PLAY WITH FIRE

CHAPTER 14

SCARLETT VALENTINE

PRESENT TIME

His occasional grunts seeped through the walls, echoing and rebounding on the halls of his spare bedroom I was currently laying in. It was going on 2:30 am and here I was unable to sleep with guilt, listening to Holden's grunts as he worked out in his room beside this one. The moment I began wondering if those were his sex grunts as well was the moment I pulled the pillow out from under me and slammed it over my face hoping to drown out the sounds that had my heart racing. 

I'm a bitch. 

I'm a grade A fucking bitch. 

I pressured Holden into admitting he was a virgin, but I guess in that moment I was too busy trying to find a reason to not like him, thinking about how much I liked him in High School, whilst I thought he was a manwhore. And now I know that he is a virgin? I think High School me likes him even more now. 22 year old me might even like him a little bit more now, not in that way, but as a person. 

"Fuck" Holden hissed in pain and in a second I was up and making my way towards the door. I left the spare bedroom, walking to Holden's bedroom before knocking my knuckles against the wood three times. 

"Holden?" I called out, knocking again. There was a sigh behind the door, a lock flicking before the door was pulled open. I held back a moan, hoping my face didn't show what I was feeling in this very moment as I looked up at a sweaty, shirtless Holden, staring down at me in nothing but white socks and grey tracksuit pants. Beads of sweat littered his forehead, a sweat drop sliding down the length of his neck. His chest rose and fell, his lips slightly parted as he tried to breathe, my eyes falling to his bare body. Tattoos littered not only his arms but torso too, his body hard and chiselled asking for me to run my hands over the abs that got more and more defined with each breath he took. 

"What can I help you with, Miss Valentine?" He asked through a sigh, and I just knew this wasn't a tired from working out sigh, this was a 'I don't want you here' sigh. I cleared my throat finding my way back to his face, his dark eyebrows drawn down, piercing eyes staring straight into my soul. 

"I heard you swear. You sounded hurt, are you-"

"I'm fine" Holden cut me off, pressing his arm against his side tighter. A tiny splodge of red peeked out from his arm. I frowned, taking a step closer, Holden taking one back. I instantly looked up at him. 

"What are you hiding?" I asked, Holden shaking his head as he shrugged. 

"Couldn't be my virginity, you already found that one" He responded with a sarcastic passive aggressive smile, the reply making me flinch. I hated that I pressured him to tell me something so serious and personal about himself. I took another step forward, my eyes widening when more red began to seep between his arm and his side. 

"Holden you're bleeding" I stated, Holden not moving an inch. He knew he was bleeding and had I not of knocked on his door I'm not sure If he'd of fixed it, our let himself bleed out. 

"Thank you, Scar. Now go to bed" He turned around, his back to me. My eyes instantly widened, my hand slamming against my mouth as I stared at his back.

Scars. Big scars. Small scars. Faded scars. Obvious Scars. Healed Scars. Scars that never healed. 

 As if he just remembered he was without a shirt on, he quickly spun around, eyes wide and hard as he stared at me. His body was stiff, muscles tight, chest rising and falling no longer because he was out of breath from working out, but because he was panicking. I had to gulp down the lump in my throat, as well as pushing down the bile. I wasn't disgusted by the act his back was littered with scars, but rather disgusted that somebody did that to him. That he had to suffer through that pain and only to have reminders of that pain, permanently embedded into his skin.