[EDITED — 07/08/2022]

Chapter 9
—
Jealousy
(PART ONE)

{Your POV}

     We sneaked back into the school after Aaron cleaned my wounds at home. Silence hung over us as we pursued to our classes, using the same excuse when the teacher asked where we were and why we were late. The excuse was not really an actual excuse, but I couldn't exactly tell Mrs. Helen that Gene, Sasha, and Zenix beat me up.  Slipping a word of it could get me in trouble with those three again, and I was not taking that chance.

     "Why are you here so late, [Y/n]?  You're never late," Mrs. Helen accused, hands on her hips as she gave me a disappointed look.  I felt bad.

     "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Helen, but I kinda hurt myself while going to one of my classes and I was bleeding and Aa— I mean, my friend had to clean the wound for me."  I took a quick breath in before speaking again.  "I deeply apologize about being late. It won't ever happen again! I promise!"

     With a sigh and a nod of understanding, Mrs. Helen shifted her attention back to the class to continue talking about history.  Upon hearing her say something about her leaving the class for a moment, I peered up, and suddenly, I took note of something which seemed pretty surprising to me: Aaron is also in the same class as me!  Yet, when I turned my head to the right to look at him, I caught sight of him talking to some girl. 

     Upon closer inspection, this girl wasn't just "some girl" anymore.  She had long, shiny red hair that cascaded down and stopped halfway down her back.  Lively green eyes held others captive and the almost sparkly gold that surrounded her pupils—which I thought was sorta cool—matched with her golden jewelry, which she seemed to be wearing lots of.  She definitely stood out from the rest of the girls, catching their attention as well as Aaron's, too. 

     'I hope she doesn't touch him...'

     "Hey, why are you—ohhhh."

     I turned my head towards the direction of the sudden voice, only to be met with another girl, but she didn't seem to stand out like the red-haired one.  She sent a smug smile my way as if she knew something that I didn't.

     "So... let me guess....  Yes!  You're jealous of Lillie Helen, the girl who is sitting next to that guy you're looking at so... intensely."  Her guessing skills weren't far off, but I didn't see myself as jealous.  "Lillie may look nice, but she's way far from that assumption when it comes to her real personality."  She gave a small glare to Lillie, who was still busy talking with Aaron about whatever it is that seemed so interesting to keep his eyes on her.  "She just loves to make other people suffer behind her mother's back.  She must be bored."

     "Um, so, does she... like Aaron?" I asked, truly wondering if she did. I wasn't sure where the question arose from, but if this "Lillie" girl wasn't how she truly seemed, then I don't want her hanging around with him.

     "Aaron?"  she echoed, looking questioningly towards Lillie and Aaron.  "Oh, the guy!  Right, right...," she whispered to herself before continuing on with what she was talking about. 

     'I hope Lillie has no interest in Aaron.  I don't like her.'

     "Well, to answer your question... yeah, I guess so. I believe it was last year when she had a HUGE crush on him. She always kept him to herself, and by that, I mean not letting other girls hang around him AT ALL. But lately, he's been avoiding her. It's about time, really.  I was wondering if he'd had enough of her crap yet."

     'That's quite interesting, huh.  I wonder why he would suddenly stop....  Wait!  It doesn't matter.  I'm just glad he stopped.'

     I quietly sighed in relief.  "Um, thank you for telling me, I guess.  Mrs. Helen will be back any minute now so you should probably go sit down...," I uttered awkwardly, itching the back of my hand lightly.

     The girl smiled and gave one last look to Lillie, almost close to a small glare, yet the pretty girl paid no attention to those around her as she continued talking with Aaron.  "Oh, okay.  Cool."

     I shook my head and turned away from the girl, lucky enough to catch Mrs. Helen returning to the classroom.  I took my focus off of everything else and made sure it was solely on Mrs. Helen as she began to teach the class about the medieval time period.  Yet, I found myself beginning to get distracted with curious thoughts about Lillie Helen.

     'How could a lovely, kind, caring and sweet lady have a daughter that's the complete opposite of her?'  I really couldn't think of an answer to the question, so I switched to something else to think about, and that "something" happened to be Aaron.

     I could tell that he was looking at me with those deep steel eyes of his, because I caught him staring at me in my peripheral vision.  I paid no attention to him, and not because I wanted to ignore him for the sake of it, but because I realized I was jealous and I didn't want to face him.

     "Aaron!  Look at me, not her!"  I heard Lillie whisper, looking quite furious with the fact that Aaron's attention was being spent on someone other than her.

     I made the stupid mistake of turning my head slightly to see the situation better, and unfortunately for me, Lillie happened to have caught me staring.  Her desperate, attention-seeking eyes quickly switched to form a hard glare, and I happened to have fired an equally hard one back.

     And boy, did Aaron look confused.

     Time must've went by pretty fast, because the bell seemed to have rung at an earlier time than usual.  I probably didn't notice the time.  I observed some  students packing up as well as took note how some had already left the room, leaving a small group of students left.  I quickly put my things away, wanting to leave as soon as possible to avoid any more glaring contests with Lillie.

     I was about to stand up from my desk, but my shoelace happened to have gotten stuck under someone's chair, so when I pulled my leg to move out from under the desk, it got stopped by my shoelace.  I didn't notice at first as to why, so I pulled harder and I hit my leg against the table, right where the large cut was.  I winced loudly, and that's when I felt a piercing gaze on me.

     Aaron was quick to come up to me, grabbing my wrist and asking if I was okay.  "Do you want any help?  I can carry you,"  he offered, but I shook my head at him, saying I was fine.

     I mean, it did hurt, but I didn't want him to make a scene by carrying me out of the class.  Now, that would definitely catch some attention... and probably not any of the good kind.  I quickly bid him a quiet goodbye and walked out of the class, careful of my cut.

{Aaron's POV}

     I was going to follow [Y/n] out of the class, but Lillie quickly got a strong hold of my wrist, stopping me from moving.  Although I could easily rip my wrist from her, I knew better than to do that.

     "Hey!  Stop helping and going near that girl!  You don't even know her,"  she spoke with gritted teeth and furrowed brows, which meant she was obviously jealous.  Ugh.

     I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.  "Lillie, I was just helping her. She's my friend, y'know."

     Her eyes widened at the word friend, almost as if she had not been expecting that word.  "Oh, well... that's okay, as long as she doesn't get in my way!  If she does, then she'll get what she deserves for ruining this...,"  she mumbled under her breath, probably thinking I wouldn't hear any word of what she just said, but I most definitely did.

     'This girl is starting to get on my nerves.'

     I rolled my eyes at her childish behaviour and began to walk away.  "Whatever, Lillie.  I'm going to lunch.  Bye."

     I left without sparing her so much as a glance as I ran off to the cafeteria. Upon reaching the entrance, I spotted [Y/n], who was sitting alone, to my surprise, so I took the free seat beside her.

     "Hey, where are your 'amazing friends'?" I asked with a silly smile, scanning the cafeteria in search of any faces wishing to approach the table, but I found none.

     "I'm alone, Aaron.  I'm always alone,"  she spoke with a crushing sadness in her tone, which caused my smile to falter.

     'Alone? So... she lied to me? Well, I'm not mad at her....  It's just, I feel bad that she has no one to chat to nor sit with...'

     "Hey, [Y/n]... I'm your friend, right?" I asked with hope rising in my voice, looking to her eyes for an answer.

     "Well, I guess so. You'd be my first friend—in a while...."

     'What does she mean by that?'

     "You wanna know something?"  She let out a dry chuckle, tucking in her fingers to create a fist with both her hands.  "I had so many friends back in middle school,"  she said, smiling a little in remembrance.  "But, well, something happened, and then they all avoided me..."

     I hesitated a little before asking, "What happened?"  But I didn't like her expression to that question.  Her smile quickly faded into a look of confusion and some fear.

     'What actually happened? She looks scared!'

"W-Well there was this boy, he would always follow me around, like everywhere.  But one day he... he b-bit me..."  She mumbled softly as her fingertips lightly grazed a spot on her neck, her face revealing a type of pain that shown, although no wound was present on her neck.

     'Bit her? Who would do such a thing-? Oh.. a vampire..'

     "It—It hurt so much, Aaron,"  she muttered.  "I cried and the pain wouldn't go away.  I screamed at him for biting me—yet, he disappeared and I never saw him again.  His eyes... oh, Aaron... they were the color of blood when he bit me.  His hair was as black as charcoal, but I—I just... I don't know why!  Why'd he bite me, huh?  Why?..."  Her eyes were filled with held back tears, her expression playing a series of mixed emotions.  One by one her tears fell and landed on the lunch table, creating a tiny puddle in front of her.

     "And after that, I went to school the next day, tear-stained cheeks and red eyes from endless crying.  All I can remember is the looks people gave me. They stared at my neck and were afraid... of me."  She wiped her hot tears, but some still fell from her eyes. She then smiled at me softly, yet there was a sort of underlying emotion behind it.

     "B-But hey!  That's all in the past!"  she exclaimed, laughing dryly as she wiped her wet eyes.  "I don't remember that boys name... but, I try to forget what happened."

     It was as if someone had smacked my head, filling it with thoughts that caused my eyes to widen.

     Vampire.

     Vampire.

      Vampire.

     Vampire!

     'No!  Shut up!  SHUT UP!!!'

—

     The conversation kept repeating on loop through my thoughts, like a broken record player, breaking my peace and quiet in half.

     "Aaron?  You okay?"  [Y/n] asked with a hint of concern laced in her tone.

     "I'm fine, just... just thinking."

     "O-oh, okay.  Well, I'm off to bed, so, um, goodnight!"  she declared with a small smile before making her way up to her room.

     I sighed, knowing I shouldn't try to dwell on my thoughts too much or I'll make them linger.  I switched off the lights and headed to bed shortly after [Y/n].