Part Of Me { Completed ✔ }

Chapter 15. Kate

>>> EDITED <<<

Connor had stayed true to his word and had still refused to let me catch the bus to university but things weren't the same as they were before we kissed. I remembered it vividly, his warm breath washing over me, his rough lips softly but surely controlling the kiss, the feel of his coarse hands on my jaw and the taste of his tongue. God, I remembered every second down to me pushing him away and becoming a crying mess.

I'd felt even more tense around Nessa. Like now, as she hung around my apartment. I felt tense while we ate, while we watched 'Magic Mike' and especially as she droned on about how she had once wanted to watch the movie with Connor and he had refused.

The guilt of kissing Connor, of having feelings for her ex boyfriend was eating me up inside. Nessa and Connor had been on and off for five years, he was practically her property. I wouldn't be surprised if I were to find a 'Property of Nessa Maytis' tattooed on his ass.

"Why are you so quiet?" Nessa questioned, glaring at the bowl of snacks I had in front of me. Nessa was one of those weirdos that hated the taste of sweets, I suppose her slim figure showed as much.

A toxic and vicious thought came to the forefront of my mind as I swept my eyes over Nessa. She was beautiful, more than beautiful, she was otherworldly. Her long blonde hair was always gleaming and healthy, her skin had an inhuman glow, never an imperfection insight, with her dark brown eyes, long lashes and perfectly pouted lips she was every man's dream. Connor couldn't want me, how could he want me after he'd had her? She was a five star desert and I was a bland and boring, flavourless cracker.

Jealous. I was so damn jealous.

"Kate," Nessa called my name, raising her brows at me in question. "Are you okay? You're starring at me like your considering skinning me and wearing my body like a dress. You freak." She tossed a grape into her mouth as she continued to stare at me expectantly.

"I'm friends with Connor." The words tumbled from my mouth, when I realised I'd said them out loud I slammed my jaw shut so harshly my teeth clanked together painfully.

"So?" Nessa's perfectly arched brows rose higher, almost disappearing into her hairline.

"I'm sorry, for befriending your ex." I pulled the covers up to my chin, shielding myself from Nessa's oncoming wrath.

To my surprise she only shrugged. "I don't care who your friends with." Her demeanor changed though, as she added, "You barely know anything about him though." Nessa looked away from me, her hand forming a tense fist at her side. 

"I barely know anything about you." I countered, feeling the need to defend my relationship with Connor. It was a low blow though. I knew why Nessa kept a lot of her life from me, for my safety. Her family life was complicated and dangerous. It hurt that she never told me about it, that she never let me help her. I hated the days she would come into work, covered in bruises and with dark, deep bags under her eyes. On those days I'd force her to come back to my apartment, I'd try to convince her to stay, to not go back home but when I'd wake in the morning, Ness would always be gone without a trace. 

Nessa released a tense breath, she straightened her spine, perfecting her already elegant posture. 

"I'm sorry, that was a low blow." 

She ignored my apology.  "I really don't give a shit about you being friends with Connor but if you fuck my ex..." Her brown eyes blazed, growing dark as she promised, "I'll never forgive you."

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When Nessa finally left later that night - only to go to work - I felt the need to get out of the house, to do anything to keep my mind off of Connor. I gathered my study essentials and headed straight to the bus stop.