Chapter 52 We aren't married!
Tegan
My grip on the armrest tightened as I held on for my dear life. It's only been seconds since Hayes zoomed off with me and he's been driving like the road personally insulted him.
The engine snarls beneath us, the car surging forward in sharp, aggressive bursts, and I swear I can feel my lifespan shortening with every second the speed climbs.
My fingers clamp around the armrest, nails digging in so hard it almost hurts. Almost. Because the real pain is sitting right next to me, one hand on my steering wheel, the other currently holding my fluffy pink headrest pillow like it’s evidence of a crime.
“What is this?” he scoffs.
Before I can even form a response, he tosses it.
Just toss it.
It flies to the backseat like it offended his entire bloodline.
My mouth falls open. My heart stutters. The car swerves slightly.
“Oh my God—watch the road!” I snap, panic slicing through my voice as I press myself back into the seat.
“I am watching the road,” he says flatly, like the slight swerve didn’t just nearly send me into the afterlife.
His gaze flicks back forward, jaw tight, and then his fingers brush against my steering wheel cover again.
The fluffy pink one.
The one I love.
He grips it. Pauses.
“…Why is it soft?” he mutters, almost suspicious.
And then, like that answers everything, he rips it halfway off the wheel.
“HEY—!”
I don’t even finish the sentence before he yanks it free completely and throws it behind him, not even looking. It lands somewhere out of sight with a dull thump.
The wheel is bare now. My wheel. My poor, violated wheel.
“You can’t just….those are my things!” I protest, voice rising as the car shoots past another one, too fast, way too fast.
Something pink brushes his arm.
My seatbelt pad.
He glances down at it like it personally inconvenienced him, then grabs it, tugging it off the belt in one swift motion.
“Stop touching my stuff!” I shout, panic and outrage mixing into something dangerously close to hysteria.
He ignores me. Of course he does.
The pad joins the others in the backseat, tossed without ceremony.
My Stanley cup rattles violently in the holder, lid clicking against the plastic as the car jerks again.
His eyes drop to it.
“No—don’t you dare—”
Too late.
He snatches it up, gives it a quick, unimpressed look, and then—
Thunk.
It lands on the passenger floor, rolling somewhere near my feet.
I gasp like he just committed a felony. “That could spill!”
“It didn’t,” he says, already looking back at the road, utterly unbothered.
I am very bothered.
I am also very aware that we are moving entirely too fast for someone who keeps taking his hands off the wheel to redecorate my car into a crime scene.
“Are you trying to kill me?” I demand, gripping the armrest even harder.
“If I was, you’d know,” he replies coolly.
Oh.
Oh, I hate him.
The car surges forward again, the engine roaring, my heart jumping into my throat as buildings blur past the windows.
Everything that was once neatly placed, carefully chosen, loved, is now scattered behind us like casualties.
And he just sits there, one hand back on the wheel now, jaw set, expression dark and irritated, Like my pink things were the problem.
Like I’m the problem.
I swallow hard, pressing myself deeper into the seat, holding on like it’s the only thing keeping me alive.
Because right now?
It probably is.
“As much as I'm a fan of the color pink, I don't appreciate being inconvenienced or rather assaulted by your–”
“Why are you a fan of pink?” I ask, feeling hot.
My face was burning.
He didn't look at me, but his smirk was sharp. “Because it’s the color you wear when I ruin you. It’s my favorite color now.” he says with a smirk, clearly to spite me.
“Then I hope you still love pink when I send you to the afterlife with a pink blade” I spat.
The maniac's smile only grew wider, his attention still on the road. “You could break me and I’d still stay princess”
My face flushed, my heart started pounding way too fast, it wasn't the adrenaline from the ride. That's how he wins, by making me blush like some fangirl with a fat crush.
“Where are we going?”
“The beach house” he answered.
“Just take me back to the school, I don't want to go anywhere with you”
“That wasn't what we discussed now, was it?”
“This is kidnapping Hayes…. You just took me from the garage, not only did you steal my car, you also violated it by ripping off her style” I shouted.
“I’m not kidnapping you sweetheart. I'm taking my wife to my place”
Is he officially insane or something?
“We aren't married!” I screeched in frustration.
“Details koala, we'll get to those once we land.
“Whatever madness this is, just stop it” I pleaded.
“Madness? Weren't you satisfied enough with our second date? People tend to go on more dates when the last one was successful I hear”
“Second date?”
“Did you forget the beach house? You were shaking so hard I thought you’d break. You begged me not to stop. You were putty in my hands, crying for more of the man you claim to hate.”
“That was a mistake!”
“Keep telling yourself that darling,” he rasped.
“And then the lake? You looked at me like I was your god while you stood there admiring the view. Was that a 'mistake' too?”
“Leave me the fuck alone, Hayes.”
He made a low, hungry sound.
“I love it when you say that word aloud, it makes you sound so filthy, too filthy for daddy's perfect little girl”
“You're sick” I said under my breath.
“I wonder what he'll say when he finds out about us.”
“I love the way you’re trembling. Is it fear, or is it because your body still hasn’t forgotten the way I tore through your innocence at your birthday party?”
“Hayes, please stop,” I begged.
I didn't know if I was begging for him to stop speeding, or to stop talking about my dad finding out, or to stop saying those filthy words that keep getting my core soaked.
I just needed him to stop.
“Well it's too bad we just have to find out anyway” he says.
“What did you do?”
He just shrugged, my attention drew back to my phone that's been beeping non-stop since we started our crazy ride.
I unlocked it quickly and saw messages from different people flooding my DM but they were all sharing a post to me, one I was tagged in.
I opened it, and forgot how to breathe, everything in me went still as u stared at the screen.