses with everyday language. But I've learned in a relationship with your brother that either you talk it out civilly or you stay silent because sometimes silence is the loudest sound you can make. Silence when you are heated is sometimes the best thing that can happen because once when you register what's happening you know how to approach it after."