Revamped!

[I had a feeling that I owed you two chapters so here you go!]

A Thorne in His Side: Part Eight

Thorne ends up driving to a nearby skate park. Once he parks his car, he and Kate step out and sit on a bench where there's with a beautiful view, and the last place he would want to have this conversation was his house where he would be trapped by his walls and forced to play the role of 'welcoming host'.

"I thought you wanted nothing to do with me and now look," Kate starts.

"I still don't so don't piss me off or I'm walking," Thorne makes clear. "You said that you still had feelings for me. Is that true or was that just something you said to get here?"

Kate sighs before looking down at her shoes. "I don't know."

"If you liked me so much, why'd you cheat on me?"

"I regret that. I truly do and if this is a part of my redemption back into humanity, then I'm sorry. How can you expect people to change if you don't give them the chance, Thorne? Change is good. Change is learning. You know that better than anyone else because you left. You went to military school in a different country!"

Thorne stands up from the bench they were sitting on, exasperated. "I had no choice! And if I'll be honest, Kate, you were the one who left. The girl I approached for math help wasn't the same girl I returned to since she was kissing some other guy."

"Thorne, listen -"

"Kate, please -"

The wind picks up and the ends of Kate's hair fly forwards, tickling Thorne's face. His breath hitches and he has trouble exhaling the longer he stares at her.

-o-

Cinder opens Kai's door and on the other side, she sees a pizza delivery boy in his neon shirt, matching hat, and khaki shorts. Instantly, she's blinded by the brightness but also delighted by the box of pizza in his hands that he ordered. That pepperoni delight makes up for the highlighter atrocity called a uniform. She's grateful that her job doesn't have a tacky uniform like that.

"That'll be 18 univs," the delivery boy tells her.

"I left my wallet at home," Cinder tells him.

"This is your home."

"Actually, it's my boyfriend's and he doesn't know that I ordered this so…"

Cinder takes the pizza and puts it down inside the house. Before the delivery boy could tell her off, Cinder hands him one of the flower bouquets that Kai has all over his house. In exchange, he skeptically takes the bouquet and gives her a strange face.

"Consider them to be a gift for your boyfriend or girlfriend," Cinder says.

"Aces…" He mutters with a smile. "I'll need this."

"You're welcome. I'll pay online."

Cinder smiles as she closes the door. She turns around and walks back into Kai's living room, opening the box of pizza with one hand and getting a slice to eat with the other. She takes a seat on the couch, tosses the box on the coffee table and continues eating as she leaves her feet up. Cinder looks over her shoulder and sees Kai approaching with a confused face, wondering where the pizza came from. Instead of asking, Kai climbs over her legs and sits next to her on the couch, helping himself to some pizza. Cinder lies down on his chest until she realizes that it wasn't as soft as she expected.

"Sometimes, I forget you have abs under those clothes of yours," Cinder says, poking the firmness under there.

"You always make me run after you," Kai reasons. "I'm now in the best shape of my life."

Cinder scoffs. "Always? You ran after me twice and that was because of freaking Jacin."

"That's two times more than I usually run."

Cinder stretches forwards to get another slice of pizza. "What happened to this house now? Will you sell it?"

"This place is too full of memories to leave," Kai responds. "Dad left this house to me in his fancy final will and testament."

Cinder sighs as she throws the piece back in the box, feeling like trash for asking. Leave it up to her for asking the blunt questions. She can't blame herself, though. It's a big house for one person, especially a teenage boy.

"I don't need you to agree, just try to understand how I feel," Kai says.

His eyes pierce into hers as if they're searching for some reassurance. Then, they slowly make their way towards her lips and he slowly kisses her.

"Emperor Kai Rikan of the Commonwealth," Cinder whispers to him.

"Selene Blackburn," he responds.

"Wire cutters!" Cinder exclaims, breaking from him. "You can't just go out saying my birth name."

"Our safe word was only for triggering things."

"Selene is triggering, extremely triggering."

Kai smirks as he traces the outline of her face with his hand and Cinder tries to hide a grin. "Aces, Cinder … you're like a bull in an emotion china shop and I'm the triggering one?"

Cinder slowly summers into a laugh and rests on his chest, still laughing. Kai joins in, holding her close.

-o-

Winter sits on the chair in front of her bedroom's vanity with her feet propped up on the edges of the vanity, inhaling the soothing lavender scent coming from her essential oil diffuser. She leans forwards and when her cell phone starts ringing, she jumps a little and almost teeters back in her chair. Winter straightens and picks up her phone to see who it is. When she sees that it's Jacin, she answers in seconds, longing to hear his voice.

When you truly love someone, that feeling is just indescribable. She just wants to be with him. She misses him when he's not there and she can't wait to see him again. Now, she's thousands of miles away from the one she loves and the one who loves her back.

"Hey, Jacin," Winter says as she gets back into the position she was in before.

Jacin Bae: You're not busy now, are you?

"Just painting my nails. Dr. Darnel says that it's healthy for my mind if I take some time to herself and relax. And nothing screams therapeutic more than a good pedicure."

Jacin Bae: Hold on… Dr. Darnel?

"Cress's dad."

Jacin Bae: Aces, it's a small world. So, what colour are you painting your nails?

"It's called "Who's the Boss."

Winter snickers as she hears Jacin's silent confusion that comes with how nail polishes are named.

Jacin Bae: That's not a colour.

"It's a bluish-grey to match the colour of your eyes."

Jacin Bae: In that case, the colour should be called "Cadet Clay's Orgasmic Orbs".

Winter cringes with a matching laugh. "That is some disgusting alliteration."

Jacin Bae: Well, I don't want to talk about your pedicure.

"You don't like to talk about anything."

Jacin Bae: I'm a listener, not a talker.

"Then listen to me talk about my pedicure."

Jacin Bae: … aces, I did this to myself.

-o-

During the tattoo procedure, Scarlet lies on a leather chair in the back of the shop and Wolf sits on the opposite side from where her tattoo was being placed. She had to remove her bra but kept her T-shirt up most of the way to keep some decency and Wolf's eyes off that area (not that she was complaining about the latter). For some odd reason in Scarlet's eyes, Wolf is antsier than she is and he's sitting beside her. He did offer to hold her hand and Scarlet responded that he could hold his hand since he has two of them.

"Are we almost done?" Scarlet asks.

"Just a little more shading," the artist replies. "Is the pain bad?"

"I can't tell yet."

It was like that question triggered her to feel pain because the moment the needle entered her skin this time, she tenses and grabs Wolf's wrist which makes him jump a little.

"Oh, mes étoiles…" Scarlet curses under her breath. She glances over at her boyfriend who's already looking at her. "Je t'aime, Wolf."

Scarlet breathes heavily and looks at Wolf to say something in response, but his face is lost in translation.

"Did that mean you want to kill me?" Wolf asks.

Scarlet groans with an eye roll. "Maintenant, je te déteste."

"Okay, that meant you wanted to kill me."

"I said I love you … and that I hate you."

Wolf takes a breath. His Scarlet just told him that she loves him. He ignores the second part because all he heard was those first few words. His mother often told him that a warrior is a woman with infinite strength and now, he's looking at one and he loved her so much.

"...wow, Scarlet, I - "

"No spade you love me back."

She shoves him a little and he holds her hand tightly to kiss it. That she does appreciate a lot. It almost eases the pain caused by the ink being shot into her skin.

Wolf smiles. "You want me to serenade you in French?"

"Aces, no, that would hurt more."

The artist laughs a little and Wolf glares at him.

"Mess up her tatt and I'll kill you," Wolf threatens.

"Relax, Kesley, your girl is more chill than you," he responds.

Wolf rolls his eyes.

-o-

Cress got Thorne's texts and read them twenty minutes later. She decided to go to Thorne and save him since he said so and she has her heart in it to follow. Cress glances out her bedroom window and sees grey clouds and growing winds so she grabs a light windbreaker before heading out the door.

Cress shoves her hands in her pocket as she continues walking to where Thorne said he would be. The wind leads her the way since it was pushing her tiny body to her destination. She's a block away from the skate park and spots Thorne's car with Thorne and Kate nearby, talking very close to each other. Cress takes a few steps closer before stopping. What she sees next makes everything around her stop.

Thorne and Kate were kissing. Kissing.

Cress chokes on a gasp as the wind blows strands of her hair in front of her face. It feels as if the wind was for and against her - it tries to cover her eyes from seeing this and yet, it carried her here. Cress turns on her heels and heads the other way, pushing against the wind. She doesn't care. She needs to get out of there as fast as possible. Thorne wouldn't have seen her since he was preoccupied with Kate spading Fallow.

The breath she takes burns a hole in her chest and she could taste the metallic bitterness and rancid jealousy in her mouth. The shock of it makes her want to scream. She wants to cry but tears don't immediately come out. There's only buzzing and sharp rage coursing through her veins.

If only someone told her that being in love with Thorne would only set her up for heartbreak, that having her heart and mind out for him would blow and break them both.