Chapter 11 - "You're laughing at me again."

 

"When have I ever-" I stopped mid sentence when he suddenly leaned in closer. So close that our noses could touch.

"Does my face look so funny to you?" I didn't know if he was threatening me and seriously asking or if he was mocking and teasing me. Either way, I still feel panicked when he suddenly leaned in so close.

'He's mad isn't he?' my eyes went round when he leaned in so close.

"Your wound, It looks out of place." I avoided his gaze and said in a low tone as he was staring me down. Lucas has the image of a perfect president, a perfect "prince" who's good at everything and never fails. And to see him bruised as if he came from a fight was funny to me. I shouldn't have stayed around and just finished what I had to do immediately.

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'What a drag.' I threw away the box that hit me a few moments ago in the trash. 'I told her to do her job and she wasted it for a nonsense like this.' It was Lucas's birthday, but for him, it was not a good enough reason to waste his time.

"Pft." Lucas heard a sound and when he raised his gaze he found a girl looking at him. The girl quickly turned around as if she was caught and started walking away. I unconsciously started walking towards her and before I knew it, I initiated a conversation. I don't know what came over me but I started speaking.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her.

"What, can I not be in this school anymore?" She turned her head to face me and it caught me off guard. I couldn't move away as I was near her, I saw how her brows were subtly turned down as if annoyed, how her eyes slanted as she looked up from me. I was zoned out until she stepped back immediately and spoke.

"And why do you always question me whenever we talk?" That's what I also want to ask myself. What the hell is wrong with me? I should be ignoring you but here I am, asking you, looking for you, wondering what you're doing. 'I've finally have gone crazy haven't I?' I unconsciously smiled.

"And why do you always appear around me? Has anyone told you that you're being obvious?" I immediately told what came to mind and replied. Her face turned dumbfounded in a few seconds and it made me smile even more.

"Has anyone told you that your face is thicker than the walls of the school?" Her brows furrowed and her glare was directed at me.

"Anyway, I was pasting these." She held out a paper in front of me and I recognized what the papers were. It was the fliers that the art and literature club designed. The other class' representative was supposed to finish pasting these and pass the completed form to the student body office. The form is signed by several teachers and professors to allow us to paste the fliers inside their class boards.

Not a few seconds later, her lips were twitching and were upturned. 'Is she laughing now?' I don't know what runs inside this girl's mind, she seem to find me funny. I couldn't figure out what she was thinking and my smile disappeared.

"You're laughing at me again." I said. I honestly want to know what runs inside her head. After becoming irritated she suddenly smiled and laughed. 'She's weird'

"When have I ever-" I didn't even let her finish her sentence when I leaned in and looked in her eyes directly.

"Does my face look so funny to you?" I leaned in closer and looked directly into her eyes which widened.

"Your wound, It looks out of place." She said and averted my gaze. I just stared at her, I felt my heart beat faster than normal. I finally stood straight just to process what was happening to me.

'Why is my heart palpitating?' I touched my chest and felt my heart thump. I was zoning out once again, and before I could realize what was happening to me,  I felt a cold touch on my forehead, I felt something sticking on it, it turns out that Yvonne had a band-aid.

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'I hope he doesn't get angrier than this.' I don't want to be in his "murder list" when I have to be near him, near them. He must've already thought of me as Natalie's stalker. I grabbed the box of band-aids inside my bag and opened one. This was a habit of mine that I learned from a friend during my pre-med years. I always brought alcohol, band-aids, and cotton since then.

"Here." I gave the full box of band-aids in his hands and closed my bag. He was still holding his hand out and looking at me with a questioning look.

"What is this for?" He raised a brow and looked at the box in his open hand.

"Why do you always have to question everything I do?" I crossed my arms and furrowed my brows. It's always "why" and "what" as if I'm some criminal that he's caught. I just rolled my eyes, I was fed up with this.

"Just take it." Just take it and consider me as a neutral person who would do no harm to Natalie, please don't kill me. I remembered how Nova wrote his character growth in the original novel. He's ruthless and destroys everything that goes against him and "his Natalie". I read about a scene where a drunk guy that harassed Natalie lost not only his right hand but his family business as well.

'I don't wanna lose a limb so please just take the band-aid.'

"Oh, by the way." Before I completely left I turned around and gave him the form that I was supposed to pass. 'Since he's the president I might as well just give it to him'. I handed him the form and said a few words.

"I was supposed to pass that." With that I turned around and walked away. I can finally go back in my room and sleep.

His birthday will be in a few days, that means an important encounter should happen. And speaking of birthdays, if I'm not wrong, I think Yvonne's birthday is in Christmas or was it after Christmas? I couldn't remember exactly when but I know that it's in December.

I was walked towards my bicycle and out the school gates. 'Come to think of it, was that an encounter?'. I stopped in my tracks and thought for a moment.

'It couldn't be an encounter.' The encounter between Julia and Lucas is supposed to happen during the school festival's final day. Besides, I couldn't feel any spark between them, and the scene I remember was very different from the on earlier. Julia didn't throw a H*rmez box to him nor did she cry and ask him why he didn't like her. The Encounter I remember from the novel was a peaceful rejection. Julia was sad and felt teary but she didn't force herself to Lucas, and Lucas rejected her late birthday gift because of something she did to Natalie.

'That's odd.' I normally feel the soul energy when an encounter happens, and a spark might happen as well when something big is happening or is about to happen. I felt neither the spiritual orbs nor the spark. 'It might just be a normal encounter then.'

'I better tell Nova about what happened when he wakes up.' I should also reread the novel specially the chapters during Christmas, I feel like I'm missing a lot of points. Could I have forgotten some of the events?

When I reached home I quickly put my green bicycle under a tree in front of the house and entered. It was almost 6 when I reached Yvonne's home and as usual, it was dark and silent. Only the light from the dining can be seen. The house was spotless, the curtains were all replaced and the cushions were all new. I wondered why it was like this. 'Maybe it was a cleanup?' But the maids maintained the house and cleaned it everyday. I walked up the stairs and pondered for a moment.

'I should really reread the novel.' I feel like I'm forgetting something. I changed into my sleepwear  and sat on my bed.

'Now how do I summon that thing again?' I remembered Nova teaching me how to summon the book and the other items he has given me but I never really paid attention since I thought I'll never need them. 'I think it goes like this?' I held my right hand out and started reciting words that I cannot understand myself.

 

"q̶̱͓̭͚͒̉̀̽͂͘ẖ̵̞̩̏͒̽͘͘w̸̹̜͗̆̓̄̈́̽c̶̯̼͉͋̀͛̋̿̎͂̐͝͝ͅṋ̸̦̪͍̆͋̔͆̒͠͝p̶̡̨̺̜̱͙̙̙̪̈́̓͆̕ͅs̷͎̝̜̦͚͓͌̄̚͠n̷̢̡̡͉͙̆̿̀̆͆̊̿̈́͛̚â̵̻̫̗̣̠̼̮͍̼͑͗̆ę̵̛̟̯͓͉̜̙͇͖̇f̷͉̪̬̈́͋̀̋̀̍̓̋"

 

I followed what Nova had taught me, at least what I remember. And moments later, a thick leather-bound book fell in my hands.

 

*THUD*

 

"Urgh!" My right hand couldn't hold the whole book up so it fell on my right foot.

"Goodness! That hurt so much." I held my right foot with both my hands and winced in pain. Why is that book so heavy? After a few moments the pain slowly disappeared. I finally took the book from the ground and opened it. The leather binding has fancy marks in it and has title imprinted on the front.

"That first kiss." Ugh, from just the title you could tell that a teenage girl at the start of her puberty wrote it. I couldn't really tell if Nova's a girl or a boy, he wants to be called a "he" but then writes a full novel about a CEO obsessing over a girl. I don't know why Nova doesn't want to call it a book when it obviously was. Don't let the title fool you, the story slowly turns dark and twisted.

It's the same so far. The girl named Natalie came from a rich family in the provincial outskirts of Country A and was introduced to a whole new level of "rich". She falls in love with the school body president Lucas, also called "the prince". She becomes one of his fan girls in high school. Lucas, at first, was irritated by this persistent woman who would always appear in front of him. That irritability soon turned into fondness. He got used to Natalie's smiling face, her stuttering voice, and the way her face turns a tinge of red whenever he approaches. He would always turn her away and glare at her when all he wanted to do was get to know her and talk to her.

'So he's basically a tsundere in high school huh?' I thought to myself as I turned to another page. After scanning through the contents, I finally reached the chapter where the preparations for the festival was coming.

'Natalie was supposed to be the one who encounters Lucas, not Julia?' It says in the book that Julia needed to go home as soon as possible because a family issue has occurred. She instructed Natalie to find someone to help her sign the form and paste the fliers, in which case, her helper was Helen.

Helen goes around looking for professors to finish the form and Natalie pastes the fliers around when she sees Lucas going out of the headmaster's office (his dad) holding papers. She accidentally loses grip on the stack of papers and it went falling around, she tried to immediately pick it up when Lucas notices her. He walks near her and crouched to help. He then realizes that Julia, the class rep. "dumped" her job onto Natalie. He gets somewhat mad and asks her why Julia left her work. Natalie tells the truth whilst stuttering and Lucas takes it as her covering for Julia.

And that my friends is how Julia was blacklisted. Her chance was completely shattered because she left Natalie to do her work when she actually had a valid reason. Lucas took that to his adult years and when Julia meets Lucas again, he can only remember her as "the girl who abused Natalie".

That was also the reason why Julia's gift was rejected during the last day of the school festival. I skipped a few pages, and what I read on the chapter was Grandma Odette scolding Yvonne in public for interrupting dinner between "the adults". I paused and went back a few pages.

"This is what I forgot!"

 

 

{A: Ever wonder what the characters look like?

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