Ditched Cheating Alpha, I Led My Daughter to Life's Peak novel Chapter 169

"I'm not trying to see it."

"Well you don't have to bring it up." It's creepy, and it's not helping anyone at all. "You can't just compare constantly. It's just... different with him. Not better. Different."

"As in it lasts longer?" he asks.

I furrow my brow.

He leans back against his chair, clicking his pen again. He looks dead into my eyes this time. "So if I tell you I like you, and I don't see your eyes light up the way they do when Axel says it. When your cheeks don't flush the way they do when they call you beautiful. When you don't smile the way you do when Carson holds you, what am I supposed to do? Just... not compare?"

"Yes," I say exasperatedly.

He scoffs. "Carson was right. You do ask for too much." He turns back towards his desk.

I close the gap between us. "You're not even giving me a chance," I say when I'm finally standing beside him. I lean over his desk so I'm staring into his eyes.

He doesn't look at me. He just stares at his papers. "Now you're getting the idea."

I've had enough. I turn his face towards me. He pulls back, but I keep talking all the same. "Don't you have any inference skills?" I move back into his line of vision. "Think of the way I looked at you when you were leaving a few hours ago. I was so worried. I didn't want to let you go."

He goes to grab his pen again but I move it away. "Think of the times we kissed. The time we've spent together in class. The way I looked at you when you were hanging from my window. That was real." I wave the pen at him. "Yeah, you drive me crazy, but I'm still here. I'm still trying despite your piss poor attitude." I cross my arms and lean on his desk. "What does that mean, Aiden?

He doesn't say anything, so I say it for him. "The elephant is already here."

"Fine then." He looks into my eyes. Before he says anything else, he takes his pen. "I like you."

If you thought he maintained eye contact when he said it, you're dead wrong. I furrow my brow. Is he serious?

He just goes back to signing.

My voice raises. "How are you supposed to even know how I reacted when you looked away?"

He just keeps signing and signing and flipping pages and I want to scream. That's not fair. That's so not fair. He's cutting me out before I even get the chance to prove that I feel something for him, based off of what? My eyes not lighting up? What kind of rubric is that?

I notice the two amber eyes staring up at me. He's sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. Carson.

"Carson," I start. I don't want to say the stereotypical cheater line, "How long have you been there?" so I just stand awkwardly in the middle of the hallway, waiting for him to say something.

I expect him to get mad, upset, enraged. I expect him to tell me how he won't stand for this kind of treatment any longer. He just sits there. He doesn't even look at me. He just leans his head back against the wall, in silence.

I don't know what to do. I end up just sitting beside him, pulling my knees up to my chest. I leave some space between us. Not a lot, just enough for him to decide how close he wants to be. I know he hates... other scents.

But it's not like Aiden and I really did anything, technically. We didn't kiss. The only things he touched were my hands. And I touched his chest, but no clothes came off. Emotionally it was intense, but nothing physical happened. None of the usual stuff Carson gets mad over.

So why do I feel like I'm still in the doghouse? Oh yeah. The Axel situation.

I sigh, rubbing my forehead. "Carson, I..." I don't know what else to say. I wrap my arms around my legs.

He rests his elbow on one of his knees. "Mia." He's the one who tries this time.