Anti Cupids

Thirty Four

*Make sure you have at least thirty minutes before you begin reading this. It's more than 5000 words. :P

Dedicated to @PankhuriAgrawal for being one of my few real-life friends on Wattpad and for supporting my book so much. She literally called me up to update and texted me a million times reminding me of the same so you can thank her for this 'rare' timely update. xD

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C H A P T E R   T H I R T Y -  F O U R

The moment I realized what was happening, my blood started to turn cold.

Valerie had found out the truth. There was no doubt about it. Why else would she be walking so frantically right in our direction?

It couldn't be a coincidence. She now knew what Julian and I've been up to. She's going to tell every-freaking-body! She'll tell Jace.

I'd be dead. As in D-E-A-D.

Very soon.

I'm done for.

My mind was so pre-occupied with my mega freak-out session that I didn't even have time to take another glance at Julian's terrified yet somewhat impassive expression before Valerie stopped a few centimeters behind us. Not knowing what to do in a situation as horrible as this, I kept staring at the painting and pretended as if I wasn't paying attention to her.

Anything to delay the exchange that was about to follow.

"What do you guys think?" She asked, sounding... excited?

"Uh..." Julian trailed, keeping up a poker face. He was just as confused as I was, if not more.

Wait.

Is she being sarcastic or something?

"What?" I blurted, turning my head a little while I kept looking down. My messed up hair fell over my eyes and hopefully shadowed them enough to not let Valerie recognize me, if she hadn't already.

"The painting! It's my creation! I'd like an opinion from you guys since you've been analyzing it for quite a while now, it seems," she said, grinning widely.

Holy fudgecakes!

I wasn't sure if I should cry of relief or increase my alertness level. With Valerie, I always had to keep my guard up. I frowned to myself before scanning Julian's face, who was now looking towards me for help. The guy obviously knew nothing about art.

"It's beautiful," I said, being honest. In other circumstances, I would've probably said something really clever like, 'It looks like an elephant took a crap on your canvas' or maybe something even more elaborate, because of reasons we all know.

But I wasn't Jasmine — 'the hater' for now. I was just Jasmine, a usually nice girl with a temper that flared up only when you did something really wrong to her. Plus the more important thing was — I couldn't blow up our identity because of my stupidity.

"Um, I really like your choice of cool shades and the way you've mixed the colors. The texture patterns and the underlying shapes make it really deep and soothing. It looks really pretty," I continued, smiling a little (even if that was the last thing I wanted to do). I avoided making eye-contact though. She might notice the pale green she always cringed at.

"Thanks for such a nice review! I'll go find my boyfriend now," she laughed, giving us a last look of acknowledgment before turning away.

Once she was gone, I realized how shocked I really was.