Luca’s POV
I got down from the car as soon as the the door got pulled open by the guard and I stood at the side of the door as I watched as James also alighted the car as well, his tie and suit jacket slung over his shoulder as he started to make his way around the car immediately, walking towards where I was standing at and pausing beside me. I stared at him up and down, my gaze lingering on his face as I tried to check it. I’d be able to read him, but it was almost impossible at the moment seeing as the facial expression on his face was next to a flat and blank one.
“How are you feeling, man?” I asked him quietly as I nudged the side of his shoulder lightly with mine, and watched as he shrugged before staring at me and nodding his head towards his arm.
“Thanks for allowing me to come over to get my injury cleaned up and wrapped in a bandage.” He started to say in the next second and I snorted and reached out to push the side of his shoulder slightly.
“Fuck you mean, man? Why are you suddenly speaking to me like we’re strangers?” I demanded and stared at him pointedly, folding my hands on my chest when he started to take his fingers through his hair instead of supplying me with a much needed reply.
“I don’t even know man. I just honestly feel really weird.” He finally replied and I took a quick step back, not believing what I had just heard with my own ears.
“What do you mean by that? Weird how?” I started to speak immediately, demanding an explanation instantly, a disbelieving expression pasted over the eyes I was pointing intently at him.
“I just feel really weird, that’s all.” He started to explain, turning his head to stare at me and shrug his shoulders a little, right before he continued. “I don’t even know how to explain or describe this weird feeling…”
“So coming over to my house feels weird? That’s it?” I asked in a low voice, not wanting the guards who could be hanging off anywhere or my house compound, as I started to say to James. He was about to say something for a second but I cut him off before he could start to speak with another train of my own words.
“Was that why you acted the way you did after I suggested you come over? Because coming over feels weird now?” I continued, turning my head towards the dark sky and raising one of my previously folded hands to run my fingers through the strands of my hair as I felt what would be only identified as hurt, start to slide through my veins and settle in a part of my heart almost instantly. I moved away from the current spot which I was currently standing in and took a step back, not believing what was happening at this very moment.
“So that was why you acted weird about the idea of me asking one if the guards to drive your car while you ride with me, because you looked really out or it and I didn’t want you getting into an accident on the way back home.” I paused and dragged in a deep and slow breath, willing the anger and hurt thst was staring to boil through my blood as I took a step towards him after a few seconds.
I was about to angrily demand he say something but paused what I was about to say in the back of my throat when he reached forward and placed his hands on my arms, using his hold on my biceps to jerk me forward as he started to speak almost immediately.
“Will you calm the fuck down?” He demanded and I stared at him in disbelief, he had the right to be asking me this after all what I had just accused him off, because they were obviously true.
The urge to punch him in the face had never felt stronger than it did at this very moment.
“I swear to God, James…” I started to say to him but he shook my with his hold on my arms and I decided to stopped speaking before I go ahead and say continuing I might end up regretting immithey were out of my mouth.
“Would you even let me speak at least?” He demanded again, his voice sounding just as low as mine has been sounding throughout the start of the whole conversation. I narrowed my eyes at him, glaring at him and staring at him in silence without saying a thing to him in reply.
“Honestly man? I feel hurt that you’d think I might ever feel weird about coming over here or all what you had said, if I am going to be completely honest with you.” He started to say after a second, and once the words were out of his mouth, he started to pluck his hands off my biceps and was taking a step backwards away from me, creating a little bit of space between us.
“That was what you meant, right?” I demanded instead, only this time, the bite, hurt and accusation thst had been in all my precious questions and statements were missing in this particular and most recent one, instead, the only emotion evident in the question was a black one, a blank and unidentifiable one.
“That wasn’t what I had meant, and you didn’t even bother to give me any benefit of doubt and had instead jumped right into conclusions before I could drag in a deep breath.” He accused, hurt scratching the edge of his sentence, towards the ending part, and I might have started to feel a little bad for how I had went at him without giving him a chance to speak.
“Well, the way you put it felt so much like all what I had said was right.” I started to say, the side of my lips pulling into a thin line as I continued almost immediately. “I mean, what else was I supposed to think?” I demanded.
“You didn’t need to think at all, all you’d have needed to have done was to ask me exactly what I had meant and to explain further, that’s all.” James continued as he reached for the top button of his shirt and started to undo the first few buttons.
“Well, that’s the fucking thing. I did asked and you gave me the same reply, which was all obviously pointing towards the same thing. And it made me almost started to feel l was being all over you when I obviously only wanted to do all those things because I was worried about you and wanted you to be fine.” I paused and inserted my hands into my pants pockets and allowed my shoulders to float up in a small shrug before I continued in an even softer voice.
“I wanted to be sure you wouldn’t drive yourself into an accident with how lost you looked as we exited the hoise of Ivan and that of his cousin’s, which was why I had asked you to ride with me, for your own safety. I also invited you over, not because there wasn’t any thing for taking care of your wound there in the car, but because I had a feeling you’re get home and in my drink until you fall asleep, and didn’t want that for you after watching you get lost in and out of thoughts for a long time in the tbe car on our way back together.”
“Oh.” James echoed in a soft voice, a few seconds after I had stopped talking and I shrugged my shoulders once again before tugging my right hand out from my pocket and dragging my fingers through my curls for a few seconds before I pulled my fingers out of my hair and inserted my hand into my pocket once again. I moved forward towards him and stood a few feet away from him, staring him straight into the eyes without saying a thing, and he started to speak after a few seconds like I had expected.
“I had no idea you watched me in that kind of way…” James started to say and I rolled my eyes before allowing a small and quiet chuckle to slip oh my barely parted lips.
“I don’t.” I snorted out but he obviously didn’t buy it because he didn’t even linger on it and instead started to speak once again. “I honestly didn’t know I had been that obvious this evening.”
He breathed out a laugh and I watched as he ran his fingers through his hair before he decided to continue, while still staring me in the eye. “Man, I thought I was being completely desecret with my emotions this evening, I didn’t know I was being that obvious.” He said and I nodded my head and breathed out another chuckle.
“You’re not as cool as you used to think you are, I can read your emotions most of the time.” I informed him and thoroughly enjoyed the way he had stared at me unbelievably and awed in the very next second. I shook my head at his facial expression and threw my head back, dragging in the cool breeze or the night into my lungs as I moved my weight from foot to foot before I dragged my eyes back down, to settle it on the face of my best friend of over twenty years.