A Slave to Love

Chapter 23: Wet

After Blade's little comment in my bathroom, I started getting anxious. What did he mean I'd see him Saturday? As far as I was concerned I was going bowling with Landon, Mick, Nate, Katie, and Noah.

Normally he didn't give me a heads-up if he's going to be dropping by, he wasn't courteous enough for that and he'd take every cheap shot he could to irritate me. So something had to be going on for him to give me a warning, unless he wanted to torture me by having me sit around stressing over what he was going to do.

It would be a pretty effective choice honestly.

But if he thought I was going to stay home and wait for him to come to me instead of hanging with my friends, he had another thing coming. I made plans with them before he told me that so screw him. He didn't even ask me, just told me, and I didn't give a shit if he was my master for all intents and purposes. It was common decency.

But still, the rest of the week it was all that I could think about. What did he mean? Our second 'date'? Or was he just giving me the heads-up that he wasn't visiting me until then, which sounded far too polite of him to be possible.

If it was the date one then I should really knock some sense into him...preferably with a metal bat since my hand didn't work out too well last time. Either way, no time spent with Blade could ever be considered a date; it was more like a hostage situation.

So when Saturday morning came I was impatient to get going before Blade showed up and ruined things. I woke up extra early and dragged Katie out of bed for us to get ready as quick as possible. I rushed her so much she grumbled all morning about it and I spam texted my friends to make sure everyone else was up and ready to go on time. There was no room for delays today.

All my efforts and irritating everyone into hurrying was for nothing. When we swung back by our room after breakfast to grab our bags and brush our teeth before leaving, I found a black rose in the bathroom.

Beneath it, a folded piece of paper.

Damn him.

I eyed the paper skeptically, hands on my hips before I sighed and picked up the rose, holding it to my nose to smell. Normally, a rose had a heavy scent. This black one though, although the scent was the same as a normal rose, it was slightly different. Almost sweeter?

Against my better judgement, I scooped up the note, unfolding it as my eyes scanned the surprisingly neat scrawl.

Fake sick. Stay in your dorm. I'll be there soon. ~B

He had to be kidding. Since when did I have to take orders from—okay, yeah I was his supposed slave and all but come on! I had friends! A boyfriend! And most importantly, a life! If he kept this up I wouldn't have much of anything left.

I growled in frustration, ripping up the note before I tossed it in the trash, though that immature fit of anger did nothing to soften my mood. I picked the rose up again, intent on ripping it apart, but I couldn't bear to destroy it. It was so perfect with soft, waxy black petals and was in full bloom. It had to be one of the most beautiful roses I'd ever seen. It would probably die soon from being cut so I decided I'd just toss it whenever it inevitably wilted.

I strode from the bathroom to find Katie sitting on the edge of her bed, ready to go, makeup and hair done, though her eyes were half-slitted from my impromptu early wake up that left her tired and grumpy.

She perked up when she saw the flower in my hand though.

"Landon gave you a rose? When did he do that?" she asked, surprised.

"It wasn't Landon," I said, lying it on my dresser next to the frame of my dad that Blade had been asking about.

"Who was it?" she asked curiously.

How to explain Blade to someone who had never met him? I debated for a moment, then settled on a response that was as normal and non concerning as I could, even if it was a lie. "A friend of mine."