Anti Cupids

Twenty Two

C H A P T E R T W E N T Y T W O

For a moment there, it felt like every ounce of blood in my body was having a grand party in my cheeks. Embarrassment washed over me like a huge tidal wave.

I also felt the urge to kick Jace in the crutch so hard that he'd land straight in Texas. Or better yet, Arizona! It'd be so fulfilling to see him burning in the sweltering heat. I would've said Hawaii but I'm sure he'd go after the girls and enjoy the island life no matter the situation, so nah. Not worth the effort.

"How did this come about?" Julian asked, running his fingers through my hair to keep the fringes at bay. His eyes twinkled and even though he wasn't laughing, probably trying to contain himself to not embarrass me any further by another one of his blunt remarks, I could see how much he really wanted to laugh right then.

Nor could I blame him. This was sort of funny, if I  hadn't been the one with a missing eyebrow.

"Go ahead, Julian. Laugh. Make fun of me! That's all you do, right? Don't suppress yourself to make me feel better about myself or anything. It's not going to help anyway," I said, and I'm pretty sure my irritation was quite clear from my tone.

He cringed a little at that, but smiled. Not a mocking smile. A guilty smile. You know, the one where you purse your lips a little too much and stretch it in a way that your eyes are barely visible? Well yeah, that one.

"I'm sorry. But you're avoiding my question! How come your eyebrow's gone? Were you trying to trim them or something?" He inquired, looking a teeny bit uncomfortable. Even I was a bit uneasy. I mean, I barely ever trimmed my eyebrows but it was always weird to discuss somebody's jungle book issues, if you get what I mean here.

"No.. uh.. Jace." I managed to mumble a vague reply, never looking up, hoping that he wouldn't need me to explain any further. I didn't want to talk about my stupid idiot of a brother who always managed to annoy me some way or the other!

Upon hearing my words, Julian stopped playing with my hair, as if his focus had shifted to somewhere else. My mind almost whimpered at that.

I mean, that felt nice. Really nice.

"Crap! I get it now. I've played a prank like that on my brother before but that was long back. I didn't shave off his complete eyebrow though! I just made crazy zigzag patterns and he was so mad! Yours is a critical case, I see." He chuckled, holding my fringes back further and leaned in a little to examine the damage better, which made me feel even more self-conscious.

And wait... what?

Brother?

Julian has a brother?

"You have a brother?" I asked, knitting my eyebrows- or may I say- eyebrow out of curiosity.

"Uh... yeah," he answered, looking miles away from here. His mind was obviously occupied by another subject at that moment. I took it as a cue to change the topic. 

"Oh. Didn't know about that. Anyway, I think I should go now. I-I've got to fix this eyebrow thing and reach class on time. Don't wanna stay out here again. In fact, you'll be late too," I said, removing his hand from my hair.

And then I looked up. I mean, properly looked up. When I found my favorite pair of sea-green eyes staring into mine, events of the past few minutes came flooding back to me. I felt the color rushing back to my cheeks. All I wanted was to not have to face him again for at least.. a few hours.

Things were going to be awkward now. I knew it.

"No. you're not going. Eleven minutes are still left. Give me a pencil liner thing or whatever you call it. I'm going to draw your eyebrow," he smirked evilly, and it almost looked like he'd just come out of some weird trance-like state.