Time flies faster when we are with our loved ones. I have never really experienced it as much as today. The homeroom is missed and the second period is abo Pout to get missed too. As I am running down the corridor of the third floor of our main school building to get to the class, a door on my left flies open and someone pulls me in.
I am blinded momentarily by the darkness of the room. Moreover, a hand clamps on my mouth preventing any noise from coming out of me. I'm pressed against someone, possibly a male. The smell of cigar hits my nostrils followed by breaths on my neck.
“It's me, your highness,” Dax rasps against my ear and my body relaxes automatically. Sensing that, he removes his hand from my mouth and loosens his grip around me. I bite on his fingers before he can move away completely. He jumps back hissing in pain.
I turn around to find him sucking the place where I have bitten him. That scene, him sucking the side of his own finger, does something deep inside me. I gulp and he notices. Pulling up a smirk, he puts his hand down. He opens his mouth to say it and I interfere because I know if I let him talk now, we aren't having the actual talk we need anytime soon.
“You scared me,” I state, furrowing and crossing my hands over my chest in a defensive manner. Somehow he understands and gets serious.
“Sorry, I didn't mean to do that. I just wanted to talk to you and you were ignoring me so…..,” he trails off, observing my reaction. I shrug. “Speak.”
“What?” He looks confused. So, I explain, “You wanted to talk to me. Now speak. Say what you want to talk about.”
“Well, that's not……,” he trails off again, seeing something in my eyes. Shrugging, he goes for something else. “Okay, whatever. Are you mad at me?”
I quirk an eyebrow. “Am I? Did you do something to make me mad?”
His eyes are searching my face, trying to make sense of my weird attitude. His answer sounds just as confused. “That one yesterday.”
“Which one?” I lean my back against the closed door. The darkness has adjusted much more now to my eyes and I realize it is not actually that dark here. I have felt like that because I have been in a comparatively sunny area.
Dax shrugs, avoiding my gaze. “You know.” And I know very well that he is trying not to voice it out. I'm gonna force him to do just that. If you can do it, why can't you say it?
“Say it,” I command him. He looks seriously taken aback by my tone. His words do not form coherently either. “That I….”
“Mhm?”
He visibly gulps before finishing it. “Took a shot before you.”
“So you realize it's a bad thing?”
He nods like an obedient boy, looking so innocent as if I am the one abusing or bullying him right now. However, I do not take pity. Both of us need this talk. So, I make my tone gentler. “Then why are you doing this?”
He does not say anything in reply, just looks out of the window to his right at the schoolyard. I sigh. If he decides to keep quiet like always, it won’t go anywhere.
“Listen, I keep telling you that it's bad and asking you to leave it. Yeah, I didn't emphasize much before because I didn't think it was that bad. Now that I have seen it with my own eyes, I beg you. Please leave the drugs, Dax. Contact the student counselor first. It's not that hard. Take sessions. If she can't help you, we will move further, find someone else who can help you. Please seek help and leave the addiction. I don't want to see you like that again. Got it?”
He looks back at me and I see the stubborn gleam in his gaze. I know what's coming next. I'm not gonna like his answer.
“I don't need help. I will try not to show that side of me to you ever again.” And yes, he says something that dumb now.
I shrug, trying to shove off the bubbling anger while twisting the doorknob and opening it. Before leaving, I glance over my shoulder and state, “The problem is neither that side of you nor me seeing it. The problem is your dependency on drugs and your stubbornness in not seeking help. It's getting horrifyingly bad. Don't end up losing me for that.”
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
As expected, I've missed the second period as well. Sophia gives me a highly judgmental look when I take a seat beside her in the third class. I roll my eyes in response. There is no need to give me that look. I barely miss classes compared to Noah, Hunter, and Jessie. We have only one class with Tyler and Erin. So, I cannot tell how regular they are.
Soon, it's lunchtime. I have met with Ms. Adams, for which I'm a little late again. As I enter the cafeteria, our group easily catches my eye. The loudest table belongs to my people.
I walk over and dramatically drop down on the only remaining empty chair. The sole purpose is to grab all of their attention and I have done just that.
“Here comes our Queen Victoria! The Royalty has finally graced us with her presence,” Jessie announces, making a hand horn mimicking the sound of it. I slap her hand down with a scowl.
“Very funny.” I scowl at her snatching Tyler's juice from his hand and taking two long sips. The sudden action makes him jump up. As I turn to look at him (mainly to glare), he's staring at Jessie while chewing on his burger.
It's usually a normal thing, me throwing tantrums randomly because I love my friends’ attention when I do that. That's also true for Noah.
Speaking of Noah, I don't see him at our table. Has he skipped lunch in fear of buying my lunch?
“So, my Queen, where have you been?” Jessie asks, holding a bottle in front of my mouth mimicking a microphone. I shove it away, my eyes racking over the whole cafeteria for a glimpse of a blond head. “Where's Noah?”
“Don't ignore me!” Jessie yells and at the same time, Erin replies to me, “Probably on the mission of getting a girlfriend finally.”
Eh, what? In my eighteen years of life, I've never heard such an outrageous thing. Hearing ‘Getting a girlfriend’ and Noah's name in the same sentence while it being positive is something I have never thought I would hear in this lifetime.
He is just not into dating. At first, we have thought he is probably not interested in girls. Then we realize that the problem is not girls, it is the whole romance thingy. There's a term for that which I have forgotten.
Unlike others, I do not exactly think that he has no chance in dating. He is decent-looking but his behavior might be a barrier. Again, I do not think that it is that big of a problem.
Obviously, I would never say it to his face. That being said, I have never thought of seeing him with anyone either. So, obviously, that comes as a huge surprise.
I am pretty sure I look really dumb when I ask, “Really? Who?”
Tyler furrows, trying to remember the girl. Failing, he glances at Erin, who is nearly as confused as him. “Um, that girl from….. biology class, I think. Don't remember her name.”
“Stacy Gardner,” Sophia answers in a stoic voice from the other side of the table, which makes all of us pause at the same time. The reason behind our symmetrical dramatic reaction is that we ship Sophia and Noah secretly. It is an open secret that only these two do not know. We are pretty sure about the fact that Sophia has feelings for him. We also have a hypothesis that the uninterested attitude towards dating on his part might be because he has feelings for Sophia. However, our ship has not sailed yet and from the looks of it, it might even sink.
Hunter clears his throat bringing the rest of our attention back to the present. I also clear my throat before voicing my thoughts. “That’s okay but he's supposed to give me a treat for lunch.”
Erin shrugs, taking a spoonful of her salad and then pointing the fork at me. “Well, I suppose he actually went with her ditching you.”
“There's no ditching me. I'm gonna drag his ass back here.” Grabbing a handful of fries from Jessie's plate, I get up. “Tell me, where is he?”
Jessie slaps my hand which doesn't feel very playful. So, I glance in her direction. She is facing the other direction with a pout and a furrow, crossing her arms over her chest. I roll my eyes, grabbing her hand and pulling her to her feet.
“You're coming with me.” I glance at the table and Hunter catches my eye. I realize that he is unusually quiet today.
“You too, Hunter,” I announce, making him glance in my direction. “Come with me.”
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
First of all, we do not end up finding Noah. Well, we do not try that hard either. After leaving the cafeteria, I spend the next couple of minutes trying to calm Jessie down who is throwing tantrums because I have been ignoring her in there. After that, I try to talk to Hunter alone to get to know what happened in the morning but Jessie again interrupts. She and Hunter are dating but they are not as clingy to each other as Erin and Tyler. Yet, she refuses to let him talk to me alone when I have already done that a couple of times during their relationship and she has never once batted an eye. I figure something else might be there, so I dismiss both of them and head to the library. My mood is already ruined, so I do not bother searching for Noah anymore.
I have no more classes after lunch. So, I am spending a lot of time in the library today.
Ms. Adams has classes, so she is not accompanying me. That does not mean that I am all alone. A few students are here and there, some doing academic work while others are enjoying novels or other literary works.
I do not have much work to do either. So, I take a novel as well and take a seat in my designated place near the front desk.
I am about one-third in when a shadow stretches over my book. In an attempt to see who has decided to break my solitude, I lift up my head. My heart jumps up in my throat as I stare at a familiar set of warm brown eyes. It has been such a long time since I saw them. But I remember just as clearly how much they used to haunt me in my dreams once.
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