.Nine.

x

He dumped a bucket of water on me.

I’m not even kidding.

Then again, I guess that’s Tristan for you.

“Rise and shine, Princess.” He sang merrily, stripping the covers away from me as I warily opened an eye. I shivered uncontrollably, completely soaked and more than ticked off.

“Did you just dump water on me?” I snarled in disbelief, my voice almost as cold as how I was feeling.

Tristan chuckled. Yes, you heard me right, he chuckled.

“Leah, darling, must I remind you that I told you to be up early? If you want to scare your parents and get them to allow you to quit your job, you’re going to have to cooperate.” He said slowly, drawing out more words than was necessary. “I told you to be up, and seeing as you weren’t, I dumped water on you.”

I scowled.

“Now get out of bed so we can get the look done quickly.”

I blinked, refusing to move from my position on my water logged mattress. The bastard better be ready to pay for that, I was on a tight budget!

“Leah?”

I scowled again. “I’m not moving, I’m rather comfortable here, thank you.”

“Is that so?” Tristan replied, a wide smirk growing across his face.

“Yes sir.” I stated uninterestedly, “Now, you can be on your merry own way while I get to catch up on my shut eye.”

“If ice water being thrown on you doesn’t wake you up, nothing will.” He countered, “Besides, I know you’re cold and uncomfortable.”

“How are you so sure of that?” I argued, “It’s not like you have a thermometer with you.”

“I don’t need a thermometer to tell when a chick’s cold.” He assured me, winking and staring blatantly at my chest. I flushed bright red as I looked at down at my soaked tank top, and then pulled up my equally soaked blanket to cover my chest.

“You … you… agh!” I blustered, the blush creeping over my features quickly. Tristan smirked, threw a pillow in my direction, and shut the door.

“I’m waiting Princess.” He sang from the other side, “We don’t have all the time in the world.”

I huffed angrily, but jumped into a shower regardless. I showered quickly, barely even washing my hair properly, and hopped out, only to see Tristan sitting beside the mirror, examining his face. Screaming in alarm, I jumped back into the shower, wrapping the curtain around me.

“’S nothing I haven’t seen before.” Tristan commented dryly, picking up the stick of eyeliner and applying it more heavily to his already darkened eyelids.

“So you’re telling me that you regularly go into showers with girls and- Wait. Don’t answer that.” I babbled, grabbing a towel and wrapping it tightly around my waist.

Tristan glanced towards me, casting me a calculating look. Appearing to be deep in thought, his eyes raked me over from the top of my head to the tips of my pink toenails. He nodded, confusing me, and muttered something to himself underneath his breath.

“Put on some clothes and go drag your hair in the garden or something, it looks too good.” He decided, putting the stick of eyeliner down and ushering me in the right direction.

“You want me to drag my hair in the garden?” I questioned, wondering if I heard him right.

“When I was into hardcore drugs, my hair looked like shit.” He answered nonchalantly, “Your hair always looks like you’ve just visited the hairdresser. So go rub some dirt in it.”

I blanched.

“You were into hardcore drugs?” I blurted, unable to keep the shock out of my voice.

Sure, I had heard rumors about Tristan getting into some weird drugs, but I was certain they were all just rumors. I had hung out with him nonstop lately, and it had never even crossed my mind for a second that they could possibly have been true. Not only that, but the fact that he could say it so casually surprised and scared me at the same time.

“Yes.” He affirmed, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket. I frowned, and gave him a look, as if to tell him to put it away. “If you want me to put the cigarette away, you won’t hear the story.” He added, sending a testing look in my direction.

“You know what I want?” I sputtered, “I want to go scare my parents and quit my job. Sure, I would have liked to know that someone I had been spending all my time with was into hardcore drugs, but, you know, I understand if it slipped.”

“Well sorry for not wanting to go through a part of my past I don’t like.” He spat, frown growing deeper.

“You’re right, you’re right.” I admitted, “This is stupid, it’s none of my business anyways. I’ll just … uh… go rub my hair in some dirt then…”

“Come here.” Tristan gasped exasperatedly, putting the cigarette back in his pocket. I walked towards him and he motioned for me to sit down. Sitting down, I winced as cool fingers brushed through my hair and grazed my neck. Pulling my hair into a tight bun, he dumped a huge glob of gel into my hair. I winced a second time as the cool gel leaked across my neck and onto my towel.

“That will do the trick.” He said, “Gel makes everyone’s hair look like shit.” I spun around, suddenly aware at how close we were, and flushed pink remembering the kiss at the restaurant.

“Embarrassed?” Tristan chuckled, running a cool hand across my cheek, “You know you can’t get so wound up when we’re close around your parents or they won’t believe us.”

I swallowed nervously. “I know.” Tristan’s cool hand had managed to calm the mad blushing on my cheeks and he grinned as he brought his face closer to mine.

I panicked; afraid he was going to kiss me, and muttered something about having to arrest my dog, scampering back to my room to get dressed.

“Leah.” Tristan droned, his voice loud enough for me to hear, even in my room.

“Yeah?” I squeaked, slipping into the clothes we had bought.

“That was a test.” He proclaimed, “And you just failed.”

“Fantastic.” I mumbled breathlessly to myself, and slid into the too-tight pants Tristan had bought. I felt my hair and let out a disgusted groan of disapproval, the strands sticking together in a mushy mess.

Tristan walked into my room without opening the door and suddenly rushed forward, pushing me onto the (still wet) bed, and whipping out the black eyeliner he had been using on himself moments earlier.

“I want to put it on you.” He murmured in my ear, snaking an arm around my waist and pulling me back to my feet.

“So what exactly was the point of pushing me onto my bed exactly?” I declared, leaning onto the counter behind me.

“I don’t know,” He admitted, “just seemed right at the time.”

He pressed his body against mine and raised an arm to apply the famous dark liner to my eyes. I let my eyelids flutter shut as he ran the pencil rhythmically along my eyes. We didn’t have an inch to spare, his thighs and stomach pushed against mine, leaving me pinned to the wall. I opened my eyes as the pencil stopped touching my eyes to see marvelously blue eyes staring into mine.

He grinned and, placing a hand on my hip, he leaned in once more. Although my heart still beat nervously when he approached me, I closed my eyes again and let his cool lips press against mine.

I wasn’t even quite sure why I was kissing him. It wasn’t like we were going to have to resort to public displays of affection around my parents that evening, it was certain that the look would creep them out enough and my boss would have a letter of resignation by the next day. Then again, kissing Tristan was unlike any other kind of kiss I had ever shared before.

Sure, I had only kissed him once, but in the span of two minutes he had me screaming for more, and here, again, I didn’t want to lose the feeling of those stone cold lips pressed ever so gently against mine. I barely noticed his hand lying on my hip, when normally I was hyper-aware of any touching that was going on. So what was different with Tristan then? He finally pulled away and ran a thumb, albeit awkwardly, along my eyelid.

“Sorry, smudge.” He announced, letting the distance between us grow. I stood there, still as a statue, as he exited the room, laughing softly underneath his breath. “Oh, and Leah?”

“Yes?”

“You passed the test.”

x

“Dear lord.” Were the first words that spilled out of Bella’s mouth as she took in my new appearance. I fidgeted awkwardly, my confidence with the mission declining as the minutes until our departure ticked by.

“I should be on one of those makeover shows.” Tristan chirped brightly, standing beside Bella and continuing to eye me contentedly, “Only, then everyone watching would think I was gay. And that’s not cool.”

Bella snorted, and rushed over to get a closer look at me. “Seriously Leah, your parents will barely recognize you!” She sang as she bent down to examine the thick leather boots Tristan had forced me into wearing.

“Recognition isn’t important here.” I countered, “What’s important is whether or not I look genuinely scary. I want to look scary enough for my parents to want me to get the hell away from Tristan; scary enough for them to let me quit my job.”

Bella grinned.

“You look scary enough.” She concurred, taking a step back, “The hair makes it look like you’re so drugged that you don’t care about washing it.”

Oh.

Tristan refused to meet my glance as I burned holes into the back of his head, knowing it had been his exact comment earlier. I relaxed into the couch, running a hand through my stringy unclean hair, and let my heavy eyelids flutter shut for -

…Exactly fifteen seconds.

“No time for sleep, let’s go.” Tristan said, interrupting my extremely brief state of bliss, “There’s no time to lose.”

Walking outside, my jaw dropped as Tristan hopped onto a motorbike in the driveway.

“You own a – motorbike?” I gasped, examining the vehicle with great interest.

“It’s not mine.” He emphasized, “I only have it for this special occasion.”

“Who lent it to you?” I asked, climbing on behind him and wrapping my arms around his waist. His muscles relaxed against my touch and he started the bike, the engine giving a loud roar.

“My sister.” He shouted over the noise of the motor as we took off down the street.

“Your sister?” I repeated in disbelief, “I thought you hated her?”

“I do hate her!” He shouted, “And I never said she lent it to me.”

“You took it without asking?” I gasped, tightening my grip around his waist as he continued to speed up.

“You bet.” He replied, continuing to gather speed, “You think your parents are going to be intimidated now?”

“I don’t think, I know.” I laughed, letting the wind fly through my hair as we flew down the highway.

If this was supposed to be creepy, then why was it so much fun?

x

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Note: This is the edited / revised version of chapter nine.