Chapter 84: Chapter 84

JONEA

"Watch your step!" Hunter said. "If you keep spacing out while walking, you might hurt yourself."

As he spoke, he let go of my hoodie. We stood there awkwardly for a moment, facing each other.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to grab you. I know you usually hate being touched."

I just stared at him without saying a word and walked away. I headed to the storage locker to grab my art supplies. But, to my annoyance, Hunter kept following me.

"We still have some group work left, right? Two more assignments, and we have to visit two different places for our essay. When can you do it?" Hunter leaned against my locker, flashing that annoying grin of his.

Without looking at him, I kept packing up my art supplies and shoving them into my bag. I answered nonchalantly, "Whenever."

Honestly, I was already thinking of asking Daran to take my place. I just wanted Hunter to leave me alone.

But he didn’t give up, "You going somewhere? We could hang out after we finish the assignment."

"I'd rather not go anywhere," I replied flatly, zipping up my bag and closing my locker. Before walking off, I looked at him and said, "I hate dealing with dragons and their minions!"

Just then, Marilyn walked by. She shot me a sharp look and then glanced at Hunter, looking disgusted. She didn't even acknowledge me. What was her problem? Why was she acting weird? She usually greets me first, spilling all the details about everything going on in her life. Now she's just ignoring me? Was it because of Hunter?

I ran to catch up with Marilyn, finding her in the cafeteria, sitting alone while munching on her lunch. I sat across from her, but as soon as I did, she lifted her tray, ready to leave.

No way. I grabbed her tray and stopped her. I looked at her seriously.

"What’s going on? Tell me what’s happening. You didn’t even say hi, and now you're avoiding me."

"I saw everything. The way he looks at you, talks to you... Hunter Abraham, he’s after you, isn’t he?"

I had no idea where this was coming from. "I don’t even care about whatever Hunter’s doing. Why are you upset? If you saw him talking to me, you must’ve also seen how I responded, right? I shut him down like... every single time. None of what he said mattered to me. Isn’t that enough?"

"Yeah, I saw that," Marilyn admitted, her tone softening a bit.

"Then what’s the problem? Just tell me," I said, swiping a fry off her plate.

"Is there someone else you like?"

I looked up at her, even more confused. "Do I really need to answer that? You know who I’ve liked for ages."

"Aland Hamilton? Please. He’s not even here. Just tell me, Jonea, who are these guys hanging around you? And who are you going to end up with?"

I stared at Marilyn. "Guys? What, you think I have a bunch of guys besides Hunter Abraham?"

Marilyn sighed dramatically, tapping her freshly painted nails on the table.

"I saw you. I saw you yesterday after campus. You got into some guy’s car. He was handsome, too. At first, I thought it was Owen Rivers, but it wasn’t. Meanwhile, Hunter Abraham and Owen Rivers have both been pestering me, trying to get info on you."

A guy? A car? Did Marilyn see me get into Daran’s car yesterday? Was that what had her all riled up?

Her face still looked grumpy, like she was seriously mad at me.

"I’ve never even heard you mention this guy," she continued. "Why didn’t you tell me? Honestly, I’m kind of hurt. I’ve shared everything with you—my exes, all my embarrassing stuff, everything."

I was speechless. I didn’t expect Marilyn to be this upset.

"Forget it," she finally said, standing up. "I tell you everything, even stuff I wouldn’t share with anyone else. But I guess you don’t feel the same way about me. See you around."

She grabbed her bag and left me sitting there with her plate of fries.

"Hey, Marilyn!" I called after her, but she ignored me and kept walking.

Even when we got back to class, she sat as far away from me as possible. I felt disappointed, but I figured she just needed time to cool down.

Someone came up and asked if the seat next to me was free. I looked up and saw Evangelista waiting for permission to sit down. I nodded.

Class hadn’t started yet because the professor was running late. Marilyn sat a few rows ahead of me, and I couldn’t stop glancing at her.

“What’s with her?” Evangelista asked, noticing my gaze. “You guys are usually inseparable. Did you have a fight?”

"What?" I was caught off guard by the question. "I don’t know. She said I don’t trust her and that I’m hiding things from her. But there’s really nothing I’m keeping from her. Nothing special, at least."

Evangelista smiled reassuringly. “Maybe she’s just misunderstanding something.”

Even after that day, Marilyn kept avoiding me. Every time I tried to say hi or approach her, she’d pretend not to notice and just walk away. It was getting on my nerves.

I couldn’t take it anymore, so I pulled out my phone and texted her.

“Marilyn, are you seriously going to keep acting like this?”

“What?” she replied, short and cold.

Ugh, I was so done with this. I called her right away.

“Marilyn, stop acting like a kid and tell me what’s bothering you!” I spoke quickly and loudly into the phone.

But instead of answering, Marilyn just hung up. That made me even more frustrated. I threw my phone onto the bed and screamed into my pillow.

I stormed out of my room and went to the kitchen to grab some water.

“What’s up, Jonea?” Daran asked, appearing behind me like a ghost with no sound or scent.

“Sorry, I probably disturbed you with my yelling.”

“Did something bad happen?”

Before I knew it, I was venting to Daran about everything.

“Marilyn’s mad at me, but I don’t even know why. No matter how hard I try to ask her, she won’t tell me. She’s avoiding me, ignoring my texts, even hanging up on me. I’m so frustrated!”

“You two seem really close,” Daran commented. “It must be confusing.”

“Yeah, you know I have a twin, but after meeting Marilyn in high school, it felt like I had two sisters. We’re that close. Why is she doing this to me?”

I paused for a moment, then asked, “Daran, wanna go for a walk? I need to get out of here and clear my head!”

Daran nodded. A few seconds later, he looked surprised and asked, "Wait, you wanna go for a walk with me?"