"You don't have to go to school if you don't want to." My mom told me, just as I came downstairs with my uniform on.
I sighed. "I don't want to go, but what will staying at home do?"
My mom's lips quirked up. "I suppose you're right."
I sat myself on one of the chairs in my dining room, furnishing myself with one of the waffles in the center of the table. I covered it with nutella and whip cream, and started gobbling them down.
"I'd be careful about your weight if I were you." Auden's voice said from behind me, and I turned to glare at him. But when I saw him, he had a friendly smirk on his lips, teasing instead of being simply rude.
I rolled my eyes, acting unaffected, and continued eating my waffles, though a little slower this time.
When I got into Henry's limo, Auden and Alec were already sitting there. They glanced up to look at me.
"Morning." Alec said, and for a second all I could do was stare. My brothers rarely greet me, what the hell happened? Was it something to do with me getting kidnapped the other day? I murmured a reply and got into the back seat.
* * * * *
"You came." Kyle said to me when he walked over to me as I walked into the school.
I shrugged. "Why wouldn't I have?"
Just then my brothers patted me on my shoulder and said goodbyes to me, running off to their friends.
Kyle looked at them with a judgemental face. "Becoming friendly the moment their sister's in danger, now are we?"
I laughed. "It's stupid, I know."
"Stupid?" Kyle asked, sounding angry. "It shouldn't take a kidnapping for them to start being nice to you."
I frowned. "I know. They've always been like that, there's no use dwelling on it now."
I had often wondered why my brothers seemed to hate me so much. I had never done anything bad to them, and I was always kind to them, so why couldn't they be the same way to me? I stopped my train of thought; my life was stressful enough without my brothers' rudeness bothering me.
"Anyway," Kyle said, realizing I had thought on that subject enough. "why did you come to school today?"
"I had all yesterday to rest, and honestly I'd rather keep myself occupied than dwell on...other stuff."
Kyle smirked at me. "You are literally the only person who would ever come up with an excuse to go to school."
"Am not!" I shot back, "there are tons of people who don't want to get behind on their school work because of missing school!"
Kyle rolled his eyes. "Nerd."
I glared at him. "Jerk."
"You're terrible at come backs."
At that I had to laugh. "Yeah I am."
The day went surprisingly normally. I didn't know what I expected, people rushing to me to ask if everything was alright, or other black-suited, sunglass-wearing men surrounding me, or something. But nothing peculiar happened, and I didn't know if I was disappointed or immensely relieved.
Before I headed to the dining hall for lunch, I walked over to the library to return a book. I stepped inside, and there was no one there. Even though the library was supposed to be a quiet place, it was never this quiet. And the librarian wasn't there. I instinctively held my breath to not make a noise. I slowly walked over to the rack where we put the books we finished reading. Then I heard footsteps from behind me, and I whirled around. I gasped when I saw the librarian, holding a cup of coffee.
She smiled at me, looking amused. "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, fine, I just came here to leave this book, yeah, I'll be leaving now."
I placed the book down and quickly exited the room. I breathed out slowly, willing my heart beat to slow down. What was wrong with me? I was getting so panicked at the library. Nothing was going to hurt me here.
I found Kyle in our usual spot, and I sat down next to him.
"Hey." I said, in my most cheerful voice.
"What's wrong?" He immediately said, and I felt my heart jump in my throat. How was he so good at reading what was going on in my head? I didn't want him to know I was starting to get paranoid about everything.
"Nothing, what do you mean?" I said, and Kyle narrowed his eyes.
"Your face is paler than usual and you're sounding a little over energetic."
"What? You're being ridiculous." I scoffed, and Kyle looked unoconvinced.
"Right...you can tell me whenever you feel like it." And he started eating his sandwich. I was glad he was letting it go but I felt unnerved that he could figure out something bad was going on so quickly.
I gazed out to the park and the school courtyard, as freshman giggled off to their next class and students hung around to enjoy each other's company. And something inside of me just felt hollow, like all of these small things didn't even matter anymore. The chatter, the friends, the time-passing, was suddenly so pointless. All that really mattered now was being safe. And right then, I didn't feel safe.
"Why?" Kyle asked, and I snapped out of my daze.
"Huh?"
"You just said you don't feel safe. Why?"
I mentally cursed myself. I had a bad habit of speaking my mind.
I sighed, looking out into the distance. I saw people run by, and the slightest movement that came from behind me made me feel tense and vulnerable.
"I feel like...there are people all around me...hunting me down. And I'm fine right now because I have you but...what if you're not there? Like last time?"
Kyle bit his lip. "The Office is working on it right now, but I'm not going to leave you until we know for sure that you're safe."
"You're just going to leave once all of this is over?"
A flash of emotion passed over his face but his eyes instantly guarded up, putting a thick brick wall between us. "I don't know yet."
I ran my hands down my face. "I just...whenever I close my eyes, I feel like there's someone watching me, or grabbing me and it's...I don't know...I can't relax, even for a second."
"That's a perfectly normal thing to happen to someone after a traumatic experience. Plus, you weren't fully recovered after the incident with Zayden, so it must be tough on you."
I shook my head. "But...it's different. I feel like I'm not actually being paranoid, but they're, whoever they are, they're still there."
Kyle suddenly reached a hand towards me and rested it on my neck. His thumb brushed my jaw, and he looked into his eyes. Those brilliant green eyes of his were confident and unflinching, as he said, "you're safe. I promise you, I will not let anyone lay a finger on you."
The way he said those words, so full of conviction, made my breath catch in my throat.
I realized I had been crying when I tasted salt in my mouth. Kyle suddenly pulled me to him and I welcomed his embrace, and he held me firmly against him. One of his hands were placed on my head, and when his fingers brushed against my neck, goosebumps went down my spine. My heart hammered in my chest for some reason, and I was worried he would hear it.
But somehow I also wanted him to hear my heartbeat, I wanted to press my chest against his and close up the space between us.
Woah, what?
Did I actually just think that?
The drug they gave me must have done something to alter my emotions as well.
Or rather, I might be having a crush on my bodyguard.
* * * * *
"The Rhodes family is throwing their annual party next week, and we've been invited." My mom informed me as Kyle and I walked into my house.
I chewed my lip. Usually, this would be something I would be simply annoyed about, but this was going to be Zayden's family's party. That meant Zayden would be there. Even though my feelings towards him had faded, that didn't mean I wanted to see him. In fact I despised the idea of having to see him. He had given me nightmares because of what he had done.
"Honey, I know you have a past with Zayden, but this is what his parents do every year, and they have been inviting our family even before you were born." My mom said, sympathy swelling her eyes.
I frowned. "Why don't you ask Kyle if it's safe enough for me to go?" I know that it was rude to turn on him like that, but I thought it was the only way to persuade my mom that I shouldn't go.
Kyle looked as surprised as my mom did when I turned the attention to him.
"Well, Kyle, what do you think?" My mom asked, looking genuinely curious.
"Well Mrs. Heywood," he said, though his eyes were on me. There was a look of amusement and what was it—deviousness—In his eyes. "I think it's perfectly fine for Cass to go." My jaw dropped as I looked at him in shock.
My mom looked pleased as she smiled at Kyle. "Thank you Kyle. And Cassandra, I don't want you making any more excuses not to go to the party. I'll have a dress picked out for you and have Melissa get it to you."
After my mom marched off, I grabbed Kyle by the arm and dragged him up to my room.
"What the hell?" I hissed at him. "Every other party you say I can't go, and the one party I would do anything not to go to, you say it's perfectly fine! You traitor!"
"Let's just say I find it funny when you get angry."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "We both know that's not true. So what's the real reason?"
The playfulness simmered out of Kyle's eyes as they were replaced by seriousness. "We need information."
"What does that mean?"
Kyle thinned his lips into a line. "I'm not allowed to say. I wasn't even allowed to tell you what I just said."
"What? That you need information? I don't even know what you're talking about!" I was irritated with how little I knew and his secrecy.
He shrugged, "sorry."
I glowered at him, "what, is it direct orders from Theo?"
Kyle's eyes guarded up, absolutely no emotion showing, just as his boss had done a few days previously.
"It doesn't matter who's orders it was."
"Right. It doesn't change the fact that you're a secretive jerk."
Kyle showed his frustration by letting out a long, drained sigh. "There's so much you don't know."
"Yeah, things which you could simply explain."
"It's for your safety."
"My safety! Everything is for my safety except for this damn party! Why don't you or my mom just understand that I don't want to go to this fucking party!" I yelled, and turned away from Kyle for him not to see me fighting my frustrated tears. It was ridiculous to be crying at such a time, but I really didn't want to see Zayden. To see Zayden was to face my fears, and I was still too weak to do that. They didn't understand how traumatic that night with Zayden was to me.
"I'm sorry for doing this to you." Kyle said, and I fought the urge to throw a smartass response at him. "But I need you to cooperate." He then gently laid his hands on my shoulder and turned me around. His eyes were gentle and pleading, and I would never be able to know if he was acting or being genuine.
I tried guarding up my eyes, just like how he did, but I was pretty sure emotion was gushing out of every single pore in my body.
"I know it sucks but you don't get a choice to be scared or not. But it sucks less if you can trust the people around you to be able to protect you." Kyle said softly, running his hands down my arm. His hands gently held mine for a second before dropping them down by my sides. I looked at him through my lashes. This boy knew me better than just about everyone in the world, and he had seen me in my vulnerable state so many times. He hadn't let me down so far, he wouldn't now, right? I didn't know how going to this party could be so important to him or his organization, but it probably had to do with my case. It might help them figure out something about the people who are after me.
"Okay, I'll go." I whispered.
He sighed in relief. "Thank you."
I nodded. Silence followed, and I cleared my throat awkwardly. "I'm going to get a drink."
Kyle smirked at me. "I thought you were a lightweight?"
I glared at him. "I meant a cup of tea."
"Can you tolerate that?"
I rolled my eyes. "Shut up."
I exited my room with Kyle following, when I almost bumped into Melissa.
"Oh, sorry miss, I was just going to hand you your dress."
I was impressed. "Well, that was quick. You can put it up in my closet."
Melissa nodded and scurried away. Kyle's eyes followed her, his eyes slightly narrowed.
"What's wrong?" I asked him.
"I don't know...I'm sure it's nothing." Kyle murmured, and I shrugged, going downstairs to follow through my original plan of getting a steamy, relaxing cup of tea.