Remember Me

Chapter 28

I narrow my eyes at him before deciding to ignore him and look forward. I have to have the shittiest luck of any human being to ever live. From the moment I sat here and felt his presence, heard his familiar chuckle, I knew it was Connor sitting next to me in the back of my mind and had deliberately worked hard to forget that fact and refused to even glance in his direction. I had refused to admit to myself that I could even have the misfortune of being stuck next to him when I should have been at an entirely different table. But I guess him being here could throw off a pairing and it just had to be mine. 

“I guess we’re married now, Natalie,” I hear a low, deep voice too close to my ear, making my skin tingle and the tiny hairs on my neck stand up in awareness. My name falling off his lips like velvet and sounding way too intoxicating coming from him.  

“Pass,” I answer coldly. 

“Aw, come on. You don’t have to be so cold. Besides, look around, firecracker. I’m the only option you have left,” he continues taunting me, relishing it way too f*****g much. 

I look around the room, prepared to work with anyone but him at this point. I bite my lip and close my eyes when I realize he’s right and I’m stuck with him if I can't figure something else out. I open my eyes when I feel a new presence next to me and see Riley’s green eyes looking at me from where he’s squatted next to me. Always perfect timing with him. I try to discreetly shake my head at him and avoid this conversation entirely, especially while in the presence of Connor, but he doesn’t budge, his eyes showing how bad and conflicted he feels. 

“I was trying but she ambushed me and wouldn’t stop begging. I couldn’t figure out how to get out of it so I could ask you. I started telling her that I was on my way to ask you but she just got more persistent with begging and was practically refusing to hear anything I tried to say. I’m so sorry, Natalie,” he says with desperation. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Connor’s smirk grow at Riley’s words and how amused they must make him. It only makes me grow more frustrated and angrier at my predicament. 

“And I haven’t seen you all day, so I wasn’t expecting you to be here now. I spent the day trying to figure out how to still work with you-” he says, trying to continue but I cut him off. 

“Riley, stop. You’re not my boyfriend and we aren’t obligated to work together,” I say, my words coming out hard and harsh, making pain flash in his eyes for a brief moment. “I think it’s great you’re working with her,” I continue, trying to make my voice at least a centimeter gentler than before. 

“I just wanted to make sure you knew that it was you I wanted to do this with. And I guess I ignorantly thought you might want to work with me since you don’t really have anyone else and it looked like you wanted to. But hey, I guess that was just my eyes tricking me,” he snaps, his words sounding way too hard to be coming from him and actually cutting me deep. 

My eyes grow cold as I do the only thing I’ve learned to do to protect myself from the pain and I see his newfound anger fade, replaced with regret and panic under my gaze. I hear a bone-chilling chuckle escape my lips before I even mean to let it escape. Him telling me I have no one like I don’t realize that and didn’t consciously make that decision for myself pushing me too far. 

“Wow, look at you finally getting an edge. You’re right. I don’t have anyone. Maybe this widely known fact escaped your attention but I’ll clue you in now and save you the trouble. I don’t like people. I like being alone. I like only depending on myself. I choose not to have anyone,” I tell him, my voice low and cutting like a razor blade, no longer trying to hold back any cruelty. “I think your partner is waiting for you so you should probably go sit with her and stop worrying about me. I don’t need you worrying about me. Connor and I will do just fine.” 

His face goes ghost white and he looks almost sick at my words. His eyes flash over to Connor and take him in. I see Connor leaning back in his chair, one arm resting over the back, and raise his eyebrow at him and give him a short, somehow menacing wave before flashing him his famously dangerous and taunting smile. Confusion and wariness flash across Riley’s face before it turns to disbelief and anger. He stands up, his hands landing just a bit too hard onto our table before he turns and walks to his newly designated table, leaving me with my fading anger and a new emptiness inside of me. 

“Woah. Pretty boy has it bad for you, little firecracker. What did you do to that boy?” Connor’s lilting and mocking voice rings in my ears, bringing me back to reality.  

“Stop. Calling. Me. That,” I snap, emphasizing every word. 

He smiles, his tongue sliding deliciously across his lip before biting on it. “I think it suits you perfectly,” he says, his eyes gliding slowly over every inch of me before resting on my eyes again.” 

“You don’t know me or anything about me,” I say, my tone biting. 

“I wouldn’t say that. I’m learning more with every day and second that passes.” 

I roll my eyes at him and look to the front again, ready for today to be over. “You tell yourself that.” 

“Why don’t you clue me in on how you made not just pretty boy obsessed with you but also the wannabe badass over in the far-left corner?” 

My eyes dart over to the corner he mentioned and see Colton with his back to me. I quickly mask my face so he can’t see my initial shock and confirm to him that he’s right about anything he’s trying to say. How did he even get Colton into this equation? This infuriating guy is way too f*****g observant.  

“The only one obsessed with me right now is you,” I retort, my eyes and voice scathing.  

He lets out a chuckle that sounds like the only one I’ve heard him let past his lips but also melodious. He leans forward and rests his arms on our table only a breath away from mine. Is he trying to intimidate me? Only in his f*****g dreams would he ever get that satisfaction.