Don't Tell Him He's In Love With A Genius

:Genius: Chapter Twenty Three

"What's the best way to die?" Maria looked unblinkingly into the distance, a smiling slowly growing on her face.

"I guess it would be waiting for something. Something that everyone knew is going to happen and just before it can happen ... you die, and everyone would stare at your coffin and think 'if only', for the rest of their life."

"That doesn't sound very nice, you would be hanging from a cliff your whole life." Linkan muttered, his hands on her jaw, making her look at him. Maria far too many times drifted in a world of her own.

"You'd take it quite literal, wouldn't you? You'd hang on to that cliff until you couldn't any longer. No one would be there to pull you up because they'd be dead. It'd give you hope. As long as the cliffhanger was never filled, you could hang there for the rest of eternity."

"You think too metaphorical." Linkan stated, smiling his immature smile. Maria smiled back, and he forgot how rare it was to see her smile.

"Life is a metaphor, Link."

-Extract from 'Sin Paradise'.

Mack had forgotten the chocolate cake.

Since the birthday was organised by Asha she went through the Head of Student Activities to allow the students to have a party in the town. The Head said it was fine as long as there was at least one teacher present. Mack was obviously one of the first to volunteer. Two other teachers volunteered as well, one was an old but apparently fun teacher that coached the 'soccer' team and therefore loved Anton, (though it was hardly surprising, as I had yet to meet a teacher in Grace Valley that didn't like Anton) the other was a young woman about 30 years old who taught home economics and the only reason she was playing chaperone was because Mack had offered before, and she thought Mack was gorgeous. Mack knew this, and didn't hesitate to use it for his own personal gain.

Now you know why Mack is here, I'll explain the importance of the first sentence. The cake had to be picked up and driven to the school by last night where it would be driven to the restaurant. Since Mack was the only one allowed to drive out of school at will, and the only other person in the group that had had a car was Natalie. Mack had gotten the job because of recent events involving Natalie meaning she was hated by everyone in our group par Anton.

Mack didn't pick up the cake last night because he was busy celebrating over winning our bet. That meant instead of riding with everyone I had to ride with Mack to make sure he picked up the right one. Mack didn't need to say anything during the ride, he deliberately left his body language so I'd see how smug he was about the bet. I turned up the music and ignored him, making sure my body language told him he was being immature so I wouldn't have to say anything.

We were silent with each other as we walked into the cake shop, and anyone onlooking would think we had had an argument, but in reality we were having a full conversation. I asked for the cake Asha wanted, and the man nodded, slipping into the back.

As much as Mack annoyed me I loved how we didn't have to communicate openly, a slight click of the head, a flick of the wrist could tell a whole story to us. It's always been like that though, ever since we first met each other. My parents had taught me a lot about body language. Obviously I couldn't read him when he was hiding something, but he worked with me until I was almost as good as him at reading bodies, that was the only reason I was so good. 

Daniel thought I was going to be a spy until he read my book.

The cake was brought out in a white box with the cake shop logo on it, I thanked him and peaked inside. It was all chocolate, there was even chocolate frosting on top of the icing, on top of the chocolate cake. Anton didn't even like chocolate cake that much. So I looked up at the assistant and smiled.