Viper's Kiss

Chapter 9

Needless to say Thursday had ended with no more stress and Friday was on route to being the same way. School had been uneventful, and despite my phone buzzing constantly these past few days, not a single text had come in from Dameon. Which only made me think that he possibly pranked me and gave me a fake phone number, but that'd be stupid. But then again you never know what boys are thinking. I had gone through the past few days with my heart being on the fritz whenever my phone vibrated heavy in my pocket. I'd always jump up and snatch it quickly only to be met with notifications from Gizmo, reading that my followers demanded a new chapter.

Despite the comfort it brought me it'd only last a few seconds before I realized that it wasn't Dameon. And with those thoughts it made me believe that I'd be stuck doing our assignment by myself. At first it wasn't a bad idea, three pages was easy for me and I'd take the opportunity to work with the idea of a serial killer falling in love. I already had a lot of notes jotted down when it came to the assignment and by the time I got home Thursday night, I started polishing up my ideas. The ones that fleshed out into a full story where siblings (although I'd rather not be inspired by Flowers in the Attic), a serial killer falling for a female cop in charge of his case, and a the idea of polar opposites falling in love. The last idea had came to me when I was stressing out mid class about how I'd attempt to move forward with talking to Dameon. And despite the last one hitting close to him, I preferred the second idea the most but I didn't want to jump ahead and start writing without a little bit of contribution from my 'mentee' as Professor Fletcher put it.

As I sat at with my bag propped up against my leg on the floor my eyes kept shifting between assignment paper and story map to my laptop that had the GizmoReads site open greeting me with its usual 'Welcome Back CaspersPickle'. The notifications that were consistent had slowed down a little bit probably indicating that it was time for me to get to writing again despite the fact that I just uploaded a chapter, but with the ideas fresh in my head and my fingers hovering over the keyboard. It was either write my story or start my homework.

At one point it felt like I had to entities sitting on my shoulders, a devil on my left nagging me to just do the homework assignment. 'To hell with Dameon. Write your murder love story. It'll be delicious," the devil kept hissing at me. At one point I swore it even licked its lips. On the other hand the angel that sat on my right shoulder was coaxing me gently. "Start writing your next chapter. Focus on that CloudPublish deal." It smiled and with that bright smile brought so much warmth. Yet despite the inner turmoil I was dealing with all of it instantly snapped away when my phone chimed in, and instead of it being notifications; it was a message.

'Stupidly Attractive Asshole' popped up on my Notification Center and I couldn’t stop the tiny feeling in my gut. It felt like I had been punched. He had waited a whole 12+ hours to respond, the thought bothered me. “Hmph I’ll make you wait until Sunday,” I stuck my tongue out. At least now my mind was now made up with deciding to work on my story instead. This way I could distract myself from working on our story and accidentally replying to his text message.

I hit the ‘Continue Writing’ button on the top of my page and clicked on my story. ‘Deceit’ had popped up showing me the entire layout of. The analytics, hearts, and reads were the first thing that caught my eye and I couldn’t stop the smile that was bursting its way onto my face. My story had went up by 40 thousand readers over the course of two days and 15 thousand new hearts had been rolling in. It was victories like this that kept propelling me forward through my stories and despite the negative comments rolling in, I couldn’t help but feel a bit victorious at how far my story had cone along.

I had already opened up a fresh new chapter and as the scenes worked through my imagination, my mind was moving as if it was swiping through Tinder. Pulling forth the plot line I thought to be more interesting and disregarding the ones that’d be a bit harder for me to piece through. And while I was deep in thought I hadn’t even noticed that I had picked up my phone.

Silently cursing at myself, I opened the message up and my face fell flat, a frown beginning to form at the edge of my mouth.

STUPIDLY ATTRACTIVE ASSHOLE: Yep

That was all. I had worried myself for a ‘Yep’. At this point part of me would’ve preferred if he didn’t answer if all I was going to get was a f*****g ‘yep.’ It left a bitter taste in my mouth and despite the fact that I told myself I wasn’t going to respond, my fingers were already moving across the keyboard.

ME: Does tomorrow work?

STUPIDLY ATTRACTIVE ASSHOLE: Yep

ME: At four?

STUPIDLY ATTRACTIVE ASSHOLE: Yep

ME: Anything else?

STUPIDLY ATTRACTIVE ASSHOLE: Nope

“What the f**k,” I seethed out looking at my phone. How the f**k could someone be so one dimensional, when I had asked anything else I was hoping that he'd respond with at least two words or say something about the work but it was just my shitty luck: him using the polar opposite of yep. But then again I wasn't even sure what I was expecting, he hadn't said a damn word to me in class and our only real interaction was during the nurse's office when he had ever so lightly threatened me.

Tomorrow I was going to demand an apology and alongside that I'd demand that he'd stop being so f*****g monotone around me. I wouldn't do anything dumb enough to make him believe I wasn't serious, that way I'd put a nail in this stupid coffin and lay rest whatever terrible footing we started off at. Despite an apology seeming low on the scale regarding the fact that he had pushed me there was a lot more worse things he could've done to me. Nonetheless that situation had been settled for now at least.

I set the phone down next to my computer turning it face down to avoid anymore distractions. I quickly grabbed my remote turned on the television and played one of my playlists I had saved onto Youtube. With my tension easing and my mood set, I slunk back comfortably in my chair. My gaze on the blank chapter screen in front of me. Despite the small break in my thoughts, I sat with a few possibilities in my head. One was to turn this story into a threesome, another was to make this mysterious man related to my male lead, and another was to make him the villain of this story. My mind was roaming through thoughts the same way a clerical worker shuffled through endless portfolios.

"Why is writing so hard?" I chuckled out. Leaning forward, I placed my fingers on the keyboard. At this point I was just going to write and see where it got me, because by the time I settle on a story path, it'll be April of next year.

To the innocent bystanders around us, it may have seemed as if the man in front of me was just looking at whoever had just called his attention, but to me I knew better. I knew that underneath his gaze he was picking me apart, scanning my face for any sense of struggle. He wanted to test me and see if I was going to turn around and tuck my tail between my legs in defeat, while he didn't say a word after greeting me. I took a step closer to him, indicating that I wasn't going to back down.

With that simple action, his gaze had moved down to take me in entirely. And now with a small smirk at the corner of his lips, that he failed to hide behind his glass, it felt like he was drinking in the sight of me. From the curls that rested on my shoulders to the way my breast filled my top, I could see the instinctive flex in his grip around the cup, as if he was imagining that my chest fit his hand perfectly. Nonetheless his gaze didn't stop there. It trailed down to the end of my dress all the way down to the heels on my feet before coming back up to meet my eyes.

"Good evening." I said. My mind debated with taking the glass from his hand and taking a long sip from it. "Enjoying yourself?" Take it! Take it! Take it! My mind kept yelling at me to take the cup. I was trying to will my gaze to stay on his eyes, as he pull the cup away from his mouth holding it a mere few inches close to him. With my step forward, the space between us had close to a good degree, not dangerously close but not too far.

"Well can't say just yet. I'm waiting for something to catch my attention. Maybe an award." Lord this mans voice had me fighting to clench my thighs together. He was really on par with Angelo and I internally cursed at myself for my current taste in men.

"An award? What did you do to deserve one," I ended my question by placing my fingers around the top of his glass. Intentionally brushing my fingers against his, gently pulling the drink from his fingers. Pulling the glass to my lips, I repeated the action he did to me making sure I had full view of his face before taking a small swig. The whiskey he was drinking burned but only tinge. When I pulled the cup away his gaze never left my mouth.

"Let's just say I've been on my best behavior and I'd like compensation for it. He placed his fingers on mine and pulled the cup towards his lips. He finished off the rest of the glass while it was still in my hand and I couldn't fight the blush that heated my cheeks. It felt like the rest of the world had dissipated and that in this moment, I knew that my decision would probably work against me somewhere down the line but right now I didn't care.

"Is that not the bare minimum," I asked letting my hand slip from his in time to put the glass on a tray of a waiter passing by.

"Not mine."

The music in the background shifts to a slow beat, and before I could react the stranger is grabbing me by the waist and gently leading me towards the middle of the room. My hands rest on his shoulders as his rest on my waist, pulling me closer. As we sway with my body pressed against his, I can't help the nagging feeling at the back of my skull. It's only confirmed when he spins me around and I see Angelo in the crowd, his glare locked on the man's hands around my waist. I couldn't help the smirk that touched my lips when my spin had now left me with my back against the stranger. His face angled in my neck.

"Now why did you approach me." His voiced fanned against my ear and I couldn't fight the shiver that traveled on my skin. I wasn't sure if the heat or shivers radiated from or the now angry Angelo who was watching me like a hawk, stalking my every action.

"You seem like you needed company. What is your name?" I stepped out and spun back around coming face to face with him. His face was now a mere few inches away and his grip on my waist tightened ever so slightly. I made note of the hesitation when he gave a slight flinch to my inquiry but I didn't question it.

"Call me Vince."

My fingers stopped working the keyboard and my mind drew a blank. I wasn't sure if I should continue the chapter or call it quits here but either way I wasn't sure what I wanted to ask next. I saved the draft watching the screen flash back to my story page.

I clicked on the main page for Gizmo and a series of recommended bad boy stories displayed themselves on my feed. As I scrolled down the page it had now dawned on me that I was meeting Dameon tomorrow. It was like a delayed reaction in my head when the anxiety finally kicked in. I 'm sure that I'd make a fool of myself undoubtedly but it was too late to take back what I had sent. He, annoyingly, already responded with one word answers and I refused to stress myself out by trying to pry more answers out of him.

Instead I had opened another tab and typed 'Viper's Den' into the search bar. The google page quickly loaded up displaying a photo of the place, with its recognizable spine chilling sign. Underneath the photo had been all the business information such as website, number, address, etc. My mouse hovered over the first link which lead to 'RateMyBusiness' and I clicked it, loading up the reviews set on gathering as much as I could about the club.