Chapter 14
Ridiculously Obvious
The next day, I was minding my business as always near my lockers. Putting away my books, I felt this deep stare placed on me. It was cutting into my skin. As the seconds passed I couldn't help but feel it intensify. I whipped around and saw Chynna glaring at me with her crystal blue eyes.
She was with her little minion Georgia who was muttering something to her but Chynna was too focused on something else.
She had a sneer fixed on her face; this was nothing new. It was like she just shoved all anger onto me— as if it was her only source. There was such things as writing a journal but I doubted she even knew how to muster a compound sentence.
I couldn't take it so I walked up to her. Chynna straightened instantly. "What's with the ugly look?" I questioned as we met into an unintentional staring contest.
She didn't answer me straight away and we began staring at each other with grimacing looks. She didn't blink as if she was trying to read my life or find out something about me. I didn't know what but it was uncomfortable.
Sure, it was silly to do this, considering we were in high school but I didn't want to be wronged.
My eye started to twitch and Chynna's were starting to water. Using all my strength, I kept it open until she finally gave in and blinked.
The thing about our little staring contests were that we wouldn't acknowledge them afterwards. Yes, it was entirely odd but it was those things we never let go of. Triumph settled in my stomach as I knew I had won this one.
"Why are you hanging out with Kai?" She asked like she owned him. Way to cut to the chase. No small talk (not that I was really expecting it but manners were nice!).
I crossed my arms and my face changed to a pondering look. "Because..." I mused. I didn't want to say we were friends because it wasn't what I would've called it. We had a mutual understanding of the sorts— for the bet, of course. "I have the capability to, unlike you."
Chynna's lip twitched and her face was slowly contorting, her lip was curling downwards in a frown, her eyes were widening and her teeth were gritting together.
Did she really expect me to answer properly?
At this point, she looked like she was about to
pounce on me. Her fidgets didn't go unnoticed. However, before she could do anything, Kai appeared at my side.
Damn, how did he do that?
It was like he could hear into my thoughts and came as soon as his name was spoken.
Like Voldemort.
Except Kai had hair and a nose.
"Hey, darling." He nodded to me and kept his gaze on me as he stood close to my side. Our closeness was a little overbearing.
"Hey," I replied when an idea popped into my head. Naturally, I was going to call him by his name as I always did. But why not annoy Chynna more? "... Pretty Boy," I finished, fighting a smirk.
Kai seemed thrown off guard by this but he played it cool. I could tell by the lopsided grin. It was obvious to me after the many times I endured it.
I heard a scoff and—surprise, surprise— it was Chynna. "Hi, I'm Chynna," She made herself known to Kai as she put on a smile. Although, I wouldn't have called twisting her upper lip a smile.
Kai ripped his eyes from mines and nodded to Chynna. I couldn't fight off the smirk from my face.
"Kai," He said nonchalantly.
"Let's get to class, love." He put his hand on my back, guiding me and it felt weird as I began to walk away.
"Yeah," I mumbled incoherently as we headed to class.
Though what Chynna did was nothing out of the ordinary, something felt off. I tried to push it away as Kai and I walked all the way to class with his hand still on the square of my back.
Something was still nagging at me the entire class.
***
The wind was howling and bringing a crisp breeze around. Winter was definitely nearing. It was becoming the end of October. That meant Halloween was coming and boy was I excited.
I was walking around the parking lot of the school in a straight line. Back and forth, back and forth. It was becoming very repetitive.
Who knew that Kai took so long get his ass out of class?
Today we were supposed to figure out which girl was going to be Kai's future girlfriend and love. Obviously, we weren't going to walk up to a girl and force her to date him, but we at least needed to set him up with someone. That's why we planned to go somewhere and discuss the matters.
"There you are," I said, watching him walk down to me.
"Indeed I'm here," He said, not acknowledging my sarcasm.
When he reached me, we walked down the road together and neared the cars.
"Why were you late...again?" I asked, stuffing my hands in the pockets of my brown hoodie and awaiting his answer.
He didn't speak for a little. It seemed as if he was debating his words, picking them all too carefully. "I had detention," Kai settled on his words.
I stopped walking, grabbed his arm and turned him around so he was facing me. "For what?"
I followed his dark green eyes which were staring at my hand on his forearm. "It's nothing," He assured me— not so well— and shrugged his arm out of my hand.
"This is the first time you've gotten detention," I reminded him.
"Yes, I think I can remember the times I've never gotten detention." He rolled his eyes.
"You don't think I'm not just not gonna ask," I pressed him. He was hiding something and it was so obvious because he didn't do it well.
Kai sighed, annoyance laced in it, and whipped his head over to me. "Just leave it be," He spoke with such intensity that I looked away.
Picking up my pace, I mumbled, "Fine!"
"God," Kai mumbled under his breath as he caught up to me. This time, he grabbed my arm and twirled me around, staring me straight in the eyes. "Listen, I'll tell you later just... not right now," He finished, looking away from me and at the ground.
Hesitantly, I nodded. "Okay," I agreed and hopped into my car.
Maybe it was for the best that I didn't know too much about his life. We weren't friends so why should I have known why he was late? After all, it wasn't technically out of the ordinary for him to be late. I realised I had been spending an awful lot of amount of time waiting on him when I could've been doing something else. However, he was new so that earned him a couple of points before I started to go Godzilla on him.
All thoughts were shook out of my head when we entered our destination.
"Fuck off! I will not date the old librarian," Kai cursed. He smacked his palms on the table which almost led to his fries tipping over.
I waved my hands around with a 'shush' noise. "Jesus, be quiet. There are kids around," I hushed him as I looked around for any angered mothers.
They were the most terrifying of the species. Who could really blame them? They shoved a (roughly) six pound baby out of them!
Kai looked beside him and indeed, he saw a child staring up at him in surprise with his bright brown eyes. In retaliation, Kai said with no hesitation, "Boo!"
The little boy certainly got a fright and cowered back.
If I was closer to Kai, I would've smacked him upside the head but I settled for a hard kick in the shin.
"Hey, Mrs Bell may be quiet in the library but she can be loud in the sheets. We may never know," I chirped, trying to convince him that the seventy-one year old woman in our school would be suitable to date.
Kai grimaced and pushed his fries away like it was too off putting. "Rid me of that mental image," He groaned.
"As long as you don't swear anymore," I bargained and pulled my voice down to a whisper, " I don't want a vicious mother attacking us."
Kai and I were sitting in a booth, opposite each other in a diner. The theme was retro and he was the one who had picked it out. The floors and part of the walls were checkered of alternating black and white. The food was served in little baskets and milkshakes that had a little cherry on top. What topped it all together was the bright white lights that illuminated Kai's soft face all too well.
He never said where he found this place but it seemed like he enjoyed it a lot.
"You don't think it was a little funny?" Kai asked with a growing grin.
I pursed my lips. Okay, sure, it was quite amusing seeing little kids scared but the child's mother was so close to him. I didn't want to get kicked out.
"Whatever. Back to business, who do you think you have a shot with?" I queried. There was no time like the present.
Kai's face turned from amused to smug. "Please, any girl would die to date me," He said way too confidently.
Scoffing, I reached for a fry from my meal. "I would've just chosen death," I said dryly.
"Ouch." He placed a hand on his heart. "You're quite rude."
"I know."
"Good thing I like a challenge." He winked.
"Shut up."
"You can shut me up. All you need to do is—"
I kicked him in the shin again and Kai yelped. "Kids!" I whisper-yelled at him, motioning to the kids sitting, happily eating their food.
"Yeah, yeah..." He absentmindedly shook me off.
I shook my head at his manners. I'd have thought rich people were posh because they had the best schooling but Kai was anything but. He was the exact opposite.
Kai was the type of person to speak his mind, wherever, whenever. He had a faint British accent, his voice sounded fancy but the words...not so much. His previous sentence, for instance.
Although, it was kinda like a breath of fresh air. I had always wanted to go England and so the Horowitz family talked about it a lot.
I had only met Iris and Jackie once again and they went on about how they miss it. In fact, they were going back to England for a week in the winter vacation. I found this super cool but I heard England was freezing in December. The girls looked like they didn't mind. They explained how beautiful their home in the countryside of England was and how grand it was. They said it was stunning in the winter with the fireplace and endless amounts of hot chocolate.
"How about Stacy?" I offered as I took a sip of my milkshake.
Kai grimaced and answered,"Too uptight." My eyebrows raised.
"Adrienne?"
"Too tall."
Wow. He sure was picky.
"Diya?"
"Too short."
I didn't know that height was such a problem. I would've just been happy with guy who liked me and didn't cheat on me.
"Ember?" I hoped he would just come up with someone soon. I was getting tired of this.
"Has a boyfriend." He gave me a look like it was obvious.
Oh, yeah, I thought. I forgot that she was dating Chase. It was hard keeping up with everyone's love life. Especially because I couldn't care less.
If there was something about me, it was that love could sicken me in many ways. Sure, I believed in it but seeing happy couples reminded me of what I didn't have. That completely and utterly sucked. Rather ironic considering our bet.
"Tia?"
"Lesbian."
I dropped my fry that was in my hand and I widened my eyes. "How do you know? Haven't you been at this school for like a week. I didn't even know."
"It's ridiculously obvious, she stares at that girl in front of me in math class." He shrugged like it wasn't anything big.
Leaning in my seat, I sipped my milkshake. "Wow, I'm oblivious."
Kai nodded. Gasping, I grabbed the the smallest fry and threw it at him. He quickly dodged it and looked at me like I was crazy.
"Hey, don't agree with me when I criticise myself!" I cried out.
"Did you need to hit me with a chip?"
"A what?" I asked.
"A chi— never mind. You Americans are too stubborn for this," Kai said quickly, steering the subject away.
I narrowed my eyes at him. Slowly, I leaned forward over the table and brought my hands to my eyes. I pointed two fingers at them and then at his eyes. "Anyway, only I can criticise myself," I warned him in a loosely filled threatened tone. "Don't ever try it."
Kai held his hands in surrender, a laugh arising within him but he held it back. "If you say so..."
"You pick someone now," I settled with changing the subject altogether and not saying anymore names. He was just going to deny all of them, it seemed like.
It was going to be strange if Kai ended up dating someone. The whole point was to set him up but I wasn't so sure I could see him having a girlfriend. Poor her. There was many hours of her life she may never get back— with his taunting and lateness, of course.
Kai's eyes went to ceiling. He was thinking, very concentrated from what I could tell. Roughly thirty seconds passed and he said, "I'll find someone."
I narrowed my eyes, focusing on his features. "I don't trust you. This is a bet, I have to know who so I can set you up and then make you fall in love."
He shook his head as he laughed deeply. "That's not how love works," Kai taunted me.
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, I know," I said in a 'duh' tone. "Buuuut, If you spend enough time with the right person, you're bound to fall in love."
Kai thought about this and leant back against the red diner seat with a smug smirk on his face. "Mhm, we'll see."
"I guess we will."
Piece of cake.
I hoped.
A/N: IM SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE!! On a better note, the next three chapters are gonna be chefs kiss. They're all planned but need good execution and editing.
Hope you enjoyed my loves<33
Z~