Sins of Aiden

4

CHAPTER 4

It all happens so fast and as I know it—I don't have a safe shield of Madelyn's body anymore.

She storms off to the bench, swearing and I sweat with worry. I don't have a single bone in my body to defend myself.

The game resumes too fast for my fondness and I just know my outcome will send me straight to the nurse's office. Maybe Ana won't laugh at me this time. I see the ball coming—I don't have time to move. I can sense the seize clasp on my muscles, keeping me unmoving in an exposed spot and the wicked smile eating me alive—I discover my result is going to end badly for me. 

Cowardly—the useful thing I can do is shut my eyes and hope for the best. Maybe it won't hurt so bad and with that thought, I breathe out in relief when I can't feel any ache endure me. I hear the ball smack but at this moment I am just glad that it isn't me.

I open my eyes and what I see is surely an angry red ball close to my eyesight but the hand that grips the ball to a point it can indeed demolish if it wasn't so elastic—I tense yet again.

My eyes go wide, surprised, and startled but most of all glee at how the ball hasn't hit me in the face. Yet that feeling doesn't last inside me very long because I get a remarkably alarming feeling in my chest.

Trailing my eyes off the hand to the firm arm surrounded with the exquisite art of tattoos—I reach for the face that belongs to the one and only that can drive my heart to flips.

I haven't seen him since yesterday and although it's only been a day it almost feels like longer. I want to sigh when I stare at him. It's shameful how I collapse into a trap of attachment to someone who casts angst and dismay among us. It does be meant for me to get in some kind of misfortune. Because when I look at him I feel myself go ruddy and affection is written all over my face.

His dark hair is pushed back by a black headband and his even darker eyes that are trailed away from me—are shielded with irritation. 

With a hard face, Aiden throws the red ball away from him, aiming it straight at Lucas which hits him straight in the head. Hard. It echoes loudly as Lucas' head snaps back from the hard-thrown ball and he looks immensely around his surroundings.

I break away from my vision and take notice of Lucas who grabs the ball and is ready to dash it when he sees Aiden. Lucas's lips tug in a smirk and then his arm bends and the ball is in the air again.

If my eyes can widen more—they do.

Not again.

Panic is clinging on me like a second skin and the only thing I can consider about in the moment is to lie low and with Madelyn gone—there is only one path that's close to me. It isn't my finest conclusion but I'm already on the move. Aiden's back covers my entire form and I can't see past anything. It might be my downfall but at least I'm safe.

For now.

It's only a matter of time before he discovers I'm using him as a shield and pushes me down on the mucky floor.

Aiden snags the ball like a ninja before he hurls it back just as forcefully as earlier. They go at it for what feels like forever with thuds that echo throughout the room when the ball meets their bodies and until a whistle blows in the air for the third time and Mr. Andrew's yells —Lucas flings the ball to the side and stomps out of the game area.

He sure doesn't seem happy about it.

I however seem to do pretty well for myself and I have to coerce myself to stay put and not to drift off in thoughts when Aiden's sweet scent hits me. I can't fathom myself getting so preoccupied by something so remote. Aiden doesn't go easy, even when Lucas retrieves and sits down on the bench. Though believing something had happened between them suddenly flees out of my head when witnessing the steel of bitterness he proves to give to the others on the other team. With throws harder than my fragile bones.