Honey and Spice | ✔️

Chapter 12

Ryder

I take the plastic cups from the bedside table and leave the room. I look at the locked room beside the one Nick and I are in and smirk. All the best, kids, I say in my head and continue my way.

After getting water from the fridge - and silently apologising to the couple making out at the sink - I turn around and find Derek leaning against the wall. Great, just great.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I scowl at him.

"I got invited. You?" he asks sarcastically.

As if I'm going to waste my breath answering him. I roll my eyes and walk past him. Suddenly, Derek reaches out and has my wrist in a vice-like grip.

"What the fuck?" I say.

He brings me towards the first-floor bedrooms (Jace's house is like a hotel; there are so many rooms). I try to shake his hand away but he sure is surprisingly strong. Then, he lets go outside a room.

"What is your problem?" I shout at him. I'm so fucking tired of him and his antics.

He steps towards me, a little too close for comfort, so my instinct is to step back, of course. He keeps coming closer and I keep stepping back until my back hits the cool wall. His face is inches from mine now.

"My problem" - he lightly touches my nose - "is you."

Um, excuse me but what the fuck?  What's that supposed to be? An insult? A compliment? Either way, this is getting really fucking weird (why is he touching my nose?).

I try to shake him away, but he holds my shoulders in place. I want to push him away, but I'm holding the two plastic cups with drinks inside, so I'm pretty much stuck.

Derek holds my stare with his blue eyes. Then, his features soften and he actually looks. . .sad.

"I like you, you know?" he says, looking away.

Wait, what?

"Ever since I came to Fernwood, you caught my attention and you were always on my mind. You were really cool and nice and. . .you know, really good-looking." A hint of red tints his cheeks. "So, I tried to be closer to you and shit, you know?"

My mind is reeling at this revelation. Derek likes me? Has the universe decided it's time to mess with me? Derek might as well be a gold-medalist of the mind-fuck Olympics.

Then, Derek's hands slide from my shoulders to my face.

"What are you doing?"

"Something I should have done a long time ago," he says in a low voice and lowers his lips to mine.

The kiss shocked me. His lips are surprisingly soft and he holds my face gently. His blond hair falls over mine, tickling my cheeks. I feel something wet all over my hands and realise I have crushed the plastic cups. My shoulders slack and I forget what's going on. I almost - almost - kiss him back but then I remember who he is.

This is Derek Mitchell.

The one who abused my trust and hurt me so much.

The one who called Nathan a low-life.

And I sure as hell ain’t losing my first kiss to him.

I drop the crushed plastic cups on the floor and successfully push him away (a little too hard, because he stumbles backwards and almost falls). He looks at me, confused.

“When you like someone,” I say, “you don’t be their best friend for a while before hurting them” - my voice rises with anger -  “and you don’t insult them and their family and friends after that.” My voice is dangerously close to shouting now. “And you don’t fucking kiss them out of nowhere at a party!”