Free Losing Control by Summer Mackenzie

I would have to spend the next two days trying to get him to like me again, and I was not looking forward to that at all. But my phone had suddenly become some invisible object that may or may not exist.
    “Elena,” someone said so I looked up. I was staring right down at this person’s face, a roundish shape and hazel eyes. I couldn’t even find words to respond with, I was just standing there, speechless.
    “Elena? You okay?”
    “What the hell are you doing here, Nick?” I finally managed to find my voice. And with that, my anger was riled back up again.
    “You wouldn’t talk to me,” Nick said. “What was I supposed to do?”
    “Stay the fuck away, Nick! That’s what!”
    He grabbed my arm in an obvious effort to threaten me. “Don’t do this,” he said. “Don’t make this a whole public insult thing. I just need to talk.”
    I tried to break free but his grip on my arm was vicious. “Nick!” I yelled. “Let go of me.”
    “Not until you agree to come with me,” he said, fingers digging deeper into my skin. “Come on Elena, don’t be a bitch.”
    I was about to say something rude when our conversation was interrupted. “She asked you to leave her alone,” said a familiar voice.
    I turned to see the speaker, and ended up being just as confused as Nick, because it was Thorne Ryker, standing there, wearing casual clothes that I had never seen on him before. There was a lanky teenager standing right next to him, and he looked a lot like Thorne.
    “Who the hell are you?” Nick said to Ryker.
    Nick was even more mad, but Thorne wasn’t about to let this go either. “I’m a friend of Penny’s,” he said to Nick. “And next time, I’m not going to ask you to let go of her.”
    “This is none of your business Penny’s friend,” Nick said, to my utter disappointment. “I suggest you let her deal with her own problems. She’s my fiancée. I just want to talk to her.”
    “Nick I told you before, I don’t want to talk to you. Now let me go, please!”
    But Nick’s gaze wasn’t on me anymore. He was eyeing Thorne with contempt. Thorne didn’t even flinch. “You heard her,” he said. The threat was there in his voice, even though he wasn’t saying it. We all heard it and Nick must have heard it too. Which was probably why he let go of me. I guess he must have decided it wasn’t worth taking the risk of being punched in public and losing the fight. “Elena I will see you,” Nick said, and that was supposed to be some kind of threat but I couldn’t care less. Then he turned to leave.
    “Thanks,” I said to Thorne, as soon as Nick was gone. “He’s not usually like this. I don’t know what’s going on with him.”
    “That’s alright,” Thorne said. “Guess he’s having trouble getting over you.”
    I had no idea what I was supposed to say, so I did the next best thing. “Thanks,” I said. “For telling him you were Penny’s friend and not being weird about it.”
    “No problem,” he said.
    “You’re here,” I said. “In these parts?”
    He grinned. “This is my brother Lane,” he pointed to the teenager and the teenager gave a nod of his head, and a shy smile. “He loves this place for some reason. I’m pretty sure he’s after some girl, but we don’t know that yet.”
    The teenager flushed. “That’s not true,” he said. “I really do like the food.”
    “Nice to meet you, Lane,” I held out a hand and he shook it.
    Then, we were all just standing in an awkward silence. It seemed like it would never be over, when Thorne filled it with words. “I should probably go inside,” he said and I started smiling like an idiot, I was probably overdoing it, I was certain.
    “Sure, yeah!” I stammered.
    “I’ll see you around,” he said, and I’m pretty sure his eyes said things that his words didn’t say.
    “Yes,” I managed.
    And then he was gone, disappeared inside the crowd of people in the breakfast place along with his teenaged brother, and I was