Fame

Chapter Fourteen

I stepped back from Matt as quickly as possible, but it wasn't quick enough. He had seen how close we'd been standing, how Matt had been touching me.

Matt cleared his throat and picked up the box on the ground as I awkwardly made a move to follow him, but Sawyer's arm stopped me from moving forward, his strong touch sending fiery tingles shooting through my body.

"I'll catch up..." I called after him and he gave me an uneasy glance but nodded nonetheless and continued to Amy's dorm room further down the hallway which was bursting with people helping move my stuff in.

"What are you doing here?" I pulled my arm from his grip, plastic sacks swinging from my wrists. "I thought I said I didn't want a mob of your freaky fans in my building?"

"I just wanted to see if I could help you since you were doing my sister a favor, but it looks like you've got all the help you need."

His tone was icy and I could practically feel his eyes hardening underneath his aviator sunglasses.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, wondering if he was trying to shame me about having guy friends. I still didn't even know if they really were friends, more like friend-adjacent.

He ran a hand through his dark hair and the effect made his arm muscles bulge out. This was the body that I wished I could have imagined on Matt earlier, but there was just something about the real thing in person...

"Nothing. I don't know what it's supposed to mean. Are you going to my concert this weekend?"

I gave him a sarcastically cheeky smile.

"Not even if my life depended upon it."

"Ouch. I guess I should have expected that from someone who claims to hate me."

I crossed my arms over my chest as best as I could with all the bags hanging from my arms.

"Oh it's not a claim. I hate you. That's a fact."

"Right. I think I had to mop up some of your drool from my floor earlier where you were ogling my body."

The flush that invaded my body at that moment was immediate and I wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear.

"I think you and your sister confuse a hateful glare with staring at your body, when the two things couldn't be farther from the opposite."

He leaned forward and his cologne scent overwhelmed my senses and I almost had to take a step back to collect myself.

He was there, in front of me and taking over everything just like he always did. I couldn't let myself become consumed in him anymore, not after what he did to me. Not again.

"Come to my concert. I'll get you front row, backstage, whatever you want."

He was so close to me. I could see the stubble crawling along his jawline, and I was starting to be able to see the outline of his eyes through his glasses.

"Why do you want me there?"

This took him aback, but before he could answer, I heard Amy's yell from across the hallway.

"Hey, Blair found your keyboard. Why did you have it hidden? She didn't even know you were a freaking piano prodigy!"

I felt the blood drain from my face and the world almost started spinning. This was it, everyone was going to know now.

"Why would you keep that a secret?"

It was all too much. It was going to come out like word vomit, just like Lindsay Lohan in 'Mean Girls' except this time it wouldn't be actual vomit.