Chapter 35: Chapter 35

Chapter Three

Today was the last day of the bet. And, to prove that I won it, I had to make Jess 'I love you to me. Today in itself.

What an odd thing.

Sometimes when I give deep thought to me and my friends, I come to realise how childish we were and how immature we were, but then I also had this thought, if not now then when will we behave like this? When will we the right time? It was honestly weird.

Even though I was well aware of both sides and knew that we were brats and the things we did were dumb, I can't seem to stop myself from doing it. It was also hard not to engage myself when my whole friend group did.

So, instead of fighting against these trivial things, I thought about enjoying them well. If I were supposed to do dumb things and get in trouble for it, if any, then why not have fun while doing it?

Therefore, not only today I will make Jess confess her love to me but I will live the moment of my victory. I will enjoy cracking the toughest girl in school and making her my girlfriend. No matter how stupid that sounded. Today, my friends will witness me conquering another one of their challenges and once again they will have to praise me for achieving something unachievable. They all will respect me more.

And my girlfriend will be officially mine. Bearing that thought into my mind, I took a step in the direction of my victory.

I messaged Jess to meet me in an empty classroom and told my friends at the same time to go and wait outside the classroom window to listen in on our conversation. And then I waited for Jess to walk into the room. The period just got over but I knew that Jess's teacher might keep her class in for extra few minutes. The same annoying teacher. I wondered if she had anything against Jess's class. Or maybe, she was just this irritating by nature.

Whatever it was, I had to wait. There was nothing for me to do except be patient. And so I waited.

After more than five minutes of waiting, Jess finally walked in. Wearing the same bright smile that she usually gives whenever she sees me. However, there was something different this time.

Her walk was way too cheery and she almost jumped with every step that she took. She seemed a little too bright and her eyes twinkled more than usual. Well, well, she was bringing some good news. I could sense it. Moreover, I could read it all over her.

She jumped next to me and tip-toed to kiss me on the cheek. Yup, I was right. Something good had happened to her.

"Guess what?" She asked me.

I tried to stifle my smile but it still escaped. Knowing what was coming.

"What?" I asked her.

"I scored the highest in my class. A plus." She said excitedly. I let out a chuckle at her enthusiasm. She was oh-so predictable.

I loved seeing her like this. Free and without restraint with me. Showing her true emotions, and not holding back. It made my pride swell that she was like this, with only me. And nobody had ever seen her like this, showing her true emotions, except me.

"Nobody except for me scored A plus. And that too, from this teacher. She never hands out A plus to anyone but I managed to get it." She told me, pride evident in her voice. She was almost shaking from happiness and I could not help but feel proud of her too.

Scoring in one exam made her feel like this. Internally, I shook my head at her. She was so innocent. So, unaware of the real problems and things. Nonetheless, that's not why I called her here. I did not want to get distracted from my real motive. So, I decided to steer the conversation in the direction that I wanted.

I leaned back on the desk and let out a little laugh.

"Well done. I am proud of you." I said and jerked her to me with her forearm. She let out a predictable gasp, not expecting the move. Her hand moved to my chest to stop us from colliding.

"Well, that called out for a celebration or a prize." I whispered as I leaned towards her and pulled her to me.

"I- I ... you ..." She stumbled on her words, unsure what to say. Unable to focus on our conversation, getting dizzy with our proximity.

"Say, I love you." I ordered her. She glanced up to stare me in my eyes with her hazy one.

"What?" She asked, her voice weak and barely above a whisper. My charm was working.

"Say that you love me." I told her once again. Pulling her even close so that our lips almost touched.

Her eyes drooped close and she let out a breathy, "I love you." to me. A smirk adorned my lips which were gone before Jess could open her eyes. My hands slid into her hair and I gripped them gently.

"Louder." I told her. My friends needed to hear it.

She opened her eyes and told me what I wanted to hear. "I love you." Her voice was firm and loud, a little under control now. Feeling that I had won the bet and the victory was mine, I felt like a lion who had secured his prey. Without any other word, I sealed her lips with mine. Giving her what she wanted from me and deserved.

A little later, I sent her to the next class. This time not accompany her. She was a little shy from whatever had happened between us. It made things easy for me and helped me in making a lame excuse for not being able to accompany her to her next class.

When she finally left the class, I walked over to the side window and found all of my friends, looking keenly with smirks on their faces. From the bars of the window, we all fist bumped and all of them congratulated me on my win. As always Chad riling me up and Ryle making comments on how easy it was for me to win a bet like this. How easily I made the toughest girl break and fall for my charms to make her confess her love for me.

I soaked in their praise and after a few more minutes we finally bid goodbye. We were supposed to meet in the playground in an hour. After they all left, I turned and saw through the glass door, Jess's so-called friend, Raymond walked out of sight.

Something tugged in me. Something was wrong.

I shrugged the feeling away and walked out of the class.