Kaia lunged across the table, her hand closing around the cool metal of the phone before another syllable could escape.
"Chase is gonna call you back, Mom," she yelled into the receiver, her thumb jamming the end call button with desperate force.
The sudden outburst shattered the quiet hum of the cafe. Conversations died mid-sentence as patrons turned in their chairs, their eyes lingering on the girl who had just shouted at her phone. Kaia felt the heat crawl up her neck, staining her cheeks a vibrant, humiliating pink. She offered a frantic, shallow bow of apology to the offended room. When she looked back, Chase was leaning against his chair, a slow smirk spreading across his face as if he weren't the direct architect of her embarrassment.
It was her own fault for trying to call his bluff. She should have known better than to expect a shred of restraint. Chase Ceemer had always moved through the world as if his desires were the only laws that mattered.
Her lips twisted into a deep scowl. "Why are you doing this?"
"I already told you," he said, his voice dropping into that smooth, practiced register. "I simply want to show you that I've change—"
"That's the thing. I don't care," she snapped, cutting him off before the lie could fully form. "You have no right to manipulate me into doing your bidding after I survived even worse at your hands."
The smirk vanished. His eyes turned to flint and his jaw tightened until the bone stood out in sharp relief.
"All these years and we're back where we started," she snorted, the sound jagged and bitter. "You, the bully, and me, your victim. Tell me, Chase, do you really think you've changed? Then let me go."
The air between them became a static charge. They stared in silence, his glacial gaze boring into her burning one. It would have been effortless to look away, to let the old habit of cowering take hold, but she anchored herself to the floor. This was a collision of wills, and she refused to be the one who shattered. Not this time. Not ever again.
His gaze softened by a fraction, the coldness receding into something weary.
"There's a lot you don't know about our time in high school," he sighed, the sound heavy as he finally broke the stalemate. "A lot you don't understand. But I'm willing to explain it all in time. All you have to do is stay."
"Oh, I understand a lot, Chase," she said, her voice rising with the weight of every memory she had tried to bury. "I understand that you ridiculed me in front of our whole class repeatedly for four years. I understand that you made me the laughingstock of our entire year when you forced me to clean your shoes on my knees while they all watched. I understand that you dared Danny Davies to ask me to the school dance just to embarrass me in front of everyone. And that wasn't even the worst part because when you kisse—"
Her voice cracked. The sound was a jagged tear in her composure, letting out a decade of suppressed betrayal. She bit her lower lip, the pain helping her tether the tears that threatened to fall.
"When you kissed me, then laughed in my face and told me no one could ever like me, that was when I understood it all completely," she whispered, her voice trembling with venom. "So no, Chase, I'm not interested in giving you a chance. You're a sorry piece of shit. If there's one thing this encounter has shown me, it's that you could never change. I will stay for three months because I need this job. And you will not cross any lines or else you'll be hearing from my lawyer. You can keep your placations and your explanations to yourself, Step-brother."
She didn't wait for his response. She turned and walked out of the cafe, her spine rigid, refusing to look back even once.
Chase remained in his chair, his eyes fixed on the door where she had vanished. Every instinct screamed at him to go after her, to grab her by the shoulders and force her to see the man he was trying to be. But he stayed seated. He was the one in the wrong, and she was currently a storm of rightful emotion. He had reached for her too fast, too hard.
"Ugh," he growled, the sound low and guttural.
He had handled it poorly. But she was staying. Three months was a sliver of time, but it was enough. It had to be enough to dismantle the wall of hate she had built between them. He hadn't been lying about the secrets of their past. There was so much she hadn't seen from her vantage point in the halls.
He would tell her everything when the time was right.
What mattered now was the truth he held close to his chest: she was his. She had always been his. And he would ensure she realized it, regardless of how much she fought him.
Kaia didn't stop until she reached her room. she threw herself onto the bed, collapsing in a defeated slump. It was a strange sensation. She had spent years dreaming of the moment she would finally stand up to him, yet the victory felt hollow. A cold ache took root in her chest as she curled onto her side, pulling a pillow tight against her stomach.
She had let the tears fall on the walk home, the salt stinging her skin as she remembered that kiss from high school. It had been her first. She had been so foolishly certain that the boy behind the bully was finally showing himself. She wouldn't be that girl again. He was a monster, nothing more.
But his words kept circling her mind like vultures. A lot you don't know. Was it a ruse? A new way to weave a web around her?
"Ugh," she groaned into the fabric of the pillow. She wouldn't fall for his lies. That was her final thought before exhaustion finally claimed her.
She was back in the high school halls. The linoleum was polished to a mirror shine, reflecting the lockers that seemed to stretch into infinity.
"Hey, Katharos," a voice called out.
Mocking laughter erupted from the walls. She couldn't see the faces, but she could feel the weight of a thousand invisible eyes. She turned to run, her sneakers squeaking on the floor. She needed the exit. She needed the sun. But the hallways began to contract, the lockers leaning inward like closing teeth. His voice was right behind her ear.
"I'll always find you, little Katharos. No matter how far you run."
She yelped as a hand caught her arm, spinning her back. She came face to face with the nightmare, but he was different. His cold stare pinned her in place as a chill broke out across her skin. She struggled, but his grip was a vice.
He leaned down. His lips touched hers with a terrifying gentleness, a touch that felt almost like a prayer before it shifted. The kiss turned frantic and hungry. His tongue pushed past her teeth, plundering her defenses with a ruthless heat that spread through her chest and pooled low in her belly.
A moan escaped her throat as his hand slid upward, circling her neck to draw her closer, deepening the assault.
Kaia jolted awake, her heart hammering against her ribs. Her skin was damp with a fine sheen of sweat. Her fingers went instinctively to her lower lip, tracing the ghost of the searing contact. The evidence of the dream was a lingering moisture against her thighs, a physical betrayal of her own mind.
The nightmares had returned. But they were no longer just echoes of whispers and laughter.
They came with vengeful kisses.