Forbidden Fruits

Chapter 11: Faith

"Peach? What are you doing here?" I heard the irritatingly sexy, grumbly voice of Blade ask. I startled, flipping around towards him.

"Oh my gosh, you scared me," I said, holding a hand over my heart.

"Shit, sorry. You good?" He asked, reaching out a hand to touch my forearm. The moment he touched me, electricity shot up my arm, and I pulled away. He immediately backed away, holding his hands up in a 'sorry' motion.

"I-I'm fine. What are you, um, doing here?" I moved my hand, settling myself and wrapping my arms around my waist.

"I already asked you that. Pretty sure you're the fish out of water here, Peach." He looked at me, his face so gorgeous I could stare at it all day. He titled his head, his hair flopping over to one side, in a way that was honestly, kinda cute. Not that "cute" was ever a word I would use to describe him. He was simply more than that. But no amount of attractiveness could distract me from the name, the same name he called me at the pool what felt like a lifetime ago. Peach.

"I thought I told you to stop calling me pet names, I don't like it." I shook my head, tightening my hold around myself.

"I would love to stop, but you've yet to give me a name I can call you," he pointed out.

I paused for a moment, realizing he was right. I knew his name, or his stage name at least, but he didn't know mine. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh." He teased, a half-smile gracing his lips. He didn't seem like the type to smile much, so seeing this small little glimpse of vulnerability had my heart beating.

God, I sound like a schoolgirl with a crush.

Not that I have a crush on Blade, obviously. That would be wrong and misplaced. I can just recognize a very attractive man when I see one. I'm not blind, obviously, and we're taught to appreciate the gifts God gave other people. And man did He bless Blade in extraordinary ways.

"My name is-"

"Faith! There you are!" Noah came into the picture abruptly, cutting me out of the Blade-induced haze I was in. He came up to me, and when he wrapped an arm around my side, I could smell the liquor on his breath. I shrank away by reflex, though he didn't seem to notice. "Holy shit, you're Blade. The underground fighter! You're like, legendary!"

When I looked back at Blade, his face had fallen again, and he looked like the Blade I saw at the fight all those weeks ago. It made me shudder, but I couldn't even tell if it was in a bad way. Noah didn't seem to notice Blade's lack of desire to talk to him, and kept on. "What are you doing hanging out with Faith? You didn't mention you knew him," Noah this time was talking to me.

"Oh I don't-"

"We like to keep it on the downlow," Blade bit out. I huffed, growing increasingly tired of getting cut off. "I'll see you later, Faith." He looked at me one last time, some kind of glint in his eyes that I couldn't place, and he left.

"Well shit, that's cool. We should go to one of his fights together!" Noah, ever oblivious, said once Blade had left. "Why wouldn't you mention that earlier, Faith? That makes you way cooler than you let on. C'mon, let's go find somewhere to sit."

Noah pulled me away once more, and I started praying for deliverance from this night that I had been so excited for, that was now turning out so horribly.

-

I was miserable. Noah had left me once more, though this time I was left to sit on a dirty couch in the living room. There were considerably less people here than were in the kitchen, but that didn't help in the slightest. In the two hours since we had been here, Noah left me three different times to go off to Miles' room to get more of the "good stuff". Every time he came back, he would proceed to act increasingly drunk each time. I was no longer having fun, though I can't say I was having any fun to begin with.