Teacher's Pet

Chapter 23

Aria

And there he stood. Smirking at me as he grabbed the napkin from my hand and wiped the beer off of his neck and chest. I swallowed hard, trying to avoid whatever bottled-up emotions I had.

Buuut it was difficult. Really difficult. I haven't seen him in weeks. And now he decides to show up on my birthday? What a coincidence.

"Well hello, amore," he says in a cocky tone. "Fancy seeing you here."

"It's my birthday. Obviously, I would be here," I bite back. He throws the napkin down onto the table and sighs.

"You got beer on one of my best shirts," he replies, ignoring what I said.

"Okay Dante, seriously? What the fuck? I haven't heard a peep from you in weeks," I say. "Enough bullshit. Why are you here?"

"I will admit, what I did was a bit wrong. But it was for a good reason," he says.

"Good reason? Give me at least one," I say.

He shakes his head and drinks the last remaining drop in his glass. I look over towards Sam to try and attempt to get her attention, but it fails once I see how entertained she is with Aaron.

"Alright, fine. You got me there," he says.

"Are you going to explain yourself or not? I'm not interested in you avoiding the question."

"What question?" he says with a smirk drawn across his face.

And with that, I turn on my heel and walk in the opposite direction. I wasn't interested in his games. I wanted to have fun. Dance, party, drink. But instead, I'm stuck dealing with his bullshit games.

I stormed past Alec, who tried to grab my hand as I walked past. I shook him off and started for the stairs. Though I didn't get far.

I felt a hand grab my arm and pull me towards them. I turned and noticed it was Dante. I tried to resist, but it was impossible. Before long I got swooped up and thrown over his shoulders, my witch hat falling off onto the living room floor. 

He walked towards the hallway as I kicked and screamed at him, demanding he let me go. But it was pointless. The music drowned out everything I said.

"Shut up, would ya? You're acting like a fucking child," he yells.

"I wonder why. Considering you threw me over your shoulders like one!" I scream back.

"What?" he yells smiling.

I roll my eyes and hit him one final time before I gave up and let my body fall into his. I felt his hand slap my ass and I went quiet, the heat rushing to my face as he continued carrying me down the hallway.

He walked into an empty bedroom and over to the bed. He plopped me down and walked over to the door, slamming it and locking it behind him.

"Goddamn it. What has gotten into you?" I ask.

"I wanted to talk to you, Aria. But instead, you walk away like a child," he says.

"If you would've taken it seriously I wouldn't have. Now who's the child?" I say smirking.

He rolls his eyes and walks over to the chair near the windowsill and takes a seat. He pulls a cigarette from his jacket pocket and lights it, letting it rest in between his lips.

"Since when do you smoke?" I ask surprised. No answer. I stare at him and he looks right past me, focusing on a clock across the room. He takes another huff and turns his head to look at me.