Song: Better Half Of Me by Tom Walker

Chapter Twenty-six: He does not say 'BLAH BLAH BLAH!'

Reveka rushed out of the car towards the school. Probably eager to see Sam. I guess I'll ask her about the two of them one of these days. 

I got down from the car, with my bag on one shoulder. I wouldn't want to put it on the side with the injury. That's gonna hurt. Apart from the little stinging, I don't really feel the pain until pressure is put on it. And I plan to keep it that way.

I began towards the entrance, but Kai made no move to go. He just rested on his car door.

"Doing it now?" I asked referring to the girl he wanted to ask to be his girlfriend. The sooner he does it, the sooner I get to find out.

"Yeah. She's usually late."

I chuckled. "Reminds me of Zahra."

"Hmm." Is all he mumbled.

I turned and started heading towards school. It was fuller than usual. Probably because now we're coming from farther away.

And yet Anastasia was in her robe when we left.

I began towards my locker, but hesitated when I saw Zane resting on it.

What do you plan to do? Run away?

Maybe.

As if he sensed me, his eyes snapped towards mine. Can't run away now. I headed towards him, eyes still locked.

"Did I forget something at your place?" I asked when I got to him.

"No."

"Did you lose your way?"

"No."

"Then why the Dracula look?" I teased.

He raised his brows in amusement. "Dracula look?"

"You know the colorless and tedious face and the 'BLAH BLAH BLAH!'." 

"He does not say 'BLAH BLAH BLAH!'." He exclaimed.

I laughed. "I wonder who that sounds like."

He shifted so I could open my locker. "Tease me all you want Cherry."

I removed my bag to add and remove books. "I already do. I don't need your permission."

"Of course you don't. How are you feeling?"

I turned to him and smiled. "How about 'Better now that you're here'?"

It wasn't exactly a lie, but why would I tell him that?

He gave me an incredulous look. "How are you in such a good mood? Shouldn't you be upset?"

"Just because I'm not showing that I'm upset doesn't mean I'm not. Snapping at the whole world and everything in it won't make things better for me."

He sent me an apologetic look. "Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you feel sorry for me."

"I do feel sorry for you."

"Don't. It's only going to remind me of my Mum's predicament, not make me feel better."

"I understand, but you can't go around looking like that and expect me not to say something." 

"What's wrong with how I look?" I looked down at myself. "Why do people keep commenting on my dressing?"

It was just Reveka and Kai.

Still.

"I was not talking about that. I like your dressing, it makes you look..." He trailed off.

I smiled at the fact he said he liked it. I don't know why, but I was just happy he thought that way. 

"You're like my spirit animal." I grinned at him.

He smiled back. "I'm not even going to bother asking you to expatiate."

"Good. Anyways, what were you talking about?"

"Did you comb your hair this morning?"

My smile dropped. "You're killing the whole spirit animal vibe."

He laughed. He took the hair tie from my hand.

"What are you doing?" I asked as he came behind me and began brushing my hair with his fingers.

If you know what he's doing, why did you ask?

To be sure I wasn't hallucinating.

"Making you look less unruly."

"I do not look unruly, and even if I did I won't care." I bit out as he packed my hair in a loose bun with the hair tie.

He came back in front of me. 

I touched my hair realizing how neat it was even in a loose bun. "How do you know how to do that?" I teased. "Do you have a hidden sister I don't know about?"

"No. I have Serena."

The sound of her name made my heart sink faster than the Titanic. I just couldn't place my finger on the reason. I couldn't possibly feel that way about him, could I? Of course not. I mean, I would know. I never felt like this with Axel and I'm pretty sure I liked him.

"Oh." I muttered.

He smiled at the memories. "When we were younger, she'd always cry when her hair got so tangled. The only way to make her stop was to fix it for her. So I learnt it the hard way."

"How nice." I commented.

I closed my locker and was about to put my bag over my shoulder, but Zane grabbed it along with the books in my hand and started walking off.

I followed him. "What are you doing?" I hissed.

"I saw you walk in with your bag on one shoulder. It's not good to put so much weight on it like that."

"Then I'll put it on the two shoulders."

He gave me a knowing look. He was probably referring to the pain in my side.

"What about my books?"

"It's called being a gentleman Cherry."

I looked around. "People are staring."

"Why?"

I looked for a reasonable answer and only came up with. "You're you and I'm me."

"So?"

"You know exactly what. I don't see why you want to make me explain."

He smirked at me. "Fine. I know exactly what." He turned forward again. "Let them stare. People's way of thinking needs to be fixed up."

I rolled my eyes. "Cheap coming from someone who addressed himself as the most popular boy in school."

"It's true."

"Hypocrite." I muttered as I punched his shoulder.

"It's true, but I didn't say it should mean something."

"You said it did when you first met me. You expected me to know your name."

He shrugged. "I did because I know a lot of people talk about me, but I still do what I want, and hangout with who I want. That's why I said you should let them stare. They can't do more than that."

"How about they attack me because the hottest guy in school is carrying my bag? They won't understand the reason why."

He didn't say anything. When I turned to him, he was smirking at me.

"What?"

"You think I'm the hottest guy in school?"

Oops.

Oops indeed.

"What? No." I lied.

"That's what you said."

"No."

"Yes. You said-" I cut him off by blocking my ears and singing, "La la la la la!" Over and over again as I increased my speed.

"Hey!" I heard him exclaim from behind me. "Cherry!"

I just kept going, ignoring the disturbing stares of people.

"The only reason I'm not chasing you is because I have first period with you."

I turned around and smiled at him. He just glared at me.

Necio!

********************

"What is going on between the two of you?"

I groaned after hearing that question. I've heard it a couple of times already and it was only just lunch. Zane followed me to all my classes, carrying my bags and books. We were literally joined by the hip, but that was only because he wanted to help. He was only in my first class, so the rest, he just walked me to them. That gave people, some I only knew by faces, time to interrogate me. I haven't seen Skyler, but the rest of them have been giving me the death glares. If they wanted me to die, they'd have to wait a lot of decades.

I looked up to meet the detective this time. Axel. 

"Can't I just eat in peace?" I whined.

I was the first to reach my lunch table. The rest were either on the line, or just not here yet. That gave Axel the opportunity to sit in front of me and glue me to my seat with a glare.

He ignored my question. "Are you two dating?"

I hesitated, considering ignoring him. "No."

"You hesitated." He accused.

"Not for the reason you think. And how is this any of your business?"

He looked at something above my head and groaned. I turned to see Zane walking towards us. What was he doing here? We already came to lunch together and he walked to his table. But then again, what was Axel doing here?

He sat down beside me. "Hey Cherry."

"Did you lose your way?"

"You know, you really need to stop saying that Cherry."

"Why do you call her Cherry?" Axel asked.

He turned to Axel like he was just seeing him for the first time. "Oh Ax, I didn't see you there." 

I guess he was just seeing him for the first time.

He ignored what he said. "Why do you call her Cherry?"

"You know, you have this habit of ignoring what people say and repeating your question." I butted in.

"Because people never answer it first."

"Hey guys." Xander greeted as he sat down beside Zane. "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?" 

He gave me an incredulous look. "I mean the two additional members of the table."

"It's temporary. They're leaving now."

"I'm not." Zane debated.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm staying."

"Why?"

He shrugged. He turned to Xander. "Now that I realize it, you never sit at the jocks' table. Why is that?"

Xander shrugged. "I didn't know we needed to sit according to labels."

"It's not exactly a label."

"I just rather sit with my friends."

"Your friends..." Zane trailed off. Xander's brows creased. "You know. Char, Kai, Leyla and Zahra. What are you getting at?"

"I'm just feeding my curiosity."

"Curiosity kills the dog." I teased, remembering the time he found out I was Avery. He had said 'Looks like the dog's out of the bag' because for some reason he hates cats.

He seemed to remember too because he turned and smiled at me.

"Can I talk to you?" I turned to Axel who said that, interrupting our staring and smiling fest.

"Me?"

"Yes."

I gestured with my head. "Go ahead."

"In private." He added.

"Oh." He stood up and began heading towards the doors of the cafeteria. I guess I'm supposed to follow him. I stood up from the table.

"Cherry."

I turned to him and gave him a questioning look.

"Never mind." He mumbled before looking away.

Umm, okay.

I headed out.

Axel was resting on a locker when I got there. 

"Is this déjà vu or what?" I asked as I stood in front of him, referring to the time I made that deal with him.

He ignored my question again. "I did something very bad and I need you to help me fix it."

My ears perked up at that. It must have been serious for him to ask me for help, or anyone for that matter, considering how closed up and arrogant he is.

I rested on the lockers too. "What is it?" 

He came to stand in front of me, closer than usual, but he was probably too distressed by the situation to realize, so I let it go.

"Where to start..." He trailed off.

"How about when it all began before going into the problem?" I offered. His eyes that were glued to the floor shot up to meet mine with so much intensity I couldn't place. Maybe he forgot I was there. I do that a lot too.

He looked away and pondered for a while. Axel wasn't exactly my friend, but if he needed someone to talk to, and he came to me, of all people, then that must mean something. His friends probably wouldn't have taken him seriously.

"There's this girl." He started. Was he having trouble with Leyla? I hadn't talked to her since Sunday when we texted about Axel not picking her calls or messages.

"I like her a lot, and I don't know what to do with my feelings." Where's is this going? He can't be talking about Leyla, I mean he's already dating her, right?

"You're not talking about Leyla, are you?"

He didn't need to reply, his guilty look said it all.

"You just have to tell her you don't feel that way about her anymore." I knew it would crush Leyla, but it'd crush her more if he cheated on her. They seemed so in love, how could this be?

"I've liked this girl for a long time now. I never liked Leyla."

"What?" I exclaimed.

"I know it seems bad, but I did the fastest thing I could think of. Although it was the rashest."

It slowly sunk in. "You mean to tell me you used my best friend to make some other girl jealous?" I knew he was a jerk, but I didn't believe he could play with someone's feelings like that.

He leaned closer. I started to feel uncomfortable. "Not just any girl."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Instead of replying, he just leaned in to me with his eyes closed.

He was going to kiss me?! Wait! That means I was that girl. Oh shit!

I was about to push him away when I heard a voice that I knew would cause me a lot of problems.

"Char?"

********************

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P.S.: Necio is Spanish for stupid or stubborn.