Savage Me

Chapter 18: The Black and White

TIP: Play the song.

Are you ready for this?

I don't think you're ready for this...

Welp, here goes.

_____________

Present

9 missed calls

I covered my face with both of my hands.

"No," I groaned.

He shouldn't feel this way about me. I shouldn't have kissed back.

He was Scout fucking Crimson. We were too different. It shouldn't be. We were only supposed to be pretending. He just got carried away by the moment.

'I like you – a lot.'

'And I know you feel the same way.'

I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head, refusing to believe it. My phone rang again. I was about to decline it when I saw Alfie's name on the screen.

Frowning, I picked up my phone and answered the call.

"Hey."

"Where are you?" was the first thing he said.

"New Jersey." Where the hell was I supposed to be? Not on Scout Crimson's bed, that was for sure.

"Yeah, no shit." He chuckled. "Are you at your dorm?"

"Yeah," I said slowly, getting suspicious. "Why?"

"I'm at Rutgers."

That made me bolt up from my bed. "What? Which campus?"

"I have no fucking idea." I could hear the frustration in his voice. "I didn't know there'd be several goddamn campuses here. Geez, just how fucking many are there?"

"I'll send you the directions to my dorm hall," I said, already putting the phone on speaker so I can google map my exact location and send it to him.

"Hey, Con." There was a pause. "Do you wanna go home for a bit?"

"Home, as in Mount Valley?" I asked distractedly.

"Yeah."

My fingers stopped from typing. I was about to argue that, from the sound of it, he drove all the way here from Florida, and now he wanted to drive two hours more to get to Mount Valley? Wasn't he exhausted?

But there was something in his voice that told me he needed me to say yes. There was a hint of hesitation in his tone that was so unlike him.

And so, I found myself saying, "Okay."

Thirty minutes later, Alfie pulled up in front of my dorm building. I climbed in his pick-up truck and drank in the sight of him. His hair was cut shorter and his muscles grew more defined, most likely from the brutal training they had to go through everyday.

"No hugs?"

My eyes snapped up to meet his green ones. There was that infamous crooked smile that promised mischief plastered on his face. I couldn't deny that I missed it.

I rolled my eyes at his playfulness, but leaned forward to put my arms around him all the same.

"Missed you, Con," he whispered to my hair.

I breathed out. "You, too."

"Let's go," he declared, after we pulled away.

Our drive home passed by quickly as we caught up with each other's lives and talked about our classes. We reminisced about the good old times, too. It was obvious that he really wanted to go back to when we were still in high school.