In the matter of seconds, I changed from not caring about what came out of Clyde's mouth, to now desperately needing him to elaborate on what he meant. What did he mean Monica knew? Could he be any more vague?
Slowly, I turned to Monica, who was wearing a mask of denial all over her face. She shook her head before I even spoke. Despite her expression, I proceeded to ask her. "Do you know what he me-"
Monica cut me off, "He's crazy, I don't know what he's talking about. Now, c'mon, we need to leave before Hazel gets worse." I didn't move. "Nabela," her voice grew louder, "you can't possible take his word over mine. I'm your best friend."
"I know, I know," I sighed. "But what does he mean?"
"Nabela! Can you stop being so self centered and help me with Hazel? You remember Hazel don't you? The girl with the peanut allergy that's swelling like a fucking tomato!" Monica exclaimed.
"I-I be fffine," Hazel said with swollen tongue.
Clyde finally brought his attention to Hazel. His eyes widened, unsurprisingly, "I can help."
"You've done enough," Monica snapped.
"She's right," I chimed in and narrowed my eyes at him, "Why don't you go off and find Amy. I'm sure she's looking for you. Go on," I pointed to the stairs, "go off to her. No one needs you here."
A pained look danced across his eyes. He crumbled at the anger behind my words. Once again, he reached out to touch me, grabbing my hand. "Please, Nabela, you have to believe me."
I shook him off, "You don't need to explain, Clyde. We were never exclusive, so you can go off and fuck whoever you want. I kissed you like once. No big freaking deal. Get over it."
The pained look worsened, then at last, disappeared all together. He recovered from my words with his own power statement, "You're right. It was nothing....Nothing good, at least."
My mouth popped open, completely taken aback. "Oh really huh?" I turned to my friends, "in that case, I guess this is goodbye, Clyde. Lets go guys."
"No wait," he grabbed onto me, then cursed under his breath. "Nabela, please wait."
He was so confusing. One second he was dissing my kissing skills, now he was begging me to stay. I was a heartbeat from asking him to choose a mood and stick to it. This whole hot and cold was annoying.
Something else even more annoying happened soon, though.
A small group of onlookers were beginning to form around us, straining to hear the drama going on around the opening of the kitchen. Right now, I definitely didn't need an audience.
I started walking away, but a hand clasped my shoulder and spun me around. "Please, at least try to hear me out," he said ever so softly, almost like a whisper. I would've never imagine a guy like him to ever need to know how to beg a girl for attention. He had enough girls throwing themselves at him as it was--more than most boys, at least.
Despite my anger, I planted my feet in front of him and stood there, waiting for him to proceed. "I'll give you one minute," I warned, "so make it count."
"I need a lot more time than that," he leaned in closer, "And a bit of privacy." His eyes shifted over to where Monica, Tony, and Hazel were.
"You've got to be kidding," I coughed a laugh. "Anything you want to say to me, you can say with them here."
Before I could say anything else, Clyde took a hold of my elbow and guided us away from the small crowd around us, but not far enough that they couldn't see is anymore. Just enough so we were out of everyone's hearing range. Despite distance he forced between us and the partygoers, he still spoke in a calm whisper.
"There's a bonfire off the Hill frats and sororities are having in two days. It's to kick off the fall semester, or whatever."
"And so what?" I barked with the roll of my eyes, "it's not like I'm going."
"Well aren't you curious about what Monica's clearly holding up from you?"
"How do you know about that?"
I hadn't told anymore about my suspicions. My lips had been sealed for a week now. And the fact that he already knew I was going to ask scared me a little.
He leaned into my ear, keeping his voice soft, purring into my ear even,"Don't you think it's kind of a coincident that Hazel all of a sudden gets an allergic reaction?" He moved back, making his face more visible. I watched as he cocked an eyebrow. "Just think about. Monica didn't want to come here anyway, right?"
I stepped back, pushing my hands in front of me and creating a barrier between us both. "Don't start putting the blame on other people. You can't try and play this off as something that'll make up for walking in on you."
"Hey you said it yourself," he said smugly with a hard look on his face. He wasn't whispering any more. He was louder, angrier. "we're not a couple. We never said we're exclusive. Just cause I said you can come to my party doesn't mean I'm looking to commit. I kissed you once....once. I didn't fucking propose to you."
"And she was all over your cock like crazy, from what I heard," I heard a voice call out. I turned around and saw Gideon standing in the mix with his hand over Amy's.
Great. More reasons to hate Gideon than I already do. Check. And Clyde was slowly growing an even longer list on why I hated him with each passing second I was at this lame XIX party.
"Why aren't I surprised?" I huffed sarcastically. What he said made me snap. There was a hint of humiliation he was trying to evoke in me, questioning why I'd ever even think a guy like him would want some one like me. "Why the hell do you want to help me then? Why even bother ask me to go to the bonfire?"
For the slightest of seconds, his hard expression melted. But right when it appeared, it faltered in seconds. Was he performing for the people behind us, or was he really this much of a dickhead? I didn't know. He seemed nicer with his tongue in my mouth. Then again, most guys seem nicer at first. It's their trick to get girls to fall for them.
"Just come," he said. "It won't be long, and it'll make complete sense."
"And what if it wastes my time?"
"Then..." he placed his hand on my hip and rocked me into him, "I'll make up for it."
"You pig," I spat and pushed myself off of him, then made my way back to my friends. Before I was at their side, I turned to look at Clyde over my shoulder and observed him for one last time before dashing off.
The more I got to know him, the more strange he got. The guy that was in my apartment wasn't the one at this party...Hell, I didn't know the guy well enough to even know which Clyde was the real Clyde.
But by the way he stood against the far north wall of the frat living room, with his head tilted toward the wallpaper and his arms over his chest, flexing his muscles in the process, I could tell that he might as well have a higher wall up than Monica or Hazel did. Which only made me question what his secrets were.
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