Unspoken

Chapter Seven: Aubrey

The hair on the back of my neck stands up as I feel him on my heels, following so close that I feel like he's practically on top of me. His breath is scraping down my back, warming my veins until it burns the inside of my skin. I'm sure if he were to touch me, his skin would disintegrate.

His tall, muscular frame is towering over me, making me feel like a child in his presence.

Each moment passes too slowly, I swear the seconds are passing as minutes.

When I see Blake at the bottom of the staircase, I breathe out in a stressful sigh, knowing that if my pulse quickens anymore, I may go into cardiac arrest. I make eye contact with him and do my best to smile as if nothing is wrong, as if we both don't see my stranger breathing in my presence.

I get to the bottom of the stairs, and before I even have time to say hello to him, Blake is standing protectively between me and the boy, looking at him like some sort of ravenous dog, waiting for the command to bite.

"We haven't met," Blake says immediately with that fake smile I've only ever seen him use on the people he happens to dislike. He has no right to be protective, I'm nowhere near his.

Blake sticks out his hand but Ryan only looks down at it and waits. He waits until it is unbelievably awkward, the kind of tension you can cut with a knife, as he stares into Blake's eyes, ready to pounce. He looks angry with him though I know they have never interacted. Somehow my mouth is dry from watching his jaw clench, staring into Blake, his brown eyes hard and threatening, something I've never seen in my short time of knowing my stranger.

I swallow the lump in my throat as his lips pull up slightly as if he finds Blake's existence a joke, my hands are drenched in clammy perspiration.

He meets Blake's hand with his own, shaking firmly while never losing that deathly eye contact.

"I'm Blake, you're new, right?" he asks, shifting to stand between us even more when Ryan's eyes flash down to me with amusement lurking in them. He looks at me with all the wrong intentions. And yet my heart starts thrumming more, pounding, as his eyes connect with mine and we share something personal, almost like an inside joke that hasn't been made yet.

I swear time is getting longer.

"Yep," he says, not answering further.

I wipe the smile off my lips and look back up at him. His thick brown curls fall to the side as his head cocks to the side, assessing me deeply, making a distantly familiar burn creep up into my cheeks from my neck, making me look away, ashamed of letting my skin turn shades. Ashamed of the effect he has on me. He smiles down at me with a kindness I have never known before, and somehow his sweet gaze makes my limbs turn soft, my lips aching to taste the desperation on my tongue.

"Okay, well what's your name then?" Blake asks in a mocking tone trying to get the attention away from me, clearly happy to start a fight wherever he can get one. I won't pretend my "friends" actually care about my well-being, they're hardwired to fight. To get into trouble if they can find it. And when they can't find it on their own, they create it. That's what Blake is doing, he's not my knight in shining armor.

I roll my eyes at him, the toxic masculinity fumes fill the hallway quickly.

"Oh I'm sure you already know it, now move," the boy says, no trace of humor in his voice.

I hear Blake snicker.

Thunder roars outside as a flash of lightning sparks through the wide hallways as Blake puts his hands up to act as if he's scared while he steps out of his way like he had asked.

Ryan looks at him like he wants his coffin made, but then his eyes shift to me, no trace of murder in them. He walks closer by me on purpose, making me back away into the line of lockers on the wall, letting me see the smirk on his face as he walks out of our view.