The Fallen |BxB| ✓

18 | Strings That Bind

The heavenly signals were getting very annoying at this point. I groaned in frustration and made my way to the cafeteria. The crowd was very scattered there too. I quietly sat down on an empty table and took out my headphones.

Metal? Death metal. Very edgy, I know but I wanted to get rid of all the sounds around me. Again, not a lot of people were around but it was still annoying.

I didn't feel relaxed when the singer started screaming in my ears, but it drowned out all the noises around me. The buzzing in my head was slowly fading out and being overshadowed by the loud music. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back. He was singing about the afterlife or cats with laser eyes. I was not sure what was happening, but it kept all the sounds out and turned my brain to mush.

A loud slap on the table in front of me broke my stance. I opened my eyes and looked back at Bella, sitting in front of me with a tray full of food. How did she manage to be louder than the death metal in my ears?

Bella was the last person I wanted to see. Second last. I hoped that she was here to complain about how I was skipping the homecoming meetings and not anything else. But that was only wishful thinking. I knew better, and right now, nothing happened the way I wanted.

As the lyrics took a drastic turn and began screaming about war massacres, Bella tapped her finger on her ear, gesturing me to remove my earphones. As I did so, all the noises returned, and so did the low buzzing in my head. Keeping the cordless headphones on the table, I smiled at her. Too broad, I think, because her eyebrow shot up incredulously, and she pushed the tray of food in my direction.

The metal tray scraping lazily against the flimsy plastic table made me cringe. "Eat," Bella demanded.

"Bella!" I said with a false falsetto in my voice, and a smile twitching the corners of my lips because of the sheer force I was putting on them. "You look super today! Turns out—" I placed my hand on the tray and pushed it towards Bella, ignoring the contents within it. "—I'm not very hungry."

She stopped the tray with a firm grip and leaned forward with a threatening glare. "Ken, you will fucking die," she said through gritted teeth. "This is no way to deal with a problem."

"What problem?" I swallowed hard and put on a tough face. "Not having an appetite?" I tried to sound as oblivious as I could. Bella was not stupid. She probably knew what was up through her best friend. Why the fuck was she bothering me then? Maybe taking pity on me. The same way everyone else did.

My stomach twisted then, making me light-headed. "Plus, I feel sick. Can you like, not?" I, too, put my hand on the other end of the tray to stop it from getting any closer to me. The sweet stench was causing an upheaval in my gut.

"Okay, but stop avoiding me. At least you can talk to me. Luke does not," she said as her lips curled downwards. "He's not talking at all, Ken. It's been a whole week." Her head drooped down an inch, and she placed her palms against her face, elbows resting on the edge of the table.

An uneasy beating strummed in my heart when I heard his name. Without replying, I helplessly stared at her slouched figure. Luke is avoiding everyone?

"Please, at least tell me what happened? You're both killing yourselves and avoiding everyone." She looked back up with an exhausted expression.

I gave a humorless laugh. "Isn't it obvious, Bella?" I wasn't sure what I was implying here. Surely, I wasn't the first person to fall for Luke Raynott, only to get dumped.

Emily's words came rushing back, a trail of broken hearts. "Add mine to the list," I thought bitterly. I did not want to talk about him or hear his name. I preferred thinking that nothing ever existed between us, and Bella was totally ruining it right now.