Page 10 of Only ever you-Ana & Byron (Blindsided #2)

I t was nighttime. She had skipped dinner.

Her phone had been buzzing nonstop.

Byron: Hey? Where were you today?

Byron: Everything alright?

Byron: You ok, luv?

She ignored the first few. There were a couple of messages from Cadi.

Then, finally, she replied.

Ana: Meet me behind the Wilsons' place. You know the one-it's up for sale.

Byron: B right there in 5

Byron: Missed me didya?

Ana: Come alone.

She took the front door this time. Kissed her Papa as she pulled her coat on and whispered,"This won’t take long."

***

She got there before he did.

He was grinning when he got there, all swagger like he hadn't betrayed her in the worst possible way. There was a possessiveness in his gaze as his eyes brushed her body like a caress that said I know what you look like under those clothes.

"Took you long enough to miss me, love." he said, voice low and teasing. "You look like you are not sure you wanna kiss me or kill me. Both kinda turn me on."

Ana straightened from where she was leaning on the tree, hands buried in her coat pockets, her face unreadable. She was in scruffy jeans, a Black Sabbath T-shirt with 'Heaven & Hell' printed across her chest and old hiking boots.

Byron tilted his head, stepping closer, eyes glinting. "Come on then. You are pissed off that I did a runner this morning, yeah? Say what you need to say, or better, let's make up properly."

He reached for her waist.

She didn't flinch on the outside. But the corners of her lips lifted in a smile that didn't touch her eyes.

And then drove her knee hard into his groin.

Byron gave a surprised squeak before he folded with a ragged breath, collapsing onto the cold grass, one hand bracing on the tree trunk, the other curled uselessly over his crown jewels.

"Jaysus-Ana-what the fuck-,” he wheezed.

She crouched beside him, calm and terrifying, and yanked his phone from his jeans pocket with practised ease.

"Not in a hurry to get up now, are you?" she said conversationally, her tone stone cold

"And don't think you need to spend any more cash on condoms anymore... those swimmers of yours are probably toast."

Byron groaned, curled on his side, one hand cupping his crotch .

Ana didn't wait for him to recover. She was already looking through his messages and photos.

"Have you shown this to anyone?" she asked, voice flat, almost bored, as she stopped on a particular one-staring at the grainy image.

Byron's brain was still trying to catch up with what had just happened.

"Dad's a wrestler, ya know. Taught me a thing or two. Never thought I'd get such a perfect setting to practice it for real."

He wheezed, trying to sit up.

She looked through the photos, then the messages. Her expression didn't change.

"Jesus Christ," she muttered. Then, she deleted the images, the chat, and his entire contact list. Then she stood over him with her head tilted to the side, her hands in her coat pockets.

Through the red haze, Byron realized he had seen that expression before when they were dissecting a cockroach for biology.

"It’s funny. I had all these idiotic dreams in my mind... expectations of how we would be together. I thought I was in love with you. I had almost... almost declined my offer to Oxford and was planning to go to Newcastle with you... You, my friend, have taught me a very valuable lesson."

Byron could only look up at her in a daze with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"And then, I had this lovely experience today of calling up my GP to let her know I needed to come in because I wasn't sure the guy who shagged me had used a condom or not. My first ever call to the GP."

"You think this ends with me crying in my room?" Her voice was like ice. "No. I'm going off to Oxford and forgetting your slimy existence, you little fuck. And after you've been through every Cathy Liston clone in the country, you're going to realise, I was the best you ever had."

He sat up with his back to the tree.

She stepped closer. "Meanwhile, I'll have moved on to someone with more intelligence, a bigger dick, and actual skill. Someone who sees me for who I am. Someone who respects me."

Byron's mouth opened.

She cut him off. "You want to know how I know this? I have an IQ higher than your bank account. And you-" her shining green eyes swept him up and down in disgust "-look at the state of ya. You're fucking mingin'."

He winced and tried to speak.

"I heard you with your favourite lads behind that disgusting shed," Ana said, her voice dropping to sub-zero," Every fucking word.

" Her hands clenched by her sides. "The laughter.

A bet, was it? And for Cathy? The tales I could tell you about that thundercunt.

I loved that smug little tone you got when you thought you're being a really clever little shit. "

His face drained of colour.

She leaned in, her voice low and lethal. "Don't flatter yourself, Byron. I'm not gonna sit around sobbing because I lost my virginity to a hairy ballsack like you. It's just one chore ticked off the list. Next time I'm with a real man," She smiled coldly. "I'll actually enjoy it."

Byron tried to speak beyond the massive lump in his throat. He scrambled for words, desperate. "Ana, please, just let me explain-"

"I AM NOT DONE," she snapped. "There's nothing you can say to make this go away... nothing that'll turn back time, you fucking twat. I thought we were friends. I trusted you."

She leaned in close, her voice a low, vicious whisper.

"Now I know what you are. You're a walking STD. "

Byron paled.

"And let me tell you what's going to happen next. You're going to go back to your little pack of dickheads and tell them it never happened. You made it up. You were lying while high on something. Because if you don't..." She tilted her head. "I'll tell Cadi. I'll tell Gray."

That landed exactly on target.

She saw it in the way his face twisted with pain and panic.

"Gray is important to you, isn't he?" she said softly. "He's not going to like it. Do you want to lose your best friend over this?"

After a long moment of silence, she stepped back and tossed his phone at his feet.

"So, here's what you're going to do. You're going to walk away. Pretend we never happened. Pretend we don't even know each other."

"But before we do that, friend, I need to know why."