Cade's POV
I survey the cafeteria. Kieran sits at his usual table but Kaia is nowhere to be seen. Kaia continues to avoid me. I'm a bit sick of chasing her around all the time. As always, once she sees me, she either leaves the room or look at the wall. She finds something interesting about walls; always complimenting them. I know I'm in her head because every time she does see me, she jumps or scream. That has to mean that she's constantly on search for me. No matter what I do, she will avoid me.
So, I have to get her to come to me. How will I do that? I don't think sending her a letter to meet with me will work. She is clever enough to realise that it's me. But she is dumb enough not to realise that her computer isn't broken. I can only think of one thing that will make her come to me. I have to make her angry.
I stride towards one of the empty tables in the cafeteria in the centre of the room. I know the consequence of doing this but I want that money. Mrs Harper managed to get my mobile number and she constantly calls to check on me. She must have spies at this school, informing her of what's happening? It's probably Vivian. I see Vivian sitting on the table with her cult members. It's time to start the one hundred days officially.
I stand on the table already capturing a few people's attention. I clear my throat, "Ladies and gentlemen," I yell gathering everyone's attention. I smile as I see Kieran staring at me from the corner of my eye. Sorry bro, but I got to do what I got to do.
"Oh God, what does he want now?" I hear some chick say.
"I have an announcement to make which will require all of you to hear intently," I say, trying to develop the suspense. "As you all know; I have quite a reputation at this school. Being the school troublemaker, the school ditcher, the school's hottest, single bachelor... so many titles I must live by to."
"What's wrong with him now? Is he on drugs?" someone states.
"No I'm not, random student! I must announce, however and unfortunately, that I must get rid of many of these names. I can no longer be the school troublemaker, the school ditcher nor the school's hottest, single bachelor because I am now just the school's hottest taken bachelor," I say with exaggeration.
"What did he say?"
"Wait? Does that mean he's dating someone?"
"What the fuck?"
So many murmurs echo in room. I smirk, "You all must be wondering who's the lucky girl to be Cade Pearson's girlfriend and I will tell you," I smirk. "She is, none other than, my beautiful Kaia Mercer."
Immediately the cafeteria erupts with chatter. "What the fuck?" I hear Kieran yell.
"She and I have gotten to known each other for the past couple of weeks and I'm proud to announce that she is my girlfriend. We are dating and that means none of you guys can go after my girl, otherwise you'll have me to mess with."
"What the fuck is happening?" Kieran yells louder.
"Now please, as your congratulations towards me, don't ask Kaia out as she is officially my girlfriend. Dudes, don't think about looking at her or even daydream about her. If you do, I will punch you in the face and I mean it!" I smile.
"Cade, what the fuck? I'm going to kill you!" My body immediately tenses and I look at the furious Australian kid. This is the angriest I have ever seen him.
"Well I loved chatting with you but I must run," I state before jumping off the table. Kieran bolts towards me, jumping over the chairs and table. Without a second though, I run out of the cafeteria trying to stay out of Kieran's wraith.
After two minutes of being chased by Kieran around the school, I stand near the edge of the rooftop. Kieran got me cornered and the only way to escape from Kieran is jumping off the roof. "You're dating my sister?" Kieran growls.
I nod with the same mischievous smile. "Yeah, I am."
"You're not messing with me, are you?"
I shake my head, "No, I'm not. I really like your sister," I know Kieran will want to kill me. He would probably send a Hitman after me. Actually he won't. Kieran would not let a hitman have the pleasure of killing me.
"I told you to stay away from her. You told me not to worry because you're not interested in her," Kieran says. If he knew me well enough, he would've known that I wasn't serious. But I guess when 'Kaia' and 'dating' are put together in one sentence, Kieran blows up.
"I lied," I grin.
Kieran fist tightens. "You aren't allowed to date my sister. Break up with her right now!"
"Dude, if I break up with her, don't you think Kaia is going to be heartbroken? She is dating me despite knowing that you'd murder her because she likes me that much. So, if you make me break up with her, how do you think she'd feel?" I point out. "You won't be a very good and protective brother. You'd be worse than me."
"Don't you give me lessons on how to be a brother!"
"I'm just saying. If you think about it, Kaia is going to hate you for the rest of her life."
"I don't care," Kieran spat.
I huff, "Think about it Kieran. She doesn't ever want to date, but I am her exception. So imagine how much she must like me," I state.
Kieran's jaw loosens slightly. "Damn it," he mutters under his breath. I smirk.
"See, you know that I can't break up with her."
"If you break her heart, I'm going to kill you. I better not see her crying because of you!"
I chuckle, "Kaia? Crying? Is that even possible?"
"I mean it!" he raises his fist.
"Don't worry. I won't hurt her," I say.
Kieran narrow's his eye, "You said that about not wanting to date her and look where we are now," he mutters.
"This time, I mean it." No I don't. "Are we cool now?"
"Just because I'm not forcing you to break up with Kaia doesn't mean I approve of you. I'm still going to kill you," he threatens. He jumps towards me but as reflex, I jump on the flag pole and slide down to the ground. That trick always come in handy.
I look up to see Kieran looking down at me. "I know you're not dating Kaia, otherwise you'd be a man and let me kill you," Kieran yells. I salute a goodbye to him before walking back into the school building.
I walk back into the cafeteria and see Kaia standing in front of Amber. The cafeteria is silent and Kaia looks distressed. I frown. Vivian is standing beside Kaia and I can see Hannah approaching them.
"Look bitch, I don't know what world you live in thinking that I'd ever be jealous of a total slut like you..."
"What are you talking about? You're the one who sleeps around with people to get what you want," Vivian interrupts. Wait, is Vivian defending Kaia?
"Slut like me? I'm a little bit suspicious as to why you bring this up now after Cade announces to the whole school that we're dating. Do you like him or something? Is that why you are trying to push me down?" Kaia asks.
What is going on here? I start walking towards Kaia to pull her away from here but instead, Hannah intervenes. "Amber, fuck off," Hannah says once she stands beside Kaia. "You must be very observant and obsessive over Kaia to think that she's a slut whoring around," Hannah spat.
"Please, as if I'd obsess over her," Amber replies.
"Then you are clearly jumping to conclusion because otherwise, why'd you ever come to the conclusion that she sleeps with people? That's probably worse. You're a liar and a jealous bitch," Hannah retorts. "Don't worry about her, Kaia. She's the school slut so she thought she could just move her honourable title to someone else."
Amber scoffs, "Fuck you, Hannah. Whatever. I don't want to waste any more time with you three bitches," Just like that, Amber walks off.
The three murmur something to each other. Before I could do anything, Kaia walks away from them. "Kaia, are you alright?" I ask her, but she continues to walk as though she didn't realise I was here.
Shit. What did I do?
I follow Kaia. She doesn't notice that I am five steps behind her following her. She has her head held down. I notice her clenching her fists and unclenching it. I look back up to the back of her head. What did Amber say to her that makes her like this? Why is she so sad? I thought she doesn't care what people say about her. We head up the steps to get to the upper level. We then take a left and I follow her as she reaches the rooftop.
I can guts squeeze with guilt. I can't help but think that Kaia is upset because of me. I regret making that announcement at school. I shouldn't have done that. She heaves a sigh and pushes the door open. What's going on in her head? Kieran isn't on the rooftop anymore. He must be downstairs, looking for me.
Kaia takes a seat on one of the benches. She leans her head on her knees, clenching her fist in her hair. I want to say something to her but I didn't know what to say. Something happened in the cafeteria and it impacted Kaia a lot. I slowly approach her, trying to figure out what to say. Instead, I take a seat beside her and I look at the view. Kaia senses my presence and she lifts her head to face me.
"How did you find me?" she asks.
"I followed you."
"That doesn't sound creepy at all," she mutters.
I turn my attention to her and she's looking at the view. "Why are you so upset? Whatever happened down there, I don't believe that it would hurt you like this," I state.
Kaia scoffs, "What do you know? You say you know who I am, what I'm like but you have no idea who I am and my past. You see what you want to see and ignore everything else."
"I see what I see now, in the present."
"Well, my past controls my present."
I frown. What happened to her? "Still. You're someone who never cared what people thought about you. Since when did you let what people, like Amber, says get to you?"
"You're right."
Wait. Did she just admit that I'm right? "I am?"
"You're right about me saying I'm loveable, hilarious and amazing when really, I don't believe it."
I'm right about that? Kaia looks at me, her brown eyes filled with sadness. I don't know how but I felt her pain by just looking into her eyes. Just seeing her eyes in pain, I felt the pain as well. This is the first time I have ever seen Kaia look sad and not fake it. I thought such feelings didn't exist in her life. But she's right, there is things about her that I don't know of. Things I want to know of.
"You know, the reason why I'm so protective over people like Vi and Tommy is because I understand what they feel," she says. I don't say anything. I wait for her to continue. "I used to be bullied," she says.
"What?"
"Yeah, looking at me now it's hard to believe. But now, I have Kieran by my side," she chuckles. "I used to go an all-girls school. In primary school, the girls there, for some reason, bullied me. Called me names, push me around and get me into so much trouble. I hated school and it hated me too. I always wondered why people would hate me so much. What did I ever do wrong? I thought, that maybe it was because I was nice to people and let them push me around," she says.
Kaia was bullied? I find that so hard to believe.
"So, when I went to high school, I made sure that I didn't go through the same thing. Instead of being my nice self, I acted in a way so people wouldn't mess with me, like how I saw Kieran was like."
"What happened?"
"That didn't work either. I acted in a way that looked like I didn't care about people's emotions, I didn't care what people said to me and I didn't care if others got hurt. So, everyone hated me. What was worse, I hated myself for becoming a person I didn't like. But when people don't like you to the point that they stay away from you, it got to me." Kaia closes her eyes. "They treated me as a loser, a terrible person... and I started to believe them. That I was a loser, a horrible person and that I was unlikeable. Because of them, I didn't love myself. I tried to become my usual self, try to accept who I am but it was never easy when everyone made it feel like you are nothing what you want to be, no matter how hard you try."
"Kaia."
"Sometimes, I'm grateful for them because I became the person I am now. I don't care what people say about me and I don't need people to like me to be happy... but that's only when Kieran is around."
"You're not a loser. You're not a horrible person and you are loveable."
She looks at me, "Yeah, because Kieran's with me. I can only feel free when Kieran is with me. If he wasn't around, I don't know what type of life I'd live. I'm only happy when Kieran is there to protect me and I guess that's why he's so protective over me. He knows what I went through and by that, he doesn't trust anyone around me as much anymore."
"Kaia," I sigh.
"My whole life, Kieran was the only person who loved me for who I am. He was the person that made me feel like I was hilarious, amazing and kind. Him and of course, my parents. But, when Kieran leaves... I'm scared of what would happen," she says. "That's one of the reason why I don't date and that's why I cannot date you. I need to learn how to love myself again without anyone's help. I need to be able to believe that I'm hilarious, adorable and loveable. I don't want another person to make me feel like that because what would happen when they leave me?"
"Kaia, if people show you love, you will be able to learn how to love yourself from that," I point out.
Kaia shakes her head, "If we date and I feel like the person you say I am, I would be very happy. But one day, and it is likely going to happen, we will break up and I will feel lost again. I don't want to feel that again until I learn how to appreciate myself without the help of someone else."
"Kaia, people around you loves you. Whether they are your boyfriend, your family, a friend or just a classmate. People likes you because you are brave and you're not scared of getting embarrassed. These are things that people admire. It's one of the reason why I like you so much. Did you notice? Hannah defended you back there. She doesn't even know you but she defended you because you were being you when you defended her brother. People will always love you and you will always feel loved because you are worthy of being loved," I say.
"But I don't love me."
"You will and I'm going to help you. I will help you to learn to love yourself and respect who you are. But I cannot help you if you don't let me near you. Let me help you."
Kaia stares into my eyes again. She nods and looks back down to her hands. For the rest of lunch, we just sat on the roof, sitting next to each other.
[a/n: sorry for being a bit late! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!]