Pain greeted me the next day
I could barely sit that morning. I felt a seething pain on my lower body but I tried my best to walk towards the bathroom without waking Ace up. I took a warm bath in the tub to lessen my agony.
A few moments later Ace entered the bathroom, he was wearing his boxers. He looked drowsy and he still had bed hair making him look innocent as if last night had not happened.
"Are you alright?" he asked me after rubbing his eyes and I gave him a short nod. He frowned at me, "I doubt it."
"I got Tylenol if you really can't handle it, but the pain is normal especially if..." and he trailed off.
We both knew he was going to say 'the first time around' but even he felt awkward saying it out loud. It really was my first time, I have gone on a few dates before but I never really had a long term relationship at all. He was my first but I was betting I was not his.
"Is it yours?" I asked looking down, it was a little embarrassing to ask.
I was prepared to hear that it was not. He was a well-known guy from Beta, he was handsome and I knew he dated quite a lot of people back then.
"It was," he sat on the bathroom sofa which was next to my tub.
My eyes widened at his answer and I looked him in the eyes, searching for a clue that he was lying but his face spelled sincerity.
"You were not my first kiss though," he laughed.
He was not mine either anyway.
"Then why are you so g-" I stopped midway when I realized what I was about to ask.
He grinned at me, "Good?"
"Maybe I was built for it," he shrugged and I sighed in desperation.
Cocky dude.
We canceled our plans for the second day. We stayed cooped up in the penthouse since I was in no condition to walk at all. We ordered pizza since we were tired of the food from the hotel.
We were both in the living room and Spongbob was playing on the television when I started to ask him about our plan for Edward.
"The best plan I could come up with is to find the picture at school," he sighed and sat beside me on the sofa. I could hear Spongebob's laughter in the background.
"I agree," I said and took a bite of my pizza.
"Just make sure not to do anything reckless alright?" he warned and I gave him a confused look.
"I know you well enough to know that you would probably charge in Mr. Macklet's office or something just to get a clue," he smirked and I pouted.
I was not as reckless as that, well, maybe.
We spent the rest of our second day watching animated shows and staying cooped up in bed. It helped me recover quicker so on our third and final day we were able to go to many different places.
There were a lot of closed attractions due to snow but we were still able to appreciate them due to how brilliant they look from the outside.
Today I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, black jeans, and a blue designer jacket. I had my muffler on and gloves, which Ace bought for me. Ace on the other hand wore an army green turtle neck long sleeve, black jeans, and a maroon coat. He had a beanie on making him look like a cute thug.
We were able to visit The Shard, Webmaster Abbey, Blenheim Palace, The British Museum, Tower Bridge, and Windsor Berkshire. I would always make comments on the structures of the attractions and even though Ace could barely understand my words, he would always nod.
We were now reaching our final destination which was the London Eye. Despite the cold weather, there was still quite a lot of tourists here. We parked the car and headed towards the registration but instead of speaking with the lady at the front, he placed a red card in front of her and we were ushered inside by another staff.
"What's that?" I asked him.
"I just have my ways," he smiled and winked at me. I pouted a little but shrugged it off, this was going to be my first time riding the London Eye.
We rode an elevator to the second floor and there was a line of people on the other side.
The staff whispered something to the man who was counting those people who went inside the capsule. If I remembered correctly, 20 to 25 people are allowed to be inside a capsule.
The man finished counting until 25 and asked the rest of the visitors to stop. We waited for the next capsule and the two of us were asked to go in first.
The capsule was huge, glass surrounded us and there was a long bench in the middle.
I was expecting the rest of the people to come inside but to my surprise, the door to the capsule had already closed. It started to inch upwards.
"It's just the two of us?" My eyes widened at Ace and he nodded.
"How do you have so many connections?" I smirked. I thought it was going to be me who knew a lot of people here since our family has 5 well-known hospitals in the UK but he was the one who always made use of his connections.
"My family owns a bank," he just shrugged and I threw my hands up in the air, giving up.
We have a good view of London City, they say on a normal day it would be easy to spot Windsor Castle but due to the snow, it was impossible. We were lucky that this attraction was even open.
"Why have my facts not started Miss tour guide?" he sat on the hardwood bench in the middle of the capsule.
I slapped him on the shoulder but ended up blabbering about London's Eye's structures anyway.
"There are 32 capsules here representing the 32 cities in London," I continued to look outside.
"You got that wrong, we are on capsule 33 you know?" he pointed at the door where there was a small number beside it.
"There is no capsule 13, maybe because they believed in the superstition that it is bad luck, that is why the capsule number is until 33," I gave him a look of triumph when I saw him in awe.
"This is the fourth-largest Ferris wheel in the world, it is 443 feet high and has a circumference of 1, 392 feet. Imagine how tall that would be if it was not a circle?" I moved the other side of the capsule to admire the river.
I was admiring the view when I felt Ace pressed himself against my back, he locked both his arms on my waist and rested his head at the side of mine.
He was so tall, I always had to look up to see him.
"The view is so captivating but so are you," he whispered and I spun myself around to face him.
It was probably about to be 6 o'clock, the sun is going to set soon but it looked as if it already had due to the thick snow enveloping the whole city.
I tiptoed to give him a kiss and I think I caught him off of guard cause his eyes widened a little before closing.
"I wanna stay in this moment," I sighed.
"I don't want to go back to school. I don't want to face the fear that we might get kicked out or even get killed. I don't want our love to be forbidden. I just want this, what we have now," I sounded like a kid as I stated all my wishes and he cupped my cheeks. He was not wearing any gloves but his hands felt warm.
"We'll make it last babe," he kissed my forehead for a long while before we continued to gaze at the beautiful horizon once again.
At that moment I felt thankful.
Thankful that I had him.
Thankful that we were here.
Thankful that no one from Scion had ruined our vacation.
~>.<~
December Holidays passed by just like that and we were back in school again.
Nothing much had really happened during Christmas and New Year, Ace and I were not able to see each other since we had various of family parties to attend to. Of course, we did not forget to greet one another.
We were on our way to a short mixed meeting at the conference room when Miss Randell, who passed by me, called me to her office.
Nothing horrible occurred to me when she asked me to follow her, not until she began to talk.
"Is there really something going on between you and Ace?"
My heart dropped. I tried my best to conceal my emotion as best as I could.
"Ace? Ace Juarez?" I tried to sound offended.
"Of all people you could set me up with, it has to be him? Our house has been annoyed by their house for the longest of time, why would I ever want anything to do with him?" I smickered and she nodded her head in agreement.
"There were just rumors about the two of you leaving on a vacation during the Holidays," she sighed, looking tired.
It was hard lying to one of my favorite teachers but when I thought about the possibility that she knew about what had happened to Edward and did nothing about it, it made me disgusted.
"You and Ace had reacted the same way, I guess the two of you really hates each other's guts," she was smiling now and I managed to scoff mentally as I pictured Ace saying he hates me.
Ironic, how sweet we were in London but now in school, we were back to acting as if we hate each other's guts.
After our conversation, Miss Randell and I walked to the conference room together, she happily shared what she did in school during the holidays. She said she had baked and started to learn the violin. She was a really cheerful person, I have always liked that about her.
The meeting ended quickly, we just had to recall a few rules to make sure that everything will still be the same even after the holidays. Ace and I would always steal glances from one another, Anne caught us once and immediately slapped my arm, giving a disgusted look.
Right after the meeting I was once again called to meet a teacher, this time it was Mr. Macklet.
I was hesitant. Mr. Macklet has never called out to me individually before, he has never been my teacher so he does not have the reason to. It gave me chills knowing that I would be in a room with a rapist.
I really did not want to go on my own but I also knew that I could find something, a clue that might actually help. I did not tell Ace that I was heading to his office since I knew very well that he would just stop me.
My hands were sweating when I entered his office. He sat comfortably in his chair and gestured for me to sit opposite him. His table was between us.
He was not smiling when I entered which felt out of place. Mr. Macklet was always the type to smile at everyone, just like Miss Randell, he was always cheerful.
He was wearing a black dress shirt and a brown coat, his hair was gelled back and he had a very stern expression on his face. His fingers were tapping the table impatiently.
"I'm giving you two choices since I know you are smart enough," he paused to scan my face and my heart quickly raced.
Every cell in my body screamed for me to get out of the room. I knew deep down inside that he already knew that I was onto him. He slipped his phone over to my side revealing a photo of Anne and Tony.
Anne was sitting at home at her terrace, sipping on a cup of tea. On the other photo, Tony was walking on the streets of New York. He swiped the screen of his phone, this time it had the photo of my mom and dad, they were both at work. My mom was talking to someone on the phone while my dad was on his laptop. He swiped again, showing Tine and Railey, the two of them were shopping. Next was Chase, he was sitting at our backyard reading a book.
These photos were probably taken during the December Holiday, I was pretty sure of it.
My heart was beating fast and when I thought my heart could not go any faster, it did.
He swiped the screen revealing the last photo.
It was Ace.
He was wearing a maroon coat and black jeans with a beanie. This picture was taken when we were in London. I was pretty sure that he also had a photo of me with him but he did not show it.
Ace's guess that someone from school had followed us using the private plane was right. We should have been more careful but regretting right now was not going to help at all.
"If you think you can try and jail me when the victim was not able to, think again Miss Vandia," he threatened. I could not speak, I didn't know what to say. Knowing that all these people I love were at stake made me hesitate.
"What are the two choices?" I gulped down.
"If you and that Ace stop this pointless agenda of yours, I would consider not telling anybody about your secret relationship. I bet you don't want the school to know, right? It would clear your house points as well," he shrugged nonchalantly.
"But if the two of you continued, I wonder what would happen to those people dear to you," his grin was evil. He was emitting such a violent aura, it made me stiff.
Mr. Macklet was rich, he has the money to pay anybody to kill us without staining his own hands. On top of that, I am pretty sure the school is backing him up. Even with the combined power of my parents and Ace's parents, it might be futile to go against him.
Millions of different things kept running through my mind. I knew it was not a good choice to fight back, it was not logical at all from any angle but I still wanted to go through with it. I knew my family, my friends, my house, and Ace were all in danger, all of them were at stake but I still wanted to fight for Edward's case, a guy whom I barely knew.
It was stupid, I was risking a lot for a stranger but I just knew I had to. He does not deserve what had happened to him, he needed justice. If I was in his position, I would want someone to fight for me as well.
If these people I loved were in my position, they would want me to fight for the case too instead of letting this asshole threaten me.
With trembling hands and shaky knees, I still managed to say, "Do what you want Mr, Macklet. My choice is clear, I'm putting you right where you belong."
After making my point, I immediately ran out of his office. He called out to me but I did not let it stop me. I wanted reassurance from the person I loved most.
I wanted Ace's warmth and comfort so I ran. I ran towards his dorm without a single care for those who will see me. When I got there I found Abigail leaving the room. Another light in me was fused when I saw her leaving his room.
What was she doing there?
Abigail's gaze and mine met. She gave me a teasing look when she saw me but I ignored it. She was the only one in the hallway so I just went inside Ace's room before anybody else sees me.
Ace was shocked at my sudden appearance. I frowned before giving him a hug. I wanted to cry but I didn't let my tears fall, instead, I buried my face in his chest more.
"Cana, is everything alright?" he asked as he forced me to look at him but instead I continued to hug him.
"Mr. Macklet, he..." I paused because I did not really know what else to say. I saw his eyes widened when he concluded something else.
"That bastard! I told him not to lay a finger on you or I would really press charges on him," he pulled me away and was about to head towards the door but I stopped him.
"No, he didn't do anything," I pressed my hands on his chest.
He gave me a look of concern and stared deeply into my eyes. He tried to read my mind but I knew he couldn't. He cupped my cheeks and gave me a kiss on my forehead. He ushered me towards his bed and waited for me to calm down before he spoke again.
I honestly have still not recovered from Mr. Macklet's threat when Ace gave me another one to deal with.
"I think we need to break up."
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:"))