Question: have you ever had a bully? How did you put them in their place? Or do you need me to pull up with the whole family?

Answer: you really don't want to hear my story :)

(Trigger warning: as you can already tell, Casper makes an appearance in this chapter, so expect his usual offensive slurs. I'm so sorry.)

Chapter 49 - Burgeoning Colours.

Oliver

What exactly was I supposed to do? I was stuck in the middle of two decisions. 

The last time Casper was here, it was such a disaster, and he was most definitely unwelcome. Now, he was here again, this time requesting entrance. It was completely in my hands to let him in or not. It was entirely my decision to make.

"That's the Casper?" Khalid asked with a spoonful of bitterness, motioning at the computer. 

"Yes," I muttered ghostly, almost silently.

"What the hell is he doing here then? Does he have a death wish?" 

"I've no idea," I mumbled, still staring at the computer screen. 

Just then he started banging frantically on the gate with his palm.

"Jimmy?! Let me in, I'm fucking freezing out here! Bloody hell!" He bellowed. 

"Sir, are you going to let him in or should I send him away?" Thijs asked me, his voice growing a little stern because Casper had become too noisy. 

"Can I talk to him from the gate?" I turned around and asked Thijs, finally tearing my eyes away from the computer screen.

"Yes. Just slide the mail hole open," he answered plainly.

"Thanks," I muttered and started walking out of the guard house, making my way straight to the gate. 

Khalid raced behind me. "What are you going to tell him?" 

"I want to find out exactly why he's here, and I don't think his reason would be something Thijs would like to hear," I huffed, as the cold breeze hit my face once again. It was already really dark now, there were bountiful stars up in the sky, shimmering like tiny specks of fairy dust. 

"I hope he's not looking for trouble," Khalid grunted with a deep voice. He sounded really upset, but also braced up for a fight or anything physical, at the very least. 

Getting to the gate, I slid the mail hole open just as Thijs had instructed and called Casper's attention. He quickly turned to the hole and shoved his whole face up there. I had to step back because that was too close. I was irritated by just looking at him, let alone having his face so close to mine. 

"Yo, Jimmy, let me in please. I need to crash with you tonight. Just tonight, I promise," he sputtered with a trembling voice. His face was pale, and he looked like everything wrong had just happened to him. 

"Why should I let you in?" I didn't mind sounding hostile. 

"Why?!" He scoffed. "Why? Because we're mates, Jim. And my friends I was squatting with kicked me out just minutes ago. Can you imagine the audacity on those pricks? I never trusted them, anyway," he rambled on, still shuddering. 

Taking a minute to myself to think, I turned to Khalid to ask for his opinion, but he didn't say anything. He refused to influence my decision, so I took it upon myself to make the right one. 

"Go away, Casper. Find somewhere else to spend the night," I dismissed him and made to slide the hole shut but he quickly stopped me. 

"No, no! Oliver, please, don't do this to me. You're a kind person, aren't you?" He said in a tone I found taunting. 

"So, now you want to take advantage of that kindness?" I deadpanned.

"No. I just want to stay the night, that's all," he answered in a flat tone. 

"Why here? Why can't you go somewhere else?"

He heaved a heavy sigh, blowing warm air into the cold night breeze before answering in a whisper. "I did heroin and some other drugs just minutes ago. The effects are about to kick in and your place is the closest. Hell, I'm already feeling numbness in my feet and hands, I need to sleep as soon as possible."

"Bloody hell!" I exclaimed, going back a few steps. 

"No, no, no, not bloody. It's not as scary as it sounds. I just want to sleep. That's all," he quickly explained.

"You want him to harbour a junkie?" Khalid spoke for the first time.

"What's that rubbish saying?" Casper shot back, scrunching his face at Khalid.

"That 'rubbish' is Khalid and he's asking you a question," I replied sternly, my lips curling into a snarl as I eyed him.

"Ugh," he groaned, rubbing his face. "I'm not a junkie, I just want to sleep. Just let me in, it's freezing out here. You might hate me, but you sure don't want me to die of hypothermia, do you?"

I see he was trying to play mind games with me, trying to make me feel guilt and pity for him. It was working, though. After much further contemplation, I concluded on letting him spend the night. 

Walking back to the guard house, I told Thijs to come open up the gate for him since I wasn't with my Lighthouse ID to do it myself. He came out of the guard off, typed in the combination and the small passage gate slid open. 

It wasn't even completely open before Casper slipped in like a rat, muttering a quick, trembling thanks to Thijs. 

"Come on, let's go to your room!" He skipped ahead of us while Khalid and I slowly trailed behind, watching him skeptically. 

"Are you sure about this?" Khalid whispered to me so Casper wouldn't hear. 

"No," I confessed shortly, still eyeing him. "But what do I have to lose by helping him in this sorry state?" 

Khalid sighed and drew his shoulders up, concluding to not question my decision any further. 

The second I opened my room, Casper jumped inside, kicked off his shoes at the door-- thank God for that-- and pounced on my bed, releasing a long, throaty sigh. He, however, did not take off his socks which I'm sure smelt like a sweaty, dead rat.

"What the hell?" Khalid sneered. Displeased by Casper's vulgarity, he rushed to pull him out of my bed. 

Thankfully, I stopped him before he could do that. Casper just laid there, staring at us with his legs spread out, and his hands under his head, cushioning it like a pillow. 

"Let him be. You don't need anyone to tell you before you know that he's not mentally stable at the moment. You can tell just by looking at him," I spoke calmly, shaking my head at him. 

"Hey! I'm mentally st-stable. I-I'm ju-just h-high," he stuttered like a drug addict who had been using nonstop for months now. 

Khalid and I slowly turned to him, utterly disgusted. The looks on our faces said it all.

"You can't sleep on his bed. You should use the sleeping bag." Before Khalid could finish talking, Casper had already passed out. His snores were snorty, it resonated against the walls and filled the entire room. "What do we do about that?" Khalid asked, subtly pointing at Casper.

"I have no idea. I don't know," I admitted, shrugging defeatedly. 

"You can't sleep in this room with that," he frowned at me. 

"Oh, God no," I shuddered at the thought. 

"Where are you going to sleep then? Will you stay with me, Chris, and Shirley or will you stay with the girls?" He suggested.

Taking a moment to think, I replied. "Can I stay with you?" I appealed, looking up at him. "You know, with Chris and his girlfriend being around and all."

"Sure, of course. It's not like we're interested in the both of them, anyway," he chuckled.

"True, we're not. Even if anything does happen, we'll be too busy sleeping to know, anyway," I pointed out. 

"Yeah, sure. We'll be sleeping," he murmured idly, somewhat doubtful of that being the case. "We should leave now. I can't stand this junkie's snores any longer." 

"Me neither," I agreed. 

Heading for the door, I started. "Kevin shouldn't mind staying with Alex just for the night, right? I mean, they're technically friends now. They sat in church together," I thought out loud, hoping Kev wouldn't be too offended by the sudden change of circumstances. 

"We'll have to ask Kev, and Alex to be sure. If Alex isn't cool with it, then Kev can squat with us. It'll be like one massive sleepover," he laughed softly. "Are we just going to leave him like that?" Khalid asked, following me. 

"I'll lock it from the outside," I answered, swinging the key in the air.

"Oh," he mumbled, a smirk forming on his lips. "That's just perfect."

"I know, right." 

When we returned to the common area, everyone was still present, so we just rejoined them. 

"Hey, what happened? Where did you two run off to?" Jess being her usual inquisitive self was the first to ask questions.

"Someone was here to see me. Casper," I announced and everyone who knew Casper instantly turned to me; Yadiri, Chris, including Shirley. 

"Are you joking?" Jess's voice grew flat and strong as she eyed me doubtfully.

"No, I'm not. He's currently sleeping in my room," I revealed with a passive tone, trying my best to sound unaffected. Jess remained speechless for a while, Chris was the next person to speak.

"What the hell is that nincompoop doing here? I thought we told the security to never let him in again." An angry frown spread across his face. 

"He didn't have anywhere else to go. He begged me and I just had to agree. He's been through a few things today," I related. 

"And that is your business, how?!" Jess yelled at me. 

"You're right, it's none of my business. But still, I had to help him out here," I tried to reason with her because she was starting to switch to crazy. 

"I hope he's here with a new, different attitude than last time," Chris commented.

"He'd better," Khalid's voice came out hard. 

"Well, we'll find out in the morning. Right now, he's sleeping like an unseasoned log of wood," I said with mild disdain, scrunching up my nose. 

"Wait, last time? He's been here before?" Yadiri was the one to point that out.

"Hold on a minute, I just heard that. He's been here before?!" Jess repeated Yadiri's question, the only difference was the pitch in which it was asked. 

"Yeah--" 

"And why are we just knowing?" She cut me off before I could finish.

"Because it wasn't important," I stated bluntly.

"Oh, it wasn't, huh? And now he's here again. Is it important now?" 

"Jess, chill," Yadiri said softly, bringing her back. 

"Ugh! Sorry," she groaned out of frustration, leaning back onto the sofa.

"Yes, chill. We don't know exactly why he's here. For all we know, he might've changed," I said, hopeful.

"As much as I doubt that, there's nothing I can do about it. I suppose we just have to wait till morning," Jess finally accepted. 

"If this guy is sleeping in your room, where are we going to sleep then? With him? Is he sleeping on the floor or?" Kevin intoned, more concerned about his comfort. I mean, of course, he should be. 

"Nope. He's actually very comfortable on the bed as we speak," I answered with a rueful grin. "I'm spending the night in Khalid's room. I was hoping you would stay with Alex and Patrick, please? I hope you both don't mind," I pleaded, looking from Alex to Kevin then to Patrick remorsefully.  

"If it's fine by the both of them," Kevin spoke first, gesturing at Alex and Patrick.

"It's alright, mate. You can stay with us," Patrick approved.

"Alex?" I had to call his name to get his attention when he didn't respond seconds later. 

"Sure! Of course! It's fine by me!" He replied late. He also sounded a little too overexcited because he hadn't even realised we were talking about him. He had zoned out of the conversation long ago.

"Ah. Thank you, thank you," I thanked the both of them, releasing a sigh of relief. 

Jess scoffed loudly. "When did Alex become this loud," she whispered to Yadiri with a mocking laugh. But it was louder than a whisper because we all heard her. She intended for everyone to hear. "Well, I'm going to my room now." With that she stood up and left the common area before anyone else could say anything.

Once again, I sent my sad, apologetic smile to Alex who just nodded.

"I'm sorry. She will come around," I promised him once again.

"I know," he said with strong determination hinting in his voice.

Despite everything, he was still hopeful and I couldn't be happier. A few minutes later, we all left for our various sleeping destinations. Before I slept, I kept expecting a call from Mason but it never came, so I just went to bed, knowing that I didn't study a single page today. In spite of this, I refused to panic. I had one more week just for that. 

More pressing matters were heavy on my mind, anyway. I kept wondering how I was going to confront Casper in the morning when he would have probably regained most of his sobriety, and the false kindness would most definitely be expelled from his personality. 

* * *

It was Monday morning now. The entire week was proclaimed lecture free because it was the last week before exams commenced. It was said to be a week of revision for us students. Of course, Kevin and I made sure to utilise the opportunity to the fullest. He was still staying at Lighthouse with me, so we could study together at any time at all.

I woke up quite early today because of the individual sleeping in my room. I wanted to make sure that he hadn't broken out, and my room was still in place. Refusing to bother anyone else, I went straight to my room with Khalid strongly behind me. 

He'd automatically woken up when I did and refused to let me go deal with Casper alone. 

On getting to my room, I stood in front of my door for a while, taking deep breaths and centering myself. Readying myself for whatever I was going to be met with inside there. However, one thing was sure; I was done letting Casper intimidate me. I was done letting him say mean things to me just because he wanted to, and getting away with it. 

"Just stay outside. I want to face him alone," I told Khalid, somewhat unsure of that decision.

"Are you sure about that?" He eyed me skeptically, most definitely catching the fear in my eyes. 

"Yes, I guess I am. But just stand by, please. And if you hear any noise, rush right in," I giggled nervously, fearing the worst. 

"Sure. I hope it doesn't get to that though, because I don't trust myself. I don't know what I'm going to do to him," he said truthfully, quickly rubbing my back. 

Turning the lock, I opened my door and stepped right in, closing it behind me. The sight in front of me instantly got me so annoyed. I wasn't scared or fidgety anymore, I just was furious. 

"What the hell did you do!" I shrieked. 

My fridge was open, there were three empty, crumpled up cans of sprite on the floor, there were cake crumbs all over the floor and on the bed as well. In the middle of all this filth was Casper, drinking another can of sprite and eating another cupcake like some disgusting, vicious animal. 

"Get down from my bed with all that sugar!" I yelled again when he ignored me the first time. 

"Holy shit, Jimmy, why are you yelling? Jesus Christ," he grumbled, scooting to sit at the end of the bed, with his legs hanging down. 

"Why am I yelling? Who told you you could touch my food? And why did you leave the fridge open?!" I scolded, storming to the fridge and swinging it shut. 

"Food? You call this rubbish food? You don't have any real food here. I'm just managing this for now until you make some real food for me. I expect you to get to it now," he ordered casually with a mouth full of food.

Only his presence riled me beyond human comprehension, I was infuriated. I just wanted to dart towards him and place a very sounding slap on both sides of his face, but I knew I wouldn't stand a chance at all if things got physical. Tightening my jaw, I took a deep breath to calm myself. 

"I think you've overstayed your welcome, Casper. It's time for you to leave," I stated dryly, my darkened gaze fixed on him.

He voiced a derisive laugh, ending it with an irritating snort. "Oh, I'm sorry. It's just the way you're talking… you're talking like you can do shit. I just got here and I plan to enjoy this room to the fullest. It's fancy," he mocked, falling back on my bed and spilling the contents of the sprite can on bed in the process. 

That was enough. I rushed towards him and snatched the can away from his hands, making sure to jump back out of his hitting range once I had the can in my hand. 

"What the fúck, Jim? I was drinking that," he sneered at me, quickly sitting up. 

Not caring, I threw the can with its contents into the trashcan at the end of the room and trekked back to the fridge, retrieving a bottle of water. "You should learn to respect people and their things. If you're thirsty, you should drink water," I suggested, roughly holding it out to him. 

"Get this shit out of my face," he hissed, attempting to smack my hand away but I was quick enough to withdraw, so he smacked thin air instead. 

"Take it," I demanded, holding it out to him again. 

"If you don't get this shit out of my face, I'm going to break your nose," he threatened, looking up at me with angry eyes. 

"Oh, please, shut up," I scoffed and walked over to my reading desk, placing the bottle of water on top of it. "I've had enough of your threats." 

"What did you just say to me?" He grunted with a husky undertone, frowning at me. 

"I said you need to shut your trap, and that I've had enough of your threats," I repeated tenaciously. 

He blinked blankly and stuttered speechlessly for a while before letting out a half-hearted laugh. "Oh, I see you're trying to be bold. You should be careful of the things you say to me, Jim. I'm still not to be toiled with," he warned with a proud voice, shaking his head disapprovingly.

I refused to be moved by his words anymore, so the next string of words just came right out of my mouth without me even thinking it through. "No, you should be careful. You see, my boyfriend is just right outside this door and his fist has been aching to greet your ugly, repulsive face. And I must warn you, he's really butch, he's not a string bean like me, so be very careful, Casper." I said every word with unwavering resolve, and not for one second did I stutter or fret. 

Casper's mouth fell open as he stared at me with a blank expression. Well, it wasn't completely blank, it had utter shock written all over it and the blood had drained from his face, leaving it pale and even more appalling to the human eye.

"Pick your jaw up from the floor," I commented with a nonchalant shrug. 

Even I was surprised at myself. It appears, Damian was right about everything, after all. I'd accepted myself and now I was effortlessly confident. I had Mako to thank for all of this, his self-assurance and confidence had rubbed off on me and I was loving it. 

"So, you're a full-blown gay boy now. I was wondering what was the deal with the white hair," Casper finally spoke, disgust written all over his face. 

"It's silver, you twat."

"Whatever you want to call it. I don't care, fag."

"It's gay, you idiot. And don't ever say that word around me again, don't even think about it," I jabbed, pointing my index finger at him. 

"And what are you gonna do?" He snorted with an ugly smug. "Bring your boyfriend to fight me? I'll beat the two of you into a bloody mess. Don't think because I didn't do anything the other day, I would hesitate for a second to put you back in your place," he glowered at me. 

The urge to just land a slap on Casper's face kept rising within me like a flourishing pyre, but I knew that was equivalent to a suicide mission. Taking another deep breath and squeezing my eyes shut, I unclenched my fist.

"Get out," I hissed through gritted teeth. 

"Oh, oh," he laughed mockingly, always ending every breath of laughter with a snort which made me scrunch up my nose. "You're not going to get your boyfriend to send me out this time? What even was his name, Chrase? Christ? Chrip? What was it?" 

Okay, that was funny.

I couldn't help the laugh that escaped the back of my throat. Not only did he get Chris's name wrong, but he actually thought I was referring to Chris as my boyfriend. Khalid was way bigger and scarier than Chris so that was where I had the upper hand. I had the element of surprise; a hunky element of surprise. 

"What's so funny?" He scowled. 

Simply ignoring him, I walked to the door and opened it, ushering Khalid in. 

"Come in," I smiled brightly at him, catching him by surprise. With a confused frown, he walked in. But when his eyes landed on Casper and the mess he'd made, his face grew stiff. 

"Oh, is that your boyfriend?" He crowed, standing up from the bed. 

Khalid slowly looked away from Casper and brought his gaze to fall on me, so many questions hinting in his eyes. I just hoped he would play along, and thankfully, he did. However, he didn't say a single word. 

"Please tell this nincompoop, as Chris calls him, to defenestrate himself," I requested with a soft pitch in my voice, laying emphasis on Chris's name. 

"Why would I want to do that? I'm just meeting--" 

"Leave," Khalid ordered with an incredibly hard tone before Casper could even finish talking. 

He froze, staring from Khalid to me speechlessly. He was visibly annoyed. Aside from the flexing of his jaw, his entire face was red and hot, his countenance spoke volumes. 

"Fine," he mumbled, prancing back to the bed to pick up his stuff. Once he had everything under his armpit, he pranced back with annoyance. 

Khalid decorously opened the door for him with a fake smile when he got to where we stood by the door. 

"We'll finish this conversation some other time, under different circumstances. I promise you that," he growled, glaring from me to Khalid.

"La, ya sidiqi, we won't," Khalid smiled professionally and curtsied. Then I instantly saw the competent hotel valet in him. I felt so proud of him.

"Muslim terrorist piece of shite," Casper hissed, storming out of the room and banging the door shut.

"Don't mind him," I quickly placed a hand on Khalid's chest just in case he was thinking of going after Casper.

"Don't worry. That stereotype is old and out of fashion, anyway," he assured me, placing his hand over mine and turning me to face him completely. 

For a while we just stood there, silently staring into each other's eyes. No much words were needed to be said between us. 

"Thank you," I finally mumbled, squeezing his hand. 

Nervously biting his lower lip, he opened his mouth to speak but his lips just quavered speechlessly until he smashed them into mine. Kissing me so passionately. For a while, I couldn't breath, I couldn't think. My brain just kept squealing because Khalid had kissed me… willingly. 

His hand slowly slid down to my lower half and cupped my butt in his big palms. Before the kiss could get any more intense, the door flung open and we scampered away from one another, acting like nothing had just happened.

"Blimey," I muttered, looking up to see this person who had no respect whatsoever for other people's privacy.

It was Jess. Jess was the one who raced in, no surprise there. 

"I saw Casper swaggering down the hallway is everything okay--" she stopped, just then noticing our flushed red faces and getting an idea of what might've just transpired between us seconds before she came in. "Oh. It seems everything is fine," a mischievous smile spread across her face. 

"Y-yeah, uh, w-we handled him," I answered, swallowing hard and shyly ruffling my hair. 

"I can see that. And now you're handling yourselves," she teased, resting one hand against the door and crossing one leg in front of the other, observing with a teasing smile. 

"No, no, that was… We were just… Umm, Khalid?" I turned to him, asking him to help me out. 

"No. There's no need to explain anything," he laughed, shaking his head at me and licking his lips.

"Fine then," I shrugged, a soft smile tugging at my lips. 

* * * 

Our examinations lasted for two full weeks. I had my very last paper today, some people still had a few papers left, but Kevin, Shirley, I, and everyone else in my department was done for the entire semester! I couldn't help my excitement.

Not only did our exams go smoothly, they weren't as strict as Kevin had heard. At least in our department, it wasn't. Though none of them encouraged exam malpractices, our invigilators were as kind and understanding as they could get. 

One time, this student arrived almost thirty minutes into the exam, they still let him sit for it after listening to all he had to say. 

From what we were told by the vice chancellor during orientation, that student should've been punished by being sent out of the exam hall to write the examination alone some other time. 

The amount of time Mason and I spent texting drastically reduced during this period, but I still tried my very best to keep in touch. He was realistically the only one I'd been texting all this while, the only reason why I cared about how awful Lighthouse WiFi actually was. 

Khalid and everyone else at Lighthouse still had two papers left. Well, except Chris. Chris had just one, which was tomorrow. 

Shirley, Kevin, and I spent the rest of the day at our usual cafeteria in school, just eating and chatting like we normally did. We'd become regular customers there, the owner knew us quite well. 

The next day, I decided to go grocery shopping for Jess and I when everyone had left for exams. I was pretty much the only one left in the dorm; Shirley was out with a few friends, while Kevin left for one of the libraries on campus. 

We didn't have much left to eat anymore. For the past two weeks, we'd been eating on the go. Never settling down to actually prepare something healthy, as my mum would say.

Idly using my phone on my way back from the supermarket while making my way to the elevator with the nylon bags in one hand, I heard someone call out.

"Molly?" 

Almost making it past the terrace to walk into the entrance of the dorm, someone called out again. At first, I intended to just ignore it and keep walking since that actually wasn't my name, but the person kept calling and it was obvious I was the one they were referring to. 

Looking up from my phone to the direction the sound was coming from, my eyes landed on another pair of familiar beautiful eyes. The only grey eyes I'd ever seen with silver and gold specks and sparks in them. 

"Tarek?" I mused, jutting my chin to take a closer look.

Yeah, it was definitely Tarek. But what exactly was he doing here?

* * *

AN: Well...? Just five chapters left guys.

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Till next time, Gemstones.
Stay happy, stay safe. <3