Chapter 26: Chapter 26

"What?" I pretend not to have any idea.

"The bad boy of Franklin just finishes talking to you. Like what the heck?" She gasp, as if remembering something. "He called you at the party. Mia, you remember?"

She nods. "Yeah. The drink never let us talk about it."

"And I remember his sister coming to tell me that you'll be with him till tomorrow. How come I'm just remembering all that now, wait, did you guys do anything?" Shade has her eyes almost bulging out as Mia is playing with the fork on the tip of her mouth.

"Gals, I'm not cheap, okay? We did not do anything. He only helped me to the hospital where I met Mom and came home with her. You're all naughty-headed." I huff.

Shade scoff sarcastically. "Pfft, if that's a word."

I decide to change the discussion as all it did was make me more disinterested in eating and brooding back to Nicklaus and his good looks. Damn! He's hot. But I don't think that's why I'm pulled to him. The feeling I have is not lust, it's somewhat discovery of who he is.

"What are you talking about?"

"Mia here is giving me the latest info that the principal has been changed to some—"

"Mr. Douglass." Mia finishes for her.

This is news. The principal has been changed? Lydia's father?

"Lydia's Dad?" My thought comes out.

"Yeah, Lydia." Says Shade in a daze. Her gaze fixed ahead.

I shift on the chair to my behind, noticing the change in Mia's and other student's demeanor as well as the aura, filling the room. Stunned I am when I see the door closing behind Lydia's-unlikely-self. She's so different in her behaviour and how she walks into the cafe. Her hair drawls down her back, hopping with each graceful steps. Her caucasoid features vibrantly radiant off, beautifying her skin that's covered with a sharp, well-tailored brown coat, stopping just below her knees, a black, leather pants with matching boots.

I watch in drool as she stops on getting to Nicklaus' seat where I now see him and his sister occupying and take the last chair.

"Christ wonders. So people also do change for the greater worst?"

"I wonder." Mia says, dumbstruck.

Unexplainable feeling stirs up in the pit of my stomach and overtime, every now and then, seconds after seconds, I'd eye them either from my peripheral or the corners of my eyes will I watch what Lydia is doing. She, Nicklaus and Adeline seems to be engrossed in a matter that seems to be frustrating to Nicklaus the most than Adeline as his forehead wrinkles ever since. How much I wish to be able to hear what they are talking about. It seems so important.

I turn my head back to my food, and start eating, thankful that Shade not Mia notices my lack of interest in their sayings. Finishing with forcing the apple down my throat, I stealthily turn to look at them when I see Lydia cupping Nicklaus face. He did not stop her from caressing her fingers along his pink lips, but at the same time, he seems uninterested. So soon, Lydia leans closer and kiss him on the lip, causing nauseous feeling to run down my gut. I feel as though the apple wants to come back out as I watch him kiss her back before he stops and lean back to rest on his seat.

Fury assemble right inside me and next I did is stomp out of the cafe, leaving my friends to calling after me in concern. Before I know it, I'm out of the cafe, then the hallway, and out of the school's building. I do not think much of what I want to do in this state of mine, but one thing on my mind is that I don't want to see Nicklaus. He irks me with that action of his. He can't explain to me that he was being forced that way even though his expression doesn't look as if he approves the kissing.

I'm so foolish for thinking that he'd feel the pull as well. He already told me that he doesn't do the girlfriend thing. The girlfriend thing? Is that how guys even call it? He's not even romantic at all for him to call a relationship; girlfriend thing. So ridiculous.

My train of thought runs into accident by a hand on my shoulder, pulling me back from my lost self. Turning sharply, I'm faced with Nicklaus' figure.

"What?"

"You left the cafe in anger, leaving your friends as if they don't matter."

I laugh facetiously, at the same time offended that he came to me not apologize but talk about leaving.

"What do you know about friends?"

"I have many." He says in return. Why are we even talking about this irrelevant topic? "I told you that I don't do the girlfriend thing, so kissing me yesterday was nothing, but mere activity. You were warned by very me before."

"I kissed you?" I whisper when I notice Shade, and Mia emerging from the door, but they stop on seeing us. "Didn't you blame it on the alcohol? If then it's alcohol, why did you kiss me back?"

From the corners of my eyes, Adeline and Lydia comes out of the door as well, watching us. If I'm not blind, that bullying idiot is smirking.

"I kissed you back because you were needing."

"I was needing?" I am utterly not getting along.

"Yeah, you wouldn't back off."

So if I'm to understand what he's trying to say, does he mean that he took... advantage of me? That none of that feeling that I thought he has is true? That the way he spoke affectionately was all pretence?

I take a step towards him, making sure he's close to me, looking up at his emotionless face or so I see it as, I slap him angrily.