𝗚𝗿𝗲𝘆'𝘀 𝗟𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿-𝟭𝟬

There was a faint thrum in her veins. Like her heart was barely pumping blood even when her ears were ringing from the shouts and buzz of the loud music.

Hands here, hands there. Hands everywhere.

On her waist, on her thighs, and in her hair.

Lips on her skin gliding through her neck.

Jenna closed her eyes and leaned her head backward losing all sense of rhyme. There was no beat her body moved to, no rhythm she followed anymore. Her world was a blur of touch and nothing grounded her.

It should've made her feel free.

But as her long nails scarped against blonde hair, she was reminded of thick raven strands. In her palm, the blonde felt greasy, but how would the latter feel was a mystery tequila ignited.

She felt trapped.

Only three days were left for the grand revelation of the Pediatrics department of one of the largest hospitals in the city. Three days to convince Maddox to play pretend as her boyfriend in public.

Jenna moved her hips in a sensual circle and a girl from behind rolled hers into her.

If younger Jenna could look at her now, her lavender irises would probably bulge out and roll on the ground.

A muscular man was grinding in front of Jenna. He looked hot. Sweaty, and nonchalant for a night. But she somehow knew Maddox had a far more corded muscles.

That was one of the reasons why Jenna was in a nightclub with Arna and her boyfriend dancing in the background.

Her mind was all but occupied with someone. No amount of work distracted her. Wherever she went, he was there. His name in whispers, his face in other faces. Nobody knew where he lived, and fewer had the means to contact him.

Jenna though, traveled with Maddox's name card in her back pocket like a forgotten tissue paper, and yet she was clueless enough to not approach him at all.

"Jenna!" Arna's slender hand came across her pale shoulders shoving people off her. The girl grinding on her was pretty much sulking but Jenna paid no heed. She smiled as Jordan came to her left side and side-hugged both of them. The three of them felt like a small family lost in their own world of confused bliss.

"Call him," Arna whispered in her ears with a mischievous glint.

Him.

Jenna shook her head in utter disgust. She was too tipsy to pretend she didn't know who was the subject matter. How was it that he was embedded into her heart and yet actually talking to him sounded miserable?

"I know you want to call him!" Arna yelled at her excitedly, leaning more of her weight on Jenna's frame. A tell-tale. She was more drunk than Jenna herself.

"Call him!" Jordan's tall frame hollered loudly above them and before she knew it people around her started chanting 'Call him! Call him! Call him!"

She tried to tone it down. Tone the loud demands of her heart along with it.

Jenna didn't feel like staying anymore. This place was suffocating her. His name was suffocating.

Turning her head, she was about to plead with Arna to let her go back home and sleep the night off.

Only to find her holding a black card and inserting the same silver digits in a phone.

Her phone.

No.

No, no no!

What the fuck.

By the time her reflexes and the fog in her mind were cleared, it was too late.

She saw the three dots beneath Maddox Bradshaw's number dancing in a wave. The word 'ringing' sprawled underneath.

It happened so fast. Jenna didn't contemplate before taking her phone and running outside. Long pencil heels pushed against her ankles and her petite frame crashed like a broken leaf amongst the swarm of strange bodies.

She ran. Like it would save her from Maddox answering the phone.

Her logical compass was broken, rational side shut down. That is what he did to her. After months of history. After smiles and tears and grief and betrayal.

She pushed at the exit doors with unrelenting force. Cold, musty air reached her lungs, one of the disadvantages of visiting a bar downtown. Her wavy brown hair blew haphazardly and chest heaved in anticipation.

She wouldn't end the call. It will make her seem weak.

If Maddox was the great tech genius everyone preached him to be, he'd know. He would be as acquainted with her number as she with his vile heart.

The line kept ringing.

In the distance, a few chuckles erupted with smoke and dirt. She shouldn't be alone here. Especially in the company of strange men with zero morals.

Jenna held her phone close to her ears and pretended to be busy saying a few hms and nodding as if she was actually talking. Jordan and Arna wouldn't be far behind her so it was just a matter of seconds.

Jenna exhaled a relieved breath when she heard footsteps turning to the other direction, away from the club, away from her.

Only if she hadn't exhaled at that moment.

Because the breath in her lungs had coiled like a snake, choking her from inside out the second she heard the deep, so deep, and rich baritone of his.

"Hello, Jenna."

Was all it took for her past to crash into her with the force of a thousand needles.

She could do nothing but hear the loud pounding of her heart. There was so much brewing behind those two words. An acknowledgment, like she guessed already. He knew her number. A long awaited greeting. Maddox said her name like he had been waiting. With patience and impatience.

She'll bleed.

Jenna knew he will make her bleed.

"Hello, Maddox." She whispered after a few seconds of silence. Low and slightly hoarse. Knowing well, this time she'll make him bleed alongside her.

____

A/n

How are my little loves doing?

Tell me you missed me.

Because I'm not going anywhere now. Maddox is here, Jenna is here. And I?

I'll relish every second of making this adorable story a dark romance.