Madelaina:
I was sluggish getting ready and out of the house for school this morning. My body was fighting me for the right to sleep but my mother had other plans when she came into my room and splashed cold water on my face.
When I step out of the car, I spot Althea to my right.
"Hey!" She greets as we walk to each other and link arms.
"Hello."
"You look tired."
"Do I?" I ask, sarcastically.
She laughs and leans her head on mine. "Where do you want to go? We still have like an hour and a half until classes start."
"I don't mind. Just somewhere with as little people as possible."
"Sounds like a plan, Princess." Angel comes up to us from behind and throws an arm over my shoulder, causing Althea to lift her head and glare at him.
"Go away." She tells him.
"No thanks. I'm good right here." He smiles.
"I wasn't asking."
"And even if you were, I wouldn't listen."
She rolls her eyes and looks ahead as we near the entrance. But Angel turns us towards the gardens instead.
"Where are we going?" I ask.
"Remember that room we showed you?"
"Oh."
"Did you like it?"
"Mhm. It was nice."
"Quiet." He emphasises. Showing he heard me before.
No matter how strange he can be or how annoying others say he is, he is really very sweet.
We walk there in comfortable silence, well, for the most part. Angel and Althea are still glaring at one another from the corners of their eyes.
Angel unlocks the door and we are greeted by warmth and the sight of both Lucas and Giovanni lounging on the sofas.
"Sup fuckers! How are we on this fine Monday morning?"
The two boys halt their conversation and look over at us.
"Well." Angel grins and flops down into the chair opposite of Lucas. "I can tell you're not in a good mood."
"Shut the fuck up."
"Ooh. Okay. Rude. But I can see you're not at your best. Tell me how you feel, friend."
"I don't have enough middle fingers to tell you how I feel." Lucas retorts.
"Okay, okay. I understand. Whenever you're ready." Angel grins before proceeding to duck when Lucas launches a cushion at his head.
He chuckles, his arms up in surrender and leaning back in the armchair.
Me and Althea take residence upon the only unoccupied sofa in the room, which has now grown noiseless.
I trace my gaze over to the fire that continues to flare. Shooting flames up and down and sending a cozy heat around the room. Though, that is not the only source of hotness I feel.
As I have now come a custom to, I feel Lucas's eyes on the side of my head.
He never says anything to me. Never wavers his eyes and most certainly never looks away when I turn to catch him on it. Which I have now done.
He stares back. Unflinching and detached. His emotions not reaching the surface yet I can see some things in them.
The lazy tiredness that makes his lids droop ever so slightly, causing him to look through his ridiculously long lashes.
The untamed frustration in them that I am here. In this room. Which, apparently is reason enough to be angry as he is.
The combination of the two which makes him even more so agitated and then fighting with that recurring glaze, which lights his eyes with the undetectable emotion it so clearly shows me now.
As much as I hate to admit it. As much as I, for some incredulous reason cannot be sure of, want to. I do not understand him. Not in the least.
After our time was up before we had to go to classes because people don't go to homeroom at this school apparently, I walk through the halls to math alongside both the boys and Althea. Who, I learned, was in this class, last week. She wasn't in for my first lesson, which explains why I did not see her and recognise after.
Me and her walk only slightly in front of them as they are practically on our heels.
"Did we have homework?" I ask. Not remembering doing any and a small panic begins to bubble.
"You're worried about homework?" Angel inquired amusedly.
"Shut up." Althea quips. Forever finding little openings to bite at him. Just as he does her.
"No." The definite response leaves Lucas. "He never gives us any."
That panic dies down and my shoulders relax.
We reach the door to the classroom and Lucas opens it, letting us walk through as he follows behind.
The familiar burn from the other students' eyes does not go unnoticed. I feel their gazes follow us all the way back to the room while we seat ourselves. Althea sitting at a desk in front of mine that has been empty. Leaving her previous one in the middle of the room behind.
Mr Meyers is here, though he is much too engrossed in whatever is on his laptop to care about what we are doing.
How has he kept his job?
How did he get this job?
"So." Angel turns to us. "Where are we going for our free?"
"Can we go back to that cafe?" I sit a little straighter. I really liked that place.
"If that's what you want." He smiles at me.
I hear a deep sigh and spin to face Lucas. "What?"
He looks up at me but then retreats almost immediately. "Nothing."
"No. What is it?"
"Nothing." He comes back to me. Not faltering this time.
"Then why are you acting like that?"
"Like what?"
"Like you're angry about something."
His eyes narrow. "I'm not fucking angry."
"Your face is saying differently."
"Why are you looking at my face?"
"Why do you always look at me?"
He stays silent. He knows I have him there.
"I'm keeping an eye on you." His voice is low and shares not an ounce of anything.
"You keep telling yourself that."
"It's the truth." He speaks through clenched teeth.
"It can't be. If it was you wouldn't let me out of your sight even for a moment. Which you don't."
"Angel and Gio are with you when I'm not."
"Well, in that case, your little henchmen aren't doing a very good job because when I'm with them they don't do half as much work as your eyes do. Your attitude either, for that matter."
There is a snort from somewhere to my right but I don't turn to glower at Angel.
"Stop talking."
"Stop being an annoying ass."
"I said. Stop. Talking." His voice grows even heavier and his eyes fade darker.
"Could you two shut up for a second?" We both whirl into Althea's direction. "I'm trying to sleep."
Backstabber. She should be helping me.
"Why don't you mind your own fucking business."
"Hey!" My thinned eyes narrow at Lucas as I pin him with a murderous expression. "Don't talk to her like that."
"What are you gonna do about it, Principessa?"
"I'll hit you with my bag again."
Surprise flashes on him for a split moment before it eradicates and an equal look of viciousness crosses his features.
Leaving it at that, I face forward again and completely shut his stupid face out of my head.
"This is so boring." A child whispers at my side.
"I know." I whisper back.
"And I'm fucking hungry. Let's just go."
"No. I'm not getting in trouble."
"You're not listening, Princess. You won't. They know who you are. And who we are." The we being him and the two other boys.
"I don't care. I'll still feel bad."
"Why?" He wines.
"I don't know why. I just will. We only have ten minutes left anyway."
"Exactly. Ten minutes won't make a difference."
"So you'll stay. Good."
"Princess. You know I'd do a lot for you. But I draw the line at voluntarily labelling a diagram of a dick with an std."
"Then don't do the sheet. Just wait."
"Fine." He huffs and crosses his arms over his chest. Dio, he really is a child.
We finish not ten minutes after that and head out once everyone has left and the halls are moderately quieter than they were with rushing students
stampeding to and from all around the school.
"Princess. Not to be mean or anything, but that's just weird."
"No it's not." I refute.
"Uh, yeah it is. In fact. I'm pretty sure that makes you a psychopath."
"You're a psychopath."
"I'm serious. There must be like, a scientific finding on that somewhere."
"What? That psychopaths don't like coffee?"
"Yes! It's not fucking normal."
"Not everyone likes it!"
"Most people do. And the anomalies are all psychopaths."
I shake my head as we exit the building and walk towards Angel's car. There is the perfect amount of seats. Five. For each of us. We could use Lucas's but, you know. And Giovanni came with Angel.
When the car is in view, I spot Althea standing there on her phone.
Angel groans. "Did you have to invite her?"
"Angel. Come on."
"Prince-"
"No. She's my friend. And you need to suck it up. If you're not going to admit that you already like her then at least be nice."
"What? I don't like her!"
I roll my eyes and then walk in front of him to get to her.
"I don't!" He protests from behind and hurries as well.
"Hey." She smiles when I reach her.
"Hi. Are the others not here yet?"
"Nope. Just me."
"You better have not done anything to my car." Angel warns. His eyes roaming over his vehicle.
"Does keying it count? You might wanna look at the other side." Her smile is sweet as she looks up at him.
"What?!" He explodes. Rushing to the other side and then groans. We hear a muttered "Oh my fucking god." before he comes back this way and points her with a glare. "That shit wasn't fucking funny."
"It was a little funny." She laughs.
"Fucking hell." He drags a hand down his face and at that moment, Lucas and Giovanni step up to us.
"Why do you look like that?" Lucas asks his best friend bluntly.
"Let's just fucking go." Angel stomps to the driver's seat but Lucas halts him with a hand on his arm.
"I'm driving."
Angel hands him the keys and then pulls open the passenger's seat door. Slamming it shut when he gets in.
When we are all seated, Angel and Lucas in the front and the rest of us in the back, the car exits the parking lot at a speed that I am entirely sure is not the limit.
We arrive at The Witchery in record time after a silent ride and all step out of the car.
"I want to go in there first." I point to the attached bookstore. I didn't get to go last time.
"Ooh. Me too." Althea adds.
"Come on. Do we have to?" Angel whines.
"You don't have to. We can go and you can go in the cafe."
"No." Lucas says in an authoritative tone that I am not the biggest fan of.
"Yes." I counter. My eyes narrowing. Who is he to say what we can and cannot do?
"I said no."
"And you think I'll just listen to you?"
He glowers at me. Entitled brat. He can't just expect everyone to fall at his feet and do whatever he says. I mean, that might make me a little hypocritical but at least I don't get huffy just because things don't get my way all the time. That's one of the places where we very much differ.
"It's right next door. There's an arch literally in the middle inside so you can just walk through to go to the other place."
His jaw ticks. "You get fifteen minutes."
I scoff. Is he serious? "We get as long as we want." And with that, I grab Althea's hand and make my way to the entrance of the bookstore.
"This is so cute." She gasps next to me when we are inside.
The walls and floors are both brown. Shiny hardwood with chandeliers dangling from the ceiling. Bookshelves the same design line the walls and occupy most of the ground space. Green vines twine and wrap around the entire shop, matching it perfectly to the cafe on the other side.
I inhale a deep breath and the aroma of parchment and floral scented candles floats up my nose, flourishing inside of me and bringing a smile to my face.
We immediately start with the shelf closest to us and make our way around. Skimming the ones that don't interest us and then spending entirely too much time on the ones that do.
By the time we have made it through the store, on our last table of paperbacks, we each have a basket full of books.
I grab a copy of Kingdom of The Wixked by Kerri Maniacalco and put in inside of her's. "Read this."
She shakes her head and laughs at me. "Okay." She then picks up a book with the title, "Realm Breaker" by Victoria Aveyard and mirrors my prior actions. "You read this."
"I've been meaning to read that."
"Good. Have you read her other series?" She asks as we both look over the rest of the books to see if there's any others we want.
"Red Queen?"
"Mhm."
"Uh, yeah. It's amazing. And Maven!"
"Oh my god, Maven."
"I love him."
"Me too. I don't even care that he committed mass genocide or killed a baby." She sighs and then turns to me with a solid expression. "Don't quote me on that."
We laugh and head to the counter to pay for our things.
Once our bags are in hand, we walk through the space in the wall that separates this store from the cafe and aim for the same area where we sat last time i was here.
"About fucking time!" Angel exclaims when he spots us from the floor where he lies in front of the fire. "You've been in there for almost an hour!"
"Miss us?" Althea tilts her head as she lowers into the sofa next to me, opposite Lucas and Giovanni.
He scoffs. "Please. Only you, Princess." He winks at me.
"We only have a half hour left." Lucas speaks up. "We got you both the same thing." His head gestures to the two hot mugs of cocoa and churros that lay beside them. Exactly what I had last time.
"Thank you." I let it slip out of my mouth, my mood lifted and not bothering to care about our common dislike for each other.
I get no reply though.
Just the lingering feel of his eyes on me as I take a sip of my drink.