Falling for My Old High School Bully (Complete)

Chapter 4 - The Important Talk

"Yeah. You ummmm. You said you wanted to talk to me about something important," she said timidly, looking down and toying with the gravel with her shoe.

She slowly lifted her head and looked into his grey eyes. When his eyes locked on hers her insides melted and she felt her heart beat even faster. He was so gorgeous and perfect she couldn't stand it. She felt like she was going to faint.

"Yeah. I do, ummmm, I asked you to come here because I wanted to say that I'm sorry for everything. I've really been an asshole to you all year and you don't deserve it. I've been thinking about it for a while and I feel really bad for ruining your last year of high school. Our Senior year is almost over and then high school will be over and all of this won't even matter. Why don't we just call a truce and try to be friends?"

She looked at him suspiciously. This was definitely too good to be true.

"You want to be my friend?" she asked with a laugh.

"Yes. Don't look at me like I have three heads. I'm serious," he said with a smile and lighthearted laugh.

"Why in the world would you want to be friends with me Axel? You already have tons of friends that are way more popular and more interesting than I'll ever be."

"I know you may find this hard to believe but I don't choose my friends based on how popular they are. Popularity is overrated."

She scoffed. "That's easy for you to say. You have it."

He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and lit one up, taking a deep inhale in and blowing smoke up in the air.

"You still didn't answer my question. Why would you want to be my friend?"

He looked at her, studying her for a second and then said, "I think you're feisty. Some of the pranks you've pulled on me this year have actually been pretty funny and creative. I figure you must be fun to hang out with if you can come up with all of that shit."

She laughed and shook her head. "Sorry to disappoint you but my best friend Stella came up with like 99% of those pranks. I'm just the one that carried them out. She's the devious mastermind."

He took another puff off of the cigarette and she coughed and waved the smoke away. "That's a really nasty habit you have there," she grumbled.

"Have you ever tried one?" he asked, turning the cigarette around and holding it out towards her.

She scrunched her nose and said, "No. Ewww."

He laughed and shook his head. "C'mon. It's not like you're gonna get cancer from smoking one time. Just try it."

She looked down at the little white and tan stick with smoke rising out of the end that he was holding out to her and she hesitantly lifted her trembling hand. Her face blushed red because she hoped he wouldn't notice her hand shaking and realize how nervous she was being here with him.

She reached out and slipped her fingers onto the cigarette and they lightly brushed against his, surprising her and sending a spark of electricity across her skin.

She lifted the cigarette and brought it towards her mouth and her mind thought about the fact that his lips had been on it. She was going to put her lips on something Axel Hart's lips had been on. She hesitantly parted her lips and put the end of the cigarette between them and sucked in, pulling smoke into her mouth and blowing it out.

He took a step closer and looked down at her with those grey eyes and said, "No. You didn't inhale it into your lungs. Do it like this," he said, slipping his hand around hers and taking the cigarette. Her eyes watched him lift it and his perfect plump lips parted, taking in the cigarette and inhaling it deeply. She swallowed hard and couldn't help but imagine what it would feel like to kiss those lips.