Sofia’s pov
“You can’t be serious about liking that movie.” Zander exclaimed, sounding completely outraged while I snickered away.
“Why not? It’s a good movie. And besides, it’s not my fault that you hate romance.” I pointed out and he rolled his eyes before leaving forward, face a cape of seriousness.
“I dont hate romance, don’t get me wrong, but everything in life has its limit, you know?”
I shook my head adamantly. “Definitely not romance! Romance is limitless.”
Zander shook his head once again. “I believe it gets cringe really fast, that’s why movies or stories centered on just romance tend to bore me out really fast.”
“I think that’s because you’re a hater of that genre, because no sane person should ever tire of romance.” I reminded him as I reached for my drink and began to thumb the straw. Zander sighed from exasperation, which made me dissolve in laughter once again.
“I don’t hate romanc–… ugh, never mind, you’d never agree with me anyway.” He whined while leaning against the table, causing me to burst out laughing once again.
Zander and I used to hang out a whole lot these days. Since he was always less busy and I’d almost never turn down an invitation from him because each one tends to be extremely interesting, it automatically leads to us hanging out a whole lot.
Luca stopped bothering about him on realizing that Zander was indeed just a friend. When I told him I’d be meeting up with Zander today, he had only hummed before tugging me even closer to his body so he could snuggle into me some more like I was some life sized teddy bear.
It was almost laughable how Luca went from being a little jealous of Zander to not giving two fucks about him. I liked it though, because it means Luca trusted him and it also meant that I have another friend whom Luca trusts and doesn’t need to be double checking on, on every outing.
Zander and I hung out later in the week again, and this time, we went to a park. We had a whole lot of fun together, and I looked forward to convincing Luca to come with me in the future because I bet he’d look really goofy on one of those fun rides, if he’d even agree to ride on them to begin with.
“Did you have fun today?” He asked as he brushed out dusts from his hair and I giggled as I helped him get more off.
“I did. It was a fun-filled day. What about you?”
“Oh I had a whole lot of fun, it was really nice and I definitely don’t mind redoing it tomorrow!” He responded, a large grin spread out on his face, making him appear extremely boyish. I rolled my eyes as I stretched my hands a little.
“Nope, definitely not tomorrow, or anytime soon, I need to get a whole lot of rest to be able to recover from this.”
Zander pursed his lips. “Why do you need rest? We’ve barely done anything today. If anything, I feel energized as ever.”
I let out a little huff and began to wear my sneakers. “That’s probably because you’re a boy. Y’all boys are really, really weird.”
“Hm. Bet? I feel like girls are the weird ones here, cause most times they get tired from doing absolutely nothing, like what even is that?” He demanded and I giggled because the point he had just made right now, is extremely true.
“Well, maybe you’re right.”
He picked up his own shoes and asked me to accompany him to his car. As we headed towards where he had it parked together, I grew more intrigued when he declared that he had something in his car which he got for me a few days ago.
On getting to his car which was parked in a completely different section from where my guards had my own car parked at, he pulled the back door open and got in. I patiently waited for him to reveal what he got for me, when he motioned for me to get in. Confused, I hesitated for a few moments before slowly shaking my head. He did that for a few more moments and on starting to feel weirded out as to why he couldn’t just bring out said gift, I refused again and again– till he exited the car and tried to physically force me in, and that’s when I realized that somethings that looked like ropes and tapes were at the back.
A scream tore past my throat but that only lasted for a second before his hand tightly clamped over my mouth as he shouldered me into the car despite how much I tried to refuse.
The sound of a gunshot going off made me stiffen, while Zander cursed as he loosened one of his hands from my body and used the other to tug me out of the car, still plastered against him, and that’s when I realized that Ethan had been the one who had shot the gun moments ago.
“Let her go at this instant.” Ethan ordered and Zander shot at Ethan to my horror, and relief because the bullet missed him by a tiny breath of air.
Ryan appeared from nowhere, emerging behind us and grasping Zander tight while knocking the gun from his grip at the same time. Zander was on the ground with Ryan’s knee digging harshly into his back the next moment. My mind was still reeling from the shock of what had just transpired right here and no in only a few minutes. As I regarded Zander, writhing as he got roughly manhandled into the back of the car, I began to wonder if we were ever friends of it; he had had this motive from the very start.
~~~
The park’s manager ordered us out because we had caused a commotion with that little scene and I kept silently praying no one had been able to record any of it. The park’s manager almost called the police but Ryan convinced him against that.
I had a feeling Ryan’s definition of convincing the manager was threat but I refused to dwell on that, seeing as I had other things to focus on, like why Zander could want to kidnap me of all things.