Chapter 34

**ADRIAN**

"Again, it's a gym." I repeated with a clear tone. "That belongs to the school, and everyone is allowed to be here."

She continued glaring at me.

"Get that delusional brain checked out, Lilian. No one is here because of you."

She scoffed and turned away. I smirked at her and watched her press the timer a couple of times before she started running again.

"Well, since we're both here now, we might as well address the elephant in the room." She stated while throwing a sharp glance in my way. "Don't talk about what happened that night, so let's just pretend it never happened. Are we clear?"

I stifled back a laugh and braced my arms on each side of the handrails while focusing my attention on her.

"What if I don't want to?"

Her head quickly snapped in my direction, and her eyes glared straight at me.

"I don't care what you want. It's never going to happen again, and you and I will keep our distance from each other like we used to before. Whatever happened that night is already a distant memory to me."

How cute

I pressed the stop button, hopped off my treadmill, and paused right before hers. I reached in and also pressed the red button on her treadmill to make her stop as well.

"Let's recreate more then."

She started to slow down just as her treadmill does the same before it came to a complete stop. She braced her hands on her hips and fully turned around to face me.

Since the treadmills are a little high and she was still standing on them, it made her appear taller than me since I was standing on the ground.

I found myself struggling to breathe when she suddenly faced me. Her eyes glared down at me, and I quickly looked somewhere else to avoid them, but I was not looking away from her.

I was taking notes about everything else;

Like the sweat that dotted her golden brown skin, the hair tendrils that fell freely around her face, even the way her chest was heaving up and down because she was breathing really heavily.

And that goddamn hickey.

I did that.

That was me...

I left my mark on her before she was even mine.

God, the things I would do to have my lips and hands around her body again...

My eyes slowly refocused on her face again. Everything around me started to fade into the background, and all I could see was....her.

Her lips are moving, but the words are not reaching my ears. I could tell she was angry with me and was definitely saying something that could bruise an ego or the heart, but fuck it.

I am mesmerized by the sight in front of me.

"Okay, not gonna lie, you look so hot right now." I blurted out without a second thought.

The expression on her face suddenly changed to confusion and then to surprise.

Before I could grab the chance to retract my words, she jumped off the treadmill and pushed past me while walking away.

I stared at the empty spot she had left while smiling to myself before hopping back on my treadmill and continuing with my cardio exercise.

Well, at least she didn't say anything back to deny it. I know she felt it too.

No matter what she says or how many guys she goes out with, she will never be able to run from it.

And I will take every chance I get to keep reminding her of that until she caves.

**•KAIA•**

"Remind me why we're here again."

Amy chuckled and hooked her arm around mine before pulling me closer to her side.

"You only live once, right?" She replied teasingly, and I narrowed my eyes at her.

"I know I said that's like my motto of the year, but that doesn't mean you can drag me to every party you've been invited to. I have a life of my own, you know."

She turned her head towards me and rolled her eyes right in my face.

"Yes, I know. Which is why you need to get out more, take a break from your books and your fictional men, and have more fun."

She started to pull me towards the frat house where the party was held, and I tried to brace myself back from letting her pull me along.

"I can have fun on my own." I protested weakly, which earned me a scoff.

"Sure, you do."

I reluctantly followed her inside the house. The minute we entered the room, the smell of alcohol, cigarettes, perfume, and bodies rubbing against each other immediately hit me.

The house was crowded, and the party was in full swing with boys and girls that filled every corner of the house, drinking, laughing, talking, singing, and dancing.

I let Amy lead the way further inside the house till we found another room where all the drinks and snacks were. A group of girls were doing shots on one side, and the rest were just standing around and having fun.

"Pass me two of those!" I heard Amy yell at someone.

Some guy was standing behind the countertop, and I watched him grab two red Solo cups and fill them with alcohol from the keg below him before passing them over to Amy.

She turned around to face me with a huge grin on her face and gave me one of the cups.

"Drink up, bitch. Cheers to college life!"

She didn't even give me a chance to say anything before briefly pushing her own cup against mine and chugging down the whole thing from the cup.

I watched in astonishment when she finished her whole drink without missing a beat. She placed the cup away, wiped her lips with the back of her hand, and turned back to me.

Her eyes fell straight to the drink in my hand before she glared at me.

"Don't make me force you." She warned with a straight face.

I glanced at the cup and then at her before slowly lifting it to my lips and taking a sip. But of course, I barely swallowed a few drops before the bitch decided to tip the bottom of my cup and almost made me choke the whole thing down my throat.

"Jesus, Amy." I cried out while wiping the side of my neck where I had spilled my drink a little bit.

"Much better," she replied while laughing.

I shook my head with a smile and carefully finished my whole drink this time. Ten minutes later, I found myself dancing in the middle of the room with Amy and two other girls I didn't even know.

Alcohol has a way of working fast on me, so it didn't take very long to lose control and join in on the party.