Existence 02 - Predestined

the lead singer for Cold Soul?”
    The excitement and awe in his voice caused Pagan to completely ease up and she moved a little closer to me. I didn’t want to talk to this guy. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and beg her to listen. To forgive what I was. But she wanted this meeting to go well. I could read it in her emotions.
    “Yes, I am,” I replied but as much as I loved her I could not even force a smile his way.
    “No way, oh man, wow,” he began shuffling through his pocket and pulled out his wallet. An old ticket stub from one of Cold Soul’s concerts and a pen were shoved in front of my face. “Could you sign this? I’m a big fan. My ATO brothers will never believe this. This will get me out of clean up for at least a week.
    Before I could even begin to understand what he’d just said Pagan replied, “Oh, congrats, Jay. I didn’t know you got into Alpha Tau Omega. That’s awesome. I know that was your main goal when you got accepted at UT.”
    He was a Greek. I knew what that was. I’d been to more frat parties than I cared to recall due to drunken stupidity.
    Jay beamed over at Pagan, “Yep, rush was hard but I suffered through.” He was still standing there with his pen and concert ticket in my personal space.
    Pagan squeezed my hand and then let go. She wanted me to do this. Okay fine. I’d do it for her but I’d do it my way.
    I took the ticket and pen and wrote a short note to Jay then scrawled the signature I’d adopted when I started the group Cold Soul. Shoving it back at him I then reached for Pagan’s hand again and brought it to my lips.
    “I miss you,” I whispered and tears welled up in her eyes. I kissed her hand then brought it back down and let it go. I had somewhere I needed to go. Nothing was going to interfere with us again. I was tired of waiting around for Leif to make a move. I was ending this today.
    Stepping back from her I nodded my goodbye and left the three of them there. I didn’t worry about leaving Jay with Pagan this time. I was sure he’d get the message when he read his ticket.
    After all when a guy reads,
    She’s mine. That’s your one and only warning.
    Dank Walker
    He knows if he isn’t ready for a fight he can’t win then he’d better back the fuck off.

Chapter Thirteen

    Pagan
    Today was Valentine’s Day. And I knew there was no way I’d be able to leave Miranda to go on a date with Dank. Wyatt had planned a romantic evening and he’d been teasing her with little notes for weeks that left hints about what they would be doing. I walked into Miranda’s bedroom and she’d taken all those notes off her mirror and had them on her bed in a circle around her. The bear he’d given her last year was sitting in her lap and the necklace he’d saved so long for was in her hand. She was rubbing the smooth diamond as she stared at the notes in front of her.
    When I closed the door behind me her head shot up and a small smile touched her lips. “Hey, I didn’t expect you here today of all days. Don’t you have a date?’
    I shook my head and walked over to sit on the corner of the bed careful not to move or sit on one of those small slips of paper that were now treasures. “No, today I’m here with you. Dank can wait. I think you need me more than he does right now.”
    Miranda’s smile wobbled and she squeezed the bear in her lap tighter. “I’ve reread all these hints a million times and I can’t figure it out. He’d been planning it for months. You’d think...” her voice broke and she took a deep breath, “you’d think I’d have managed to figure out the surprise by now. But Wyatt was so good at keeping secrets. He didn’t want me to figure it out. He wanted to surprise me.”
    She was right of course. Wyatt loved teasing her. He’d teased her even back when we were kids. I’d always been the one tagging along doing the dangerous fun things and Miranda had looked like a little doll all dressed in pink watching us disapprovingly. He’d been enamored with her back then. She was something he didn’t understand but even as a kid he wanted to touch her. He treated her like a fairy princess. Something breakable and precious. I’d always rolled my eyes in disgust but remembering them that way made me smile.
    “I’ll be okay, Pagan. You’ve spent every day with me since, since,” she broke off and touched the picture that sat to the right of her bed. It was Wyatt in his basketball uniform smiling brightly with his MVP trophy