Four Hearts

Chapter 9

Zain

People stare at Zain as he sits in front of Cedric, his new sword in hand. He expects Cedric to speak, but instead, he just looks at Zain for a moment before going back to his breakfast. Zain tilts his head but then starts the conversation himself.

"Good Morning, Cedric."

Cedric looks up at him, "Morning."

"Yes, it is morning. You see, morning is the time between..."

"I know what morning is," Cedric interrupts with his head in his hand. "It wasn't a question. I was just shortening the phrase 'good morning.'"

"Why would you do that?"

"Just to make it easier."

"It isn't tough to say 'good morning' though."

"I don't know; language is weird okay?"

Zain sit back after hearing the hostility in Cedric's voice. Cedric goes back to eating, and Zain figures it would be best to not say anything else. Did what I say offend him? Maybe it was just a stupid question. But Uncle Alex always says that there's no such thing a stupid question, only less knowledgeable people. I am clearly less knowledgeable than Cedric. He seems to know so much about the world. I know I'm going to learn a lot from him. Even if he doesn't like my questions. A tray full of food is placed in front of Zain as Milena sits down next to him with food of her of her own.

"I didn't know what you liked so I got a bit of everything," Milena cheerfully says.

Zain has never had this much food on his plate at once. It was definitely more than what his uncle would allow him to have. He wasn't even sure if he could eat half of it.

"Is something wrong?" Milena asks. "I can go back up if you need me to."

"Oh, no. I've just never eaten this much at once before."

Cedric throws a skeptical glance toward Zain, "You're joking, right?"

"Nope. Uncle Alex always rationed my food in the perfect amount that I need before it got to my room."

"What?"

"Cedric, can we talk?" Milena says with a worried expression.

"Yea, you two lovebirds go enjoy some alone time. We wanted to catch-up with Mute here."

Zain looks up to see the kid he ran into yesterday along with his snickering friends. Zain doesn't know why the boy didn't like, but he knew that the boy wanted to do bad things to him.

"We aren't a couple!" Milena and Cedric shout.

"Doesn't matter, you two still need to get out of here. We have a private matter to discuss."

Please don't go, Zain thinks.

"We're not going anywhere," Cedric replies.

"You're not getting a choice," the boy says.

"And you won't get a choice when my fist is in your face."

"Come on Ryder, don't you have a dad to kiss up to," a new voice comments.

Ryder smirks, "Well if it isn't Ms. Frock herself. I heard your family shipped you off. They finally got sick of you, huh?"

Zain was able to recognize the girl who stood up for him. It's Allegra. The girl he met at the dinner, but she never responded to his message. Zain assumed that she never received it.