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He stopped dead in his tracks. "Why?"

"Why what?" I stepped in closer to him.

"Why would you want to drop me off?"

I mustered the most innocent look I could pull off, fluttering my lashes. "I'm doing what I would've wanted someone to offer me on a rainy day."

He took a step closer, studying me. "Won't your boyfriend be mad if you dropped me off?"

"I don't have a boyfriend."

"Hasn't Pierson claimed you yet?"

"I'm a person. Not a thing to claim." I scoffed. "And he's my friend."

"Pierson Redmond doesn't have female friends," he stated, like it was something I should've already known by now at this point. "He simply has potential sexual partners. That's how all of those guys work. Your twin brother's included."

"They've got girlfriends."

He snickered. "That never stopped them in the past, don't know why it would stop them now."

My gaze hardened. "Do you want a freaking ride or not, Ridgewood?"

"Ooh, we're calling each other by our last names now, huh?" He smirked and walked back toward the bike rack. "I'll take you up for that offer, Ellington."

I rolled my eyes and guided us to Evelyn's black BMW. I brought down the back seats so he could roll in his bike. He took the passenger seat and buckled himself in. Only a second after I turned the car on, he brought his hands to the radio, going straight for the rock radio station, and blaring it louder than ever.

I lowered the volume. "Do you want to go deaf?"

"Sorry, didn't know it was that loud, Grandma." He mused and shifted his attention to the glove compartment, rummaging through the things inside.

"What are you doing now? Close that," I ordered. He locked eyes with me and dug his hand in deeper in. "You can't just go through people's stuff."

He shut it. "There's nothing interesting there anyway."

"What were you expecting? Gold?"

He sighed. "Well, I was expecting something more scandalous."

"Sorry to disappoint." I said and brought the car out of the school parking lot. Glancing over at the campus, I thought of what I was supposed to tell Pierson and Beth for not showing up. If I hurried up on dropping Dakota off at his place, then maybe I could have enough time to sneak back into school and act like I had never left.

The only problem with that was I didn't want to rush myself while driving.

I didn't want to rush myself while with Dakota.

Simply because he's got drawings of you doesn't change the fact that he's a complete and utter jerk, my thoughts reminded me. It was true. It didn't change how I felt about how he talked to me, he was out of line and not nice. Seeing those drawings changed something in me though, changed how I saw him.

"Are we going to drive aimlessly or are you going you to tell me where you live?" I asked.

"Keep driving down this road and turn on to Rivera Drive. It's the only house on the street and it's on a hill. You'll know it when you see it."

I nodded, letting the music in the car fill the space between us. From the corner of my eye, I saw him lift up my back pack. My entire body stiffened and my stomach fell to the floor. If he saw that sketch book...

"Drop that or I'm going to have to kill you."

He smiled. "Doll, I'm already dead."

"Drop it now. Dakota, I will kick you out of this car right now, right here, and make you walk."

"Okay, doll." He forced a sigh and dropped it down, causing the black sketch book to fall out. "What the..." he trailed off, collecting it off the ground. "This is mine. H-how do you have this?"

I laughed uncomfortably. Had the car gotten hotter? Had it shrunken in size? It sure as hell felt that way now. "It's a funny story actually."

"Oh, really? Tell me then."

"You dropped it, you see. I swear I didn't steal it," I explained. "Right when the bell rang and you stuffed the First Aid Kit in to your locker, that little black book fell right out. Out of the kindness in my heart, I picked it up and decided I'd give it back to you."

He scowled. "Did...did you open it?"

"Of course not." I lied. "I'm not like you. I don't go through people's stuff without them knowing. If you want to show me what's inside there, though-"

"I don't want you to see anything in here." He narrowed his eyes more, looking at me closely. "Did you see my drawings?"

"I already told you."

"Tell me again, doll."

"Stop calling me that." I ordered, despite the fact that the way he said 'doll' made my stomach form in to a million knots. "I don't want you to call me doll."

"What do you want me to call you then, Sandra?" He grinned smugly.

"I'd like for you to call me by my name." I stated. "Which isn't Sandra."

"I know it's not. It's Silvia," he admitted. "But I like how you get so red in the cheeks when I say it. It's cute to see you angry." He caught himself, but it was too late. "I mean, it's funny."

I tried not to grin like an idiot when he said that. I needed to keep my composer cool, calm, and collected. Even if he caught himself, it didn't change the fact what he said at first. We had veered away from the talk about the sketch book and I was more than glad for that. I wanted to keep it that way.

"So, I've got some theories about why Carmen attacked me." I voiced.

"You don't need to think up theories. It's pretty easy to know why she did it."

"You know?"

"Yeah, I do." He folded his arms over his chest. "I don't like keeping tabs on the gossip around here, but I happened to see her in my first period, sobbing about Hunter breaking up with her. All I heard her say was that it had to do with something that went on after that fight that broke out at the Smell. I didn't know what she was talking about though."

I knew what Carmen was referring to. Hunter must've found out about how she tried to attack me at the diner. Either Beth, Xander, Pierson, or one of the guys with her told him about it. It couldn't have been Maven who told him. Maven was probably disappointed that I didn't get my ass handed to me. I wouldn't be shocked if he was the one who told Carmen that I'd been "the reason" Hunter got attacked from the behind.

"And you didn't comfort her when she was crying like that?" I inquired, shooting him a look. He gave a shrug, clearly not caring about her. "That's rude. You guys dated."

"Yeah, we did date. We dated for nearly two years. And then she started to fuck around with your step-brother for an entire two months without breaking up with me first. I had to find out the old fashion way. I caught her in the act at a party." He said bluntly. "I've no sympathy for cheaters. It's simple. Don't have more than one girlfriend or boyfriend. If you want to have more than one, make sure they are aware of it. People act like its complex and hard to understand."

I inhaled sharply and nodded on the matter. We pulled in front of a black gate that enclosed a large estate atop a hill. Weeds as height as my chest stretched around the front law. It was a long front yard, that was for one, stretching out into the distance. The house was hardly in view, blocked by tall swaying trees, shaking in the rain.

Vines wrapped the perimeter of the gate and the massive four story brick structure, making it look more gothic and creepy. A thickly wooded area curled around the back of the house. It looked like no one had lived in that house for years from how awful the front yard looked. No one took care of it. Where was Edward Scissorhands when you needed him?

"Are you sure this is your house?" I ducked my head down, staring up at the home. "It looks pretty vacant."

"Wanna come inside?" I gulped loudly, staring wide-eyed at him. Right after he said that, he laughed. "I'm kidding. God, you should've seen your face after I asked. It was priceless."

I punched him playfully. "You're not very nice, you know that?"

He shrugged. "I wasn't manufactured to be nice, doll."

He stepped out of the car, walking to the back of the car. Unlocking the trunk, he lifted it open and retrieved his bicycle. It wasn't until he rolled off his bike to the gate, opened it, and stepped inside that I noticed the backpack he'd left behind.

"What is with you and leaving crap?" I grumbled to myself while grabbing his bag, opening my car door, bringing out my umbrella against the rain. I shut the door and ran up to the gate he left ajar, slipping in between them and sneaked into the unruly weeds. He was already up at the front door. A dark shadow darted from under his legs and right for me.

I heard the growling before I saw it. The weeds swayed as it came closer and closer to me.

It was a Great Dane and my greatest fear. He bared his teeth at me, snapping it. A deep bark rumbled into my bones.

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Please vote and comment

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Song: Cheater by the Vamps.

Lyrics:

❝Let me tell you about your boyfriend. Yeah, he's got another girlfriend.❞

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[A/N: I think the gif is pretty close to how I'd imagine Dakota's dog. Also, I recently went back and took out 70% of the swear words in this book. I was so shocked when I saw I had 28 results of "f*ck/f*cking." I will now refrain from swearing so much. Dakota and Silvia's mom (and sometimes Pierson) will always swear though, that's just how they are. I'm going to go easy on it now for the rest of the novel. Sorry if swear words make you off].

Update: Turns out it's pretty hard for me to not swear in my novels. I promise it's my characters fault *scouts honor*

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