| 06 |

| 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐞 |

A snap of fingers in front of my face brings me back to earth.

"Hello? Still with me?" Riley peers at my face.

I blink. "Hmm?"

"What's wrong? You've been staring off. Who are you looking at?" She tries to spot the person I've been staring at for the past fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, there's a hell of a crowd today hiding the person who's piquing my interest.

"No one." I give Riley a chuckle.

She gives me a skeptical look before shrugging.

I don't glance back at Castle—who's sitting all alone in the corner of the cafeteria. He has his hood up, no food on his table, silently drumming his fingers on the table while his other hand holds his phone.

If I glance at him again, Riley for sure will notice. And while I don't mind if she does, I wanna keep my interest in Castle a secret for a while before spreading it around.

Why is he sitting all alone? Does he not have friends?

I look at my own table crowded with people, half of whom I don't even talk to.

Sean's sitting beside me with his arm resting behind me on my chair, but he isn't paying attention to me, talking to his other football buddies crowding him.

Riley sits on my other side, wearing her short cheerleader clothes. Her makeup is done to perfection with smoky eyes and maroon lips. She is the spitting image of a bikini model. And she has brown hair.

Riley notices me staring at her long brown locks.

"Why don't you colour your hair?" She asks me.

"It's my mom's hair," I respond, twirling a lock of my hair.

"Unlucky you." She says, gathering her hair over one shoulder before flipping it in a way so that it hits me in the face.

I jerk back with a laugh.

Sean's arm comes around my shoulder and I turn around to look at him.

I raise my eyebrows.

"My place tonight?" He asks.

"Sure," I respond before adding. "Should be before 8 and after 10 though."

He furrows his eyebrows. "Why?"

"I'm studying, remember?"

He nods. "Right, your grade. Is it really important though?"

"Unless you want someone else to be cheering for you on the field, then yes."

He squeezes my shoulder. "Alright."

I turn back to Riley, and he turns back to his friends.

She raises her eyebrows at me. "Someone's booked."

I shrug. "Not for too long."

"Good because I need my bestie time." She points her spoon at me.

"Of course." I smile at her.

She turns her attention back to her salad.

When I'm completely sure no one's looking at me, I look up in the direction of Castle.

His eyes meet mine.

My eyes widen momentarily when our eyes lock across the cafeteria. He's still staring at me and I'm not sure if he zoned out or something.

I tilt my head at him, raising an eyebrow.

His face is still blank and now I know that he's zoned out and doesn't realize he's staring at me.

That makes a smile slide onto my face.

I place my elbow on the table with my chin on my palm and stare back.

Probably what seemed like two minutes later, his eyes zone back into focus. His elbow slips down the table as he realizes that he is staring at me.

I grin at him.

He sits up straighter in his chair, frowning at me in return before looking away and yanking his hood further onto his head to hide his eyes.

I'm still smiling when I realize that Sean's looking between me and Castle, catching our little exchange.

"Guess that's really your tutor, huh?" Sean takes a sip from his bottle of water.

My head snaps to him. "Hmm? Oh right, yeah."

Sean's eyes focus on Castle as he takes another sip.

I try guessing the look on Sean. It's always easy to guess what's he going to do and what expression is on his face since I know him since childhood.

"Please don't tell me you're going to bully him or something." I plead.

"Why not?" He doesn't stop staring at Castle.

"I need him intact and present. I need that grade, Sean."

While my reason is justifying enough, that's not the entire reason. I can't stand bullying. Sean doesn't bully people either. His 'why not?' was just a question that was indirectly asking 'why? do you care about him?'. Sean's nature...is complex. It's hard to explain but since I grew up with him, only I know him completely well.  

People might think I'm a bully myself with the rumours that escalate faster than this world's death rates. They don't know what's actually going on. 

"You're an idiot if you think I'm gonna waste my time on something like him," Sean replies calmly.

Something?

Oh boy. That did not sound good.

"What was that tone?" I ask.

He shrugs, barely looking at me.

"Come on. Tell me." I nudge his side with my elbow.

He shakes his head.

I raise an eyebrow and lean my face closer to his, trying to appear completely in his vision until he can't see anyone but me.

He sighs, turning his green eyes to me.

"I guess I don't like that he'll be taking your time when I need it instead."

My heart clenches a little.

"It's just two hours," I respond. "You have me the rest of the day."

"Sure because your dad makes it so easy." He snorts.

"Let's not attack my dad."

Sean's eyes roam over my face. He meets my eyes and tilts his head toward me. His hand comes on the back of my neck and pulls me in, meeting his lips with mine.

I close my eyes and return the kiss.

Seconds later, he pulls back, looking away.

I turn back to Riley—only to catch Castle's eyes again.

This time there's a tight expression on his face, grim looking. He notices me staring and turns away. This time, he stands up, pockets his phone and walks out of the cafeteria.

｡☆✼★━━━━━━━━━━━━★✼☆｡

Riley: party at mikhael's tonight

Riley: coming?

Me: sure lemme just drug my dad and sneak out

Riley: your extremely hot dad?

Me: not this again *facepalm*

Riley: what? just saying

Riley: he's a dilf

Me: okay ew we're not friends anymore

She sends a couple of laughing emojis

Riley: relax, I promise I wont hookup with your dad

Me: geez thanks i'm not weirded out anymore

Riley: so u coming or not??

Me: can't

Me: it's study time, remember? Dad would chain me up before I can even suggest the idea to him

Riley: boo you

Me: enjoy without me

Riley: I'll try even tho I'll miss you so much

Me: find yourself a different whore

She sends me a wink emoji.

I put my phone aside as a sigh comes out of my lips.

I look up at the time.

8:15

Where is he?

I check my phone again to see if he left me any texts or not.

"Dad!" I call out to him.

"Yes?" He yells back from wherever he is in the house.

"Riley invited me to a party but because I have a strict father who values studies more than a teenage girl's life and enjoyment, I said I can't come!"

"I'm sorry! I stopped listening after you said dad!"

"Sure." I roll my eyes.

I wait for another five minutes scrolling through my phone.

I check the time again. Why isn't he here yet?

I open our chat and text him.

Me: I'm sitting at home instead of going to a party tonight

Me: where are you?

He doesn't reply.

I decide to go get a snack from the kitchen till then.

While getting a box of donuts from the fridge, my eyes move to the time again.

8:30 PM.

It's almost close to dinner time. Is Castle eating dinner, that's why he's not here yet?

My dad made a strict rule of no phones during family mealtimes.

After a thought, I grab another plate and set two donuts on it for Castle.

Does he even like donuts? He seems the type of person to bite into a lemon and enjoy the hell out of it while chewing it raw.

Well, I can sprinkle lemons on the donuts if he wants.

"Put in a glass of water while you're at it." Dad enters the kitchen.

"I think you'll do a better job of hydrating him," I reply.

He lets out a chuckle. "Where is he anyway? Shouldn't he have been here thirty minutes ago?"

I shrug. "I texted him. No reply."

Dad leans against the counter, an apple in his hand now as he bites into it. "What's his last name?"

"I don't know. You told me not to snoop, remember?"

He furrows his eyebrows. "You don't know his last name?"

"Not everyone knows everybody's last name."

"Yup, except everyone knows yours." Dad comments.

"Can you blame them?" I grin.

He shakes his head at me.

Dad and I sit in the living room, watching TV, waiting for Castle.

I keep checking my phone in between to see if he left any messages.

I've checked my phone about twenty times now.

For some reason, I'm getting worried. My foot won't stop tapping and I can't focus on the TV except for the clock looming ahead of me.

I text Castle one more time.

Me: u okay?

Me: if you want we can cancel for tonight.

Although I will be a bit mad. I could've gone to that party and enjoyed tonight. I bet Sean and Riley are having a blast right now because Mikhael's parties are never lame.

I almost decided to give up and go do something else when the doorbell rings.

I'm the first one to jump up the couch.

"Finally," Dad says, picking up the remote and turning off the TV.

We move towards the front door, with me half-dashing towards it.

I pull open the door and there he is.

Standing under the dim porch yellow light, there's a shadow over his face because of his hood.

"Where were you?" I narrow my eyes at him.

I move aside to let him in.

He hesitates at the doorway for a while before stepping in.

When he's in the clear light of the house, that's when I'm able to see his face.

My mouth drops open.

"What happened?" I ask.

Behind me, Dad furrows his eyebrows.

Castle reaches out to wipe the blood off his eyebrow but lets out a small hiss as if he accidentally touched a wound.

He doesn't meet our eyes.

"I'll...I'll probably come tomorrow or something." Mumbling that, he moves to walk out the door.

"No wait, stay!" I call out.

"Let's clean that wound first," Dad says.

Castle stops in his place. His fists clench as he looks down.

"I'm sorry to bother you both."

"It's alright. Come on." Dad places his hand on Castle's shoulder and leads him to the living room. "I'm used to people bothering me. Specifically my own daughter."

"I'm used to people bothering me too." I smile sweetly. "Specifically my own dad."

"Get the first aid kit," Dad shoos me off.

I walk into the bathroom and check about three drawers before I'm finally able to find the first aid kit.

I hand it to dad who sits beside Castle and gently draws his hood down to get a better look at his wound.

Castle still doesn't meet anyone's eyes as dad gets working on his wound.

"How did this happen?" Dad asks, casually.

Castle's only response was to clench his fists.

Dad picks up on it and drops the question.

I watch as Dad gently fixes Castle's eyebrow even though he'll go all hulk at the thought of any guy in the same room as me.

I wonder if he'd act the same way around other girls if he had a son.

"Oh, I forgot the donuts I kept for you. Be right back!" Saying that, I rush towards the kitchen to get the tray on which I went overboard and added a few biscuits and even a carton of chocolate milk too.

I couldn't help it.

And dad didn't stop me either so there's that.

I put the tray in front of Castle on the coffee table before sitting on the couch adjacent to them.

When Dad's finally done cleaning Castle's wound and applying cream and band-aid to it, he picks up the first aid kit and goes to put it back in the bathroom.

"Are you alright?" I ask Castle.

He doesn't reply to me.

I gaze at his face. For the first time, I notice the dark bags under his eyes. There's exhaustion dragging down his face as if he didn't sleep for three days. His lips are dry and pale.

"You shouldn't have come if you didn't want to," I say.

"Let's just get this over with." He mutters, unzipping his bag.

After a moment of hesitation, I join him on the couch, pulling open my own book.

★・・・・・・★

Which sibling are you?
I'm the oldest sibling and trust me I wouldn't have it any other way. The idea of having an older sibling is a 'no' to me for some reason ToT

Words: 2,000

Date of Publishing: 3rd March 2023