Catching Feelings

Chapter 27

Raven arrived home after successfully escaping Tiana's pep talk. When she walked through those doors, all she wanted to do was heat up some leftovers, and relax in front of the television. She entered the living room and not noticing the figure sitting on the sofa. "Mom, I'm home!" Raven called out but was answered by someone unexpected.

"You just missed her." A male's voice responded.

Her head whipped around hearing the familiar sound. When she turned around, she was looking Drake dead in the eyes. "So you're breaking and entering now? That's borderline stalker behavior." She took her duffle bag off of her shoulder, letting it hit the floor.

Judging from the cold glare she was giving him, he could tell that she still held some anger from earlier. He wasn't so sure if this was going to be a pleasant visit. "Your moms let me in, so if you're done with the smart comments, I'd like to talk to you."

Raven's eyes scanned the downstairs briefly, the house was entirely too quiet. "Where is she?"

"She took your sister to a movie." He replied, not bothering to mention the 'talk' her mother had with him before she left. Raven nodded and walked over to the sofa regarding him with silence, so he took that as his opportunity to speak. "What happened today was just a misunderstanding. Nothing happened between me and Dollicia. I only went over there so I could end things with her in person." As he spoke, she stayed quiet appearing as if she was listening. Drake carefully looked over her features trying to see if she believed him.

Raven took a step closer to him with her cold glare that she used to mask her hurt. "Why should I believe you? This whole time you've done nothing but play with my head while you continued to fuck her." She replied in a snippy tone.

Drake's eyebrows scrunched up starting at her. "So you're going to put all the blame on me?" He was truly bemused. "You knew what the situation was from start, but you stuck around for the same reason I did," said Drake. She parted her mouth to say something, but when he stepped forward to close the space between them it instantly shut her up. "I know what your problem is. You caught feelings and now you're using this as an excuse to get rid of me."

With him being this close she could smell the cologne hit her nose, making her want to pull him even closer, but fought the urge. "Look Aubrey, I don't need this type of stress and drama in my life right now. I think we-"

"Will you stop putting this wall up whenever I get close to you?!" He was getting frustrated with her constantly brushing him off, so his voice got a bit louder than he intended. Drake paused shaking his head when he caught himself getting upset. His hand reached up, letting his fingers brush her cheek. "I'm not him Raven... so stop trying to shut me out."

She just stared at him with wide grey eyes; his words hit her like a ton of bricks. For a moment there was nothing but silence, they just stared each other down with unspoken emotion. Raven knew he was waiting for her to say something, but she didn't know where to start. Her past relationship had made her put up an ice barricade blocking her heart, she wasn't used to letting someone get close enough to chip away at it. A minute nearly past and still no words were spoken. Drake gave up and brushed past Raven as he walked away, but her hand suddenly reached out to grab his. "Aubrey wait, don't go," she said soft enough for him to hear. He turned around with a drained expression on his face allowing her to pull him back in. "I'm not trying to shut you out. I want to explore these feelings that I have for you, but I don't want to get hurt in the process." There was no more of that snide attitude in her tone, this was the woman who opened up to him last night.

'Finally' Drake thought to himself. He was waiting for this moment. He knew these feelings weren't one-sided, he just wasn't quite sure what to call them yet. Just seeing the vulnerability that her eyes held made his whole mood soften. He sat down on the sofa and drew her down with him to sit on his lap. "Listen Raven I understand all of that, but don't I at least deserve a chance?" Drake asked.

"What a chance to hurt me?" Raven asked trying to take her mind off how relaxed she felt by just being in his arms.

"No, a chance to make you happy." Said Drake, and he meant every single word.

Raven sat on his lap, captured by the intense confident expression on his face. While gazing at him, a strong emotion jolted through her body alarming her, she couldn't possibly be feeling this way, this soon. Raven shook the thought to bring her focus back to their conversation. "You think you can do that?" She asked rhetorically not expecting him to answer.

"I'm here ain't I?" He emphasized by wrapping his arm around her. "I could be in LA right now, but I'm here trying to convince you that I want you the same way you want me. I already told Dollicia that, and now I'm telling you."

Raven was thunderstruck by his response, she also felt a tad guilty for blowing up on him earlier. "You told her that?" Raven asked.

"You can call her if you don't believe me." He shifted her on his lap so he could dig in his pocket and pull out his phone.

Raven watched in amusement as his fingers dialed the buttons. At first, she thought he was joking, but she soon found out he wasn't when she heard her former roommate on the other end of the phone. Raven hurriedly took the phone away from his ear and ended the call. "Alright, you proved your point, I believe you."

"So we're good? You can stop being mad at me and punching my exes, even though you look sexy when you're angry." Drake asked with a smile on his face that made her blush at the memory.

She caressed the back of his neck while holding his gaze and silently hoped she wouldn't regret her next words. "Yes Aubrey, we're good."

He placed his hand on her chin, guiding her mouth down to his letting their lips touch gently before pulling away. "Good because after tonight you belong to me, and I don't share. So whatever it is you have going on with Trey is finished," said Drake. She knew he was serious by the look in his eyes; there was no hidden glint behind them.

Raven nodded her head understandably, "okay." As she said this, she scrolled through his phone contacts, looking for one name in particular.

Drake watched with a confused ridden face as she went through his phone. This was something that he wouldn't normally allow, but knowing many times he took the liberty of going through Raven's phone, he couldn't really say anything, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to ask questions. "What are you doing?"

Raven's thumb scrolled through various names, most of them being of the female gender, but she didn't care, she was only looking for one. Her thumb stopped moving when she came across Dollicia's name on the screen. "I'm deleting Dollicia's." She clicked on the edit option, and her finger went straight to the red delete bar. If they were truly done, then there was no reason for her number to be on his phone. Once her task was done, she handed it back to him. "I don't share either. Mr. Graham." She said and sealed the deal with a kiss just as he did.

Drake couldn't do anything but smile as the butterflies settled in his stomach. 'This one is gonna keep me on my toes,' he thought to himself. "So I have about..." he raised his wrist a bit to get a closer look at his watch, "five hours left in New York, how about we go get something to eat since I never took you on a real date," Raven said yes and uttered something about changing her clothes first. She disappeared up the stairs while he waited on the sofa. As he sat there, he thought about everything that happened that day. When Raven told him that she didn't want anything to do with him, he felt a slow pain in his chest. After calling and texting her nonstop with no answer, he just knew she was serious, and that thought drove him crazy. An hour had barely gone by, and he was already wondering what she was doing, and who she was with. It was at that moment he realized that he was falling for her and had to make things right, and from the looks of it, he did. There was just one more thing he had to do. Drake looked over his shoulder making sure Raven was nowhere in sight, and then picked up her phone from the coffee table. He went through her contacts just as she did his a few moments ago, and stopped when he reached Trey's name. Without giving it another thought, he tapped the delete button and set the phone back down. Drake relaxed back into the sofa cushion with a smile on his face not planning on saying a word. Raven would find out eventually.