A Forbidden Love (Book 1)

Hey Baby

                                                               Picture of Damien

Naomi's POV

           My heart literally stops. What does he mean by 'see you soon'. I start to panic. I really don't want to ever see Damien again. He was already scary when I tried breaking up with him... now that he knows that me and his father are... ughhhh why is this all so complicated .

The taxi slows down and I immediately recognize where I am. I see JC's apartment and a feeling of relief comes over me. I pay the taxi and crawl out of the small back seat.

I had already texted JC that I was coming, so that shouldn't be a surprise. She lived in a quaint little apartment on the east side of Chicago. The outside of the apartment  looked like a house, but on the inside it was broken up into four apartments. JC lived on the bottom floor on the right.

I make my way up the stairs and some are a little lopsided but I don't mind. I ring the doorbell and wait out in the cold. Its so cold my breath forms a soft cloud in my face. Instinctively I look around because it's dark outside and I've been feeling a lot more paranoid these days due to the whole Damien situation.

The door opens and to my surprise it isn't JC, it's her older brother James. I used to have the hugest crush on him when me and JC were back in high school.

He still looked really good.

He had a nice dark brown skin tone with a strong jawbone . His eyes were nice and dark, but you could still see the brown in them. His lips were nice and big.

"Hey Nomi, haven't seen you in a while" he says with a smirk.

Even though James is good looking and his presence is a real nice one. I had been dreading seeing him , and the entire ride over I was hoping he wasn't home. James and Damien grew up together and they were friends. Not extremely close but Damien looked up to him as a big brother, and I know for a FACT Damien has told him something about me.

I instinctively look down at the ground avoiding his eyes.

"Hey J, I'm here to see JC" I say looking up now but still avoiding his eyes.

"Come in" I hear him say with a smile.

I give him a fake smile back and walk inside. Once inside we walk into the tiny lobby. James closes the door and makes his way over. I see him lift his hand and scratch the back of his neck as he takes me in, but not in a sexual way.

"You look different Nomi, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost" he says and makes his way closer to me.

"I'm fine" I say giving him a little laugh.

James gives me a quizzical look and he goes to open the door to their families' apartment. Opening the door he lets me walk inside first. Once inside we walk into the living room.

"Um JC should be back soon" he says .

I turn around and give him a weird look "she's not here?" I ask.

"Nah she went out to grab something to eat from the store but she told me to let you in" He says walking over to drop the keys on the coffee table.

"Oh ok" I say a little down. I really needed to tell her what was going on. I felt like I was going to explode, I didn't feel safe at all. I already started to feel a lump forming in my throat thinking back to all the photos Damien sent me. There were so many paintings of me at least seven in the picture alone. They had so much detail. Each painting was stylistically different. When did Andreas get the time to paint all of them. It would have taken him days... and I just met him a week ago. It's just extremely weird it all just seemed obsessive... was Andreas obsessed with me? I think to myself growing more uncomfortable. I'm just happy I got away from him, I needed time to digest all of this and I knew he would only try and make me stay. And I knew I would.

I stand up awkwardly and hold my arm. James comes over and sits on the living room couch.

"Well don't look so upset" he says with a smirk. "Come sit down she'll be back soon I think" he says looking at his phone.

This is so awkward I wonder how much Damien told James about our breakup. Why do awkward things always happen to me I think to myself.

I walk over and sit down. I take my boots off because they're wet with snow and I sit up on the couch with my legs up on the soft cushion. Me and James watch the TV for a while in silence. Their's basketball game on and it looks like the bulls are on. Some might feel that the silence is awkward but I was enjoying it. Not for long though, soon enough questions started eating at me that I couldn't help but want to know the answer to.

I look over at James and he's intently watching the game. I stare at him a little involuntarily and he looks over at me most likely because he could feel me staring.

"What's up" He says giving me a worried look.

"How much did Damien tell you?" I say looking down and fiddling with my sock.

"What are you talking about Nomi?" I hear him say with a laugh.

I look back at him taken aback.

"He didn't tell you?" I say confused.

James turns his full attention to me and runs his hands down his dark wavy hair.

"He didn't tell me what?" He asks.

I look at him a little longer and search his face to see if he's lying, but I can tell he's completely confused.

He gets a buzz on his phone and he looks at it and gets up from the couch. I guess JC is back. He gets up and disappears out into the lobby of the apartment. I breathe a sigh of relief I've been thinking this entire time James has been sitting here knowing about everything between me and Damien.

I've just been overreacting . I hear the front door open and I hear talking and laughing. The door to JC's apartment opens and I see JC walk through.

"Nomiiii" I hear her yell I get up and we run and hug each other.

I pull away and say "girl I need to tell you so much!" I yell and she smiles at me hugging me again.

I look past her and see James walking through the door and he's laughing and talking to someone.

I hear a laugh and I instantly know who it is. My blood runs cold and my mouth becomes dry. James walks through, and behind him is none other than Damien.

I stare at him stuck in place.

"Girl guess who pulled up behind me when I got here! Yo boo thannnngggggg" she says laughing. "Maybe y'all can hang if him and James don't play 2K the entire night" she says in between laughs.

Damien stares straight at me with a smirk on his face.

"Hey baby" he says in a cold calculating voice.