On A Night Like This

Chapter Seven

“You look like hell, Rosie.” Dyana exclaimed when she saw Ambrose approaching the lecture hall.

Ambrose raised a brow. “Rosie?” he echoed questioningly. His voice was hoarse and his throat ached. He stopped by the door of the auditorium and stared stupidly at her.

“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” she said wrinkling her nose in mischief. “That’s your nickname since we are now friends. Officially.”

He scoffed. “Maybe on a cold day in hell.” He muttered, following her into the rapidly filled room.

Green eyes laughed. “I love you humour, Rosie. It’s wicked.” She said sweetly from underneath her lashes before moving up the stairs to take her seat next to Kai.

Ambrose’s eyes fell on Kai who sat with a disinterested air around him and pang shot through his core as he remembered the disastrous words he echoed into his ears last night. This morning when he woke up, Kai was gone.

Kai looked perfectly fine, unlike him. He had awoken to dark circles and bruises which he tried hiding with his round glasses and long sleeves and a thick scarf. Thank God for the frigid weather. He moved like a decrepit woman with terrible arthritis, his waist burned and the littlest movement was torture. He took a seat next to Phineas and a girl and sat after a friendly greeting before getting ready for class.

“What did you do to him?” Dyana asked in a low mutter.

Kai glanced absent-mindedly at her, then shifted his gaze to where Ambrose sat, then back to his textbook. “Nothing.”

“Tell that to all the blondes you know.”

He laughed. “Not all blondes are dumb.”

Dyana snorted drily. “I haven’t been so lucky.” She muttered, taking out her tab and books, flipping it open. “What did you do, Kai? I saw the bruises and bite marks on that beautiful skin he tried so hard to conceal with his clothes. And also he looks ghastly pale. I mean, look at him.” she cooed lovingly gesturing to Ambrose engrossed in his writing. “My sweet, timorous boy.”

Kai narrowed his eyes at Dyana with a slight, irritated frown at her unctuous tone. With his jaw balanced on his palm, he glanced to Ambrose’s direction before looking back to Dyana. “He’s not as timid as you make him seem.”

She scoffed rudely at that. “No shit. He looks like my grand-uncle Rick that time he managed to get his hands on the small barrel of whiskey we kept for Christmas morning two years back.”

He wrinkled his nose in amusement, “Why leave a chronic drunk alone with his temptation?”
“We didn’t. He found his way to it with his sixth sense. Which sucked since dad saving it for desert. It was a special barrel sent by his friend.” She chimed.

“How’d it end?”

Dyana flipped a page of her textbook idly and replied in an uninterested tone. “Catastrophic as always.”

Kai chuckled, twirling his pen between his fingers.

Dyana dropped her pen, mirroring his position then fixed pointed green eyes at him. “But seriously, what did you do?”

He gave her a look telling her to fuck off. His body language confirmed her suspicions. “You pulled an all-nighter, didn’t you?”

Kai took sudden interest in his book, ignoring Dyana’s question. But she wasn’t someone to be ruffled easily. She inched closer until her face was directly under his, blocking his book. “Did you?” she asked coyly, even though the answer was clear. She wanted him to say it.

“Yes!” He cried, exasperated.

“What?!” Dyana cried cheerfully, drawing the attention of the people near her. “No fucking way.” She cackled, noticing the stares and glared at them, ignoring the mutterings of disgust.