I Dare You (Truth And Dare Duet 2)

My heart withered when Maddox barely cracked a smile. His muscular neck corded with tension, and he looked a little… lost. Maybe angry. Something was terribly wrong, and I didn’t know what to do. “What is it?” I asked slowly.

His shoulders went rigid, and his jaw hardened. I could practically hear his grinding molars. His blue eyes, deep as an ocean that I could easily drown in, and I… did, were fixated on mine.

“Is there something you need to tell me?” The knot in my chest began to build, growing tighter and tighter around my lungs.

Talk to me, Baby.

Maddox shook his head. “There’s nothing to tell. I’m just so fucking exhausted and stressed about the upcoming midterms.”

Lies. He was lying…

And when he lied… he didn’t meet my eyes.

“Maddox–”

“Maddox?” I turned to face the voice who cut me off.

Bianca.

What the hell was she doing here? The last time I saw her was at the club six months ago, where she threw a bitch tantrum after Maddox ‘broke-up’ with her. Not that they were ever dating, but she was slightly delusional.

Out of all his conquests, Maddox liked Bianca the most. Or I thought so…

She was the one who lasted the longest, and the only one who got away telling the whole university they were dating, and he never put a stop to it. Until he threw her to the curb after the bitch fit.

I looked for any bitchy signs, but her face was smooth, and she actually looked shocked at the sight of us. So, this wasn’t a planned encounter.

This library on campus was open twenty-four hours, but, late as it was now, there was barely anyone here, except for a few students scattered around each study corner.

I waited for Bianca’s sneers and drama, but she gave us none of that.

It was then I noticed, she looked completely different than her usual appearance. Bianca always looked like she had just walked out of Vogue magazine or she belonged on a billboard.

She had bare-minimum makeup on her face, her curly blonde hair, which was always perfectly styled, was in a messy bun, and she was wearing… a baggy sweater and yoga pants. Bianca looked pale, and it was a weird combination, since she always looked her best.

Her eyes bounced between Maddox and I, before she plastered a fake-ass smile on her face. “Long time no see.” She was definitely not speaking to me. “You look… good. Um, did you get my text?”

Her text? She was texting him…? Bitter jealousy clawed its way to my throat, and my chest burned with it. Was this why he was so distracted the last few days? Like he had something else on his mind and barely… speaking to me.

I knew Maddox had a lot of fuck buddies; although none of them were his girlfriends, they still had him. Whether it was briefly or not.

I had decided to look past it… but I wasn’t okay with them hanging around him or texting him. Maddox had told me he blocked most of them.

Bianca eyed my man, and I didn’t like how she was acting like I wasn’t even there.

I convinced myself I wasn’t a jealous person.

But I felt… bitter and angry. The mere thought of Bianca texting Maddox, even though she knew he was taken and after they ended on such a bad term, had me wanting to claw her eyes out. The little dragon as Maddox liked to say, red and fierce, that lived inside my chest, rattled against my rib cage and wanted to be let out.

I was really trying to not let any negative thoughts get to me, but it was hard, as the little dragon grew bigger and bigger inside me, but she, thankfully, held her fire.

The only relief I got was that Maddox barely spared her a glance. He looked down at his textbook again, thumbing through the pages. “I got your text, and I didn’t find a reason to reply. As you can see, Lila and I are busy right now.”

Bianca’s expression fell, and she finally glanced at me. “I think,” she started, suddenly looking nervous, “I should apologize for how I acted last time.”

I blinked, slack-mouthed. Was she on drugs? Or high? Bianca was apologizing, and she actually looked remorseful.

I cleared my throat. “You should. You were awful and extremely rude.”

She gasped, as if she wasn’t expecting me to agree. I gave her an internal eyeroll. If she was expecting me to sugarcoat things for her…

Yeah, right. Not. Going. To. Happen.

Her face flushed, and she chewed on her lower lip. Where was the high and mighty Bianca? This one was nothing like her.

“You’re right,” she admitted. “I’m sorry.”

Maddox grunted in response, and I sat there, speechless. Bianca fidgeted with her hands, as she waited for me to give her some kind of reaction. I sat forward in my chair and leveled her with a hard look. “I don’t do well with name-calling, and if I remember correctly, you called me a bitch, for no reason whatsoever,” I told her bluntly.