Mask of Celibacy

Chapter 29

A/N: As this is another triple update in order to finish the novel by the end of Camp NaNoWriMo, please read Chapters 27 and 28 before this one. Or you might be quite confused. <3

Thanks, dear readers, for all your amazing support! 

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Helen didn't even wait for me to knock. Opening the door, she beckoned me inside with an excited gesture. After we'd closed the door, we both broke out into a fit of giggles worthy of a brood of chickens.

"Oh, God!" she said, trying to suppress her mirth as she flopped on her bed. "I don't know who is more smitten. You or him."

I tried to wipe the smile off my face. It cropped up again of its own free will until my cheeks hurt. 

"Hopefully it's equal on both sides," I said.

"I've never seen him in such a state." Helen grinned. "What spell have you cast on him?"

"If anything, I think he cast a spell on me." I gestured between his room and ours. "I don't do this. I never wanted to play Girl Talk as a kid. Hell, I didn't even know what half of it meant."

"Oh, my gosh!" Helen laughed. "I forgot about that board game. Good times."

"This is a foreign universe to me."

"Awww, you're so cute." She sat cross legged on top of the covers. "So tell me everything. What happened?"

I sat silent on the bed with my feet tucked up underneath me, unsure how to respond. "Nothing happened per se. It's more how it felt. The energy. Like electric tension. A kind of bond."

"You're falling for him," she said, her eyes twinkling with delight.

"I don't know." My cheeks burned. "Maybe? I've never felt like this before."

Helen grinned. "I'm glad it's not just Eric."

"What did he say?"

"Jess, that guy asked me things I never thought would come out of his mouth," she said with a dreamy look. "But I'm afraid as his best friend, I'm not allowed to say."

"Awww...!"

"Nope."

"You can't lead with that and not say anything," I insisted. "That's borderline cruel!"

"Hey, I'm Switzerland!" she said in an emphatic tone, cutting the air with her hands. "Whatever you guys say to me goes no further. It's the rule of friendship."

Fair enough.

Her expression left no room for argument. Those azure eyes of hers could cut through titanium and certainly halted any attempts of mine to cajole secrets out of her. It didn't matter what playful jibe Eric had made during lunch about her inability to keep secrets. 

At least there was one good thing about it. If she insisted on keeping his words secret, she'd probably offer me the same courtesy. 

"This is gonna sound weird as hell," I said with a wry smile, "but there's something about his music. It's like...it touches my heart in a way I can't understand."

Helen gave an excited squeak. "Oh, my gosh! It's so romantic. Like Phantom of the Opera! Go on."

"Well, less murderous, but yes," I said with a bemused look. "I guess you could say his music connected us or something."

"Tell me more."

"Seriously, I don't even know." I gave an emphatic gesture. "I cried when he played Moonlight Sonata. Me! How does that even happen?"