Chapter 3: Exposed

Two days after the forgotten incident, I found myself in the library again; cramping and cracking my mind to write the article Mr Fitz assigned me. I was on the verge of banging my head on the keyboard, but I stopped because I realised people can see me through the window.   

My gaze darted away and I looked outside the window; I thought back of what happened earlier morning.

I arrived to school quite late compared to other days and I plopped down to my sit beside Kimmy, waking her up from her focus. She was scrolling through her phone silently, as if she was intensely reading a confidential national secret.

“Oh, Vi! You’re late today” she stated the obvious.

“Yeah, I was so tired yesterday and I forgot to iron my clothes so… I receive a good 10 minutes lecture from mom. Anyway, where’s Hana?” I asked as I took out my pencil case.

“She went to the toilet, omg have you heard?” she suddenly whispered to me, hissing a bit.

“Of what? The politician dude that got arrested?”

“No cheesehead!” she hissed and came closer to me, pulling me towards her. “I came to school today and everybody were talking and whispering about something…”

“People always talk about something” I interrupted her and was about to sit up straight when she pulled me harshly. “What the hell” I hissed, “Okay seriously, let’s get this over with. What’s the new gossip?”

“Krystal and Kai broke up after they had with each other. Apparently Kai have cooties” she whispered slowly in my ears.

“What?” I said, face full of disgusts and disbelieves. “Okay that’s bull. He does not have cooties. And even who says the word cooties in the 21^st century?”

“I know right, I didn’t believe in that too, I mean there are pictures of him half everywhere but point is… he had with Krystal. There are news everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, about how his dad’s company’s stock drastically dropped”

A sudden realization hit me.

“Right… it dropped because he’s the heir” I spoke my mind and turned my head to the front when teacher came in. “Shh, teacher’s here”

I thought it was a weird thing to be viral. So they had . Maybe I didn’t care enough because it was simply not in my priority list and I could care less about what Kai or Krystal did.

Brushing it off easily, I stood up and took my leave after I locked the door.

As I was walking back home, I remembered the book that I borrowed from the library near my house so I took a left turn instead. The modern building of my favourite library greeted me and I couldn’t help but to sheepishly smile at what awaits me inside. Well, hopefully that is.

The glass door automatically glided opened and I climbed the stairs that brought me inside the library.

I’ve always been a fan of books. I’m not sure if it was just me or books really do have their own scent. The smell of a new life. Like a fresh person who just finished showering, opening their arms widely to envelope you in a big hug. It’s refreshing.

I turned to my right and it was as though lightning struck on me continuously for 15 years.

Like a male knight he stood there holding books to rearrange it accordingly. Was it just my eyes or his black coloured hair seemed to be softly blown away by the wind? Was it just me or he was purposely his lips seductively? And his black pools of eyes seemed to be winking at me. Was it just me or there were fireworks and glittery petals behind him? I felt my body being pulled to him like a pet.

Nope, not, I was just imagining things.

I shook my head and tried my best to regain my sanity.

“Hey Leevi” I said trying to sound cool.

He was typing some things on the keyboard before he looked up and smiled at me plainly.

“Hey” he replied. One word. Three alphabets. Two consonants. One vowel. That was enough oxygen for 75 years of my existence.

I took the book inside my bag and put it on the table, “Here, I want to return it” I tried not to choke on my words. His sight changed, and he looked at the books instead. ‘No no! Look at me, not the book’ I screamed inside my head.

“Mortal Enemies” he read. His voice was hoarse and deeply low. “Nice choice, so how do you find it?” he asked as he took the book and my library card.

“Um… by taking it from the shelf over there”

He chuckled at this and stole a glance at me before looking back at the computer screen.

“I meant, your opinion on the book”

“Oh… it was uh…”

“Uh..?”

“It was intense…?” my voice sounded unsure.

He gave me my library card and smiled half-heartedly at me.

“Thanks” I muttered under my breath before turning away.

I walked back home cursing at myself and every living thing that had intentionally and unintentionally conversed with me for my 17 years of life that had resultant to my unconfident, stupid-self to stupidly act like that in front of him.

“I’m home” I spoke gloomily.

Dad was watching his favourite golf show and mom was probably preparing for dinner behind. He turned his head and looked at my face.

“Why the frown princess?” Dad asked, voice full of concern and solicitous.

I looked at dad and walked myself to sit beside him. I plopped down and slouched like a sloth.

“I would probably talk to my girlfriends about this but you’re close enough…” I mumbled to him and he gave me the ‘unbelievable’ look. “Well, does man hate weird girls? Girls who stutter and embarrass themselves?” I asked dad.

Dad and I have this unspoken deal. We share secrets and the curious questions we ask each other to ourselves. Probably because I’m the only child he have. Mom on the hand, is quite strict towards me. I’m not sure why but I believe it’s because I’m a girl. So she has this protective instinct to raise me as lady-like as possible. To make it simpler, my relationship with dad is the fun, childish and cool type. With mom, it’s more to deep talks and serious situations.

“Is this about your crush? Because I totally ship you with anyone that you like” he said and winked at me before averting his attention back to the TV.

“Daaaaaaad!”

 “What? Okay okay sorry baby. But to tell you the truth, the right man will find every flaws, every weird childish things you do the exact reason to fall for you even deeper” he said, his voice sounded very sure of it.

“Take your mom and I as an example” he continued. I looked at him, interested. He stared into nothing, probably reminiscing back to the time they were dating each other.

“On our first date, she asked me to take her to the supermarket because her mother gave an errand to do. We ended up watching the lobsters fighting with the worker for hours”

“That’s a weird place to go for a date”

“It is. But it was also amazingly special. I mean even if it was weird, I still remember those moments because it was different from the others” dad said and looked at me with a soft smile. I was lost in a trance of thoughts, thinking of the possibility of Leevi and I being together.

“Go take a shower princess I can smell you from Egypt” he said and patted my head before he left me alone there.

I talked to Kimmy on the phone after I finished off doing my home works and the wasted 1 hour of bombing my own head for ideas.

“What? Why did you say intense?!” she yelled at me.

“I don’t know. I mean Mortal Enemies is full of intense fighting and violence and vulgarity… it’s not really my thing” I answered her, voicing out my opinions.

“But still, you know he likes those type of books. Saying it was ‘intense’ does not help on his impression of you gets any better” she stated.

“Well it’s not my fault I saw glittery petals behind him”

“Stop giving excuses Violet. Anyway, so Kai updated his Instagram” she said suddenly.

“Again with the Kai-Krystal story Kimmy… you know I don’t really care about them right”

“But your response is better than Hana so I’m just gonna spaz it out. Kai uploaded a picture but it’s all black. Like it’s not even a picture it’s just a black wallpaper. But his caption though… ‘Paint your life the way you desire’” she said excitedly.

“Kai sounding wise is probably the last thing I want to know” I commented.

“You know what I find funny? That picture alone got a million likes”

“Which is why I don’t want to have any social networks account. Anyway I got to go, see you at school yeah?”

“Yeah, goodnight Violet!”

“Love yah Kim” I said and ended call.

A sudden flashback came into my mind before I fell asleep. ‘Will he be that stupid to blame me? I mean he did say he’d kill me. Not literally but he said I’d be dead if it gets out in public… Nahh he won’t be that dumb’