Atelo [MXM] [BOOK 1] ✓

CHAPTER 10: BLACKMAIL

It's the next day that Marley is met with a confrontation he didn't see coming at all.

It was after lunch and he was heading back to his room to do his homework or something, probably take a nap to be honest. Maybe study or stare at Sushi for a few hours.

Leilani had long parted off to meet up with some study group she goes to, Marley doesn't quite remember the details even though she'd talked about it for a while before finally moving on to something towards the end of lunch. Speaking of lunch, Nero and crew were staring at him quite a bit today as well. Marley wonders if he'll have to talk to Lola about it.

Anyway, when he'd entered the room, he expected it to be empty—like it usually is after lunch—so he was quite surprised when he was met with the sight of multiple people.

Now we are brought to now, as he stares at everyone around the room. Nero is leaning against a wall, Lola is standing in the middle of the room with her arms crossed, Eli is sitting on Nero's bed, What's-His-Name is examining books on Nero's shelf, and Ben is on his knees by Marley's dresser, staring at Sushi very intently.

Wow, okay, are they having some sort of intervention? Did Marley do something wrong? Or maybe they're just hanging out together—good god, Marley hopes not, this place is already packed enough. There are now six people in this medium sized room.

Marley's caught off guard, hence why he stumbles back a bit when he catches sight of them. After he recovers, he decides that whatever the reason they're here, it's none of his business, so he'll just move on. He walks to his dresser to put down his books and some food he stole from the cafeteria. As he's over there, he realizes that Sushi seems to have stopped swimming entirely, staring back at Ben with the same intensity.

Okay, weird.

"So." someone says behind him, and he recognizes the voice as Eli's. Ugh. "You don't agree with most of your father's decisions, is that how you put it?"

Marley freezes, back to them. Holy mother of Christ, he knew he shouldn't have told Lola that. There's no way these people who absolutely hate his guts are going to let that little slip up slide. He's done for, toast, absolutely obliterated by his own shitty choices.

He turns around, eyes going to Lola. She's staring back at him, head held high. Her expression doesn't reveal anything, and he knows his doesn't either, but he's still feeling quite betrayed. This absolute traitor. It's throwing hm for a loop, since up until now she'd always seemed so sweet and shy, Now? Her demeanor has entirely changed. It's then that Marley wonders if she was some sort of spy.

His eyes slide to Eli, who looks pretty please with herself. Bitch.

No Marley, bad. Don't say that. Rude.

Because of the fact they clearly already know the answer, he decides his best bet is to beat around the bush. "Depends on if you can explain to me why it's any of your business."

Yeah that was not nice, he'll admit. He really didn't mean to come across that harsh. The girl growls, and a spider crawls across her face. Okay, wrong decision.

"How about," a voice says from beside Eli, and Marley realizes that that voice—deep, assertive, fiery, leaving no room for question—happens to belong to Nero himself, "we'll get it out of you one way or another, so you should probably make this easy on yourself and answer the damn question."

Marley frowns, pretty sure that's a threat. He crosses his arms over his chest. He really does not like being threatened—unfortunate, seeing as that seems to be the latest theme in his life.

Nero must not take his hostile posture as cooperative, seeing as he takes out Lola's phone, which has a thick purple bejeweled case on it, and presses his finger to the screen;