Dabbling In Sweetness

Chapter 44

We stood in the dimly lit tunnel as racers revved their engines. It had been the 4th race so the fumes that once bothered me seemed normal. Gina stood on one side of me and Matt stood on the other, as we approached them. Grayson looked up briefly to make eye contact before putting out his cigarette. He was leaning against one side, smoking, and listening to Link who was on a blue motorcycle ramble on about his new crush.

"Her hair smells of vanilla lavender, I never knew something could be so sweet." Link says, clearly infatuated.

Gina doesn't meet a beat as she says, "Awww. Is she the one, Link?" She puts her arm around his shoulder and adds with a grin, "for the week?"

Link shrugs off her arm and looks around us as if looking for something or someone. Then he says, "Wait? Where is your boyfriend of the month?"

Gina glares at him and talking through her teeth says, "Shut up."

He looks at us and continues, "did you guys know our little Gina was in a serious relationship? A whole one monthiversary."

We all look at Gina with wide eyes, the thing about Gina is that she didn't date. The longest she had dated someone was for 2 weeks. She also had the habit of keeping things hushed, so it was rare to hear about a boyfriend and a one-month anniversary.

Matt is the first to break the silence, "I thought you liked me more. Definitely more than Link."

"Hey," Link objects.

"I do," Gina says, earning another hey from Link. She huffs and takes out her own cigarette as Grayson nods me over. She lights the flame and he wraps his arms around me, his jacket engulfing me protectively. We give her a moment, all of us anxiously anticipating her words. Then she shrugs and says, "he only found out because he grabbed my phone," stressing the next part, "without permission."

Oddly enough, this was her being calm. When she was calm, it only meant she was excited. I squeal and go hug her, making her drop her cigarette. "Gina," I tell her with a wide grin, "you really like him, don't you?"

I can see her avoid eye contact as she places her hands in her pocket and stomps on the cigarette lying motionless on the ground. She looks up to meet my eyes, slowly and cautiously before nodding a little bit.

I squeal in happiness for her and start saying, "we should go on a double date-" when a familiar figure appears.

"Gina, you're cheating on me?" he says with a hand to his heart, "how rude."

Gina rolls her eyes at him as I feel Graysons hand on my arm, pulling me a bit closer to him. The action doesn't go unnoticed by Jace who quickly zooms into his hand and grins like a Cheshire cat.

His mischievous glint isn't missed by Grayson either and he asks in a deadly tone, "What do you want, Jace?"

Jace's smile doesn't waver as he lifts his gaze to meet mine briefly, before shifting to Graysons. I had never realized how intense Jace's presence felt. His dark emerald eyes hold a burning intensity of wanting to burn everything in his path. His black hair was styled in a boyish style, which was the opposite of what his whole demeanor portrayed. His smile only made him look more sinister. I could feel the suffocating presence that I never noticed before because there was always something else happening. However, right now, I felt my skin crawling with the need to get away.

"I want your girl," he tells him and looks back over at me, raising an eyebrow.

I can feel Grayson move me behind him, hidden from his view. However, I can see Jace's face as I peek over Grayson's body. His face has gone slack as he looks at Grayson. "That wasn't very nice, Grayson," Jace says in an unamused tone.